Milwaukee Bucks – On the rise
Milwaukee Bucks, a small market team from Wisconsin State, has begun to roll in the East this season, with few people expecting them to have the best record in the NBA at this point of the calendar year.
The main reason for all this progress is the Greek Freak wonder, Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was drafted by the Bucks in 2013 as the 15th overall pick. The team has made him their main “go-to guy” when they signed him for 4-yr/$100M extension in 2016. He is averaging 26.6 PPG (9th in the league) on 58,3 FG%, 12.6 Rebounds (8th in the league), 6.0 Assists, 1.3 Steals and 1.6 Blocks this season, leading the team in all these categories, except for blocks, where Brook Lopez has with 2 more than him. That’s a pretty special feature to accomplish and it adds a lot for his MVP campaign, because you can clearly see that he has a solid role for his team, sitting currently at the top of the standings in the East.
Despite of having some invitations from the current NBA stars to workout in the off-season summer, he chose to work with Kobe Bryant, as Giannis stated that he has learned a lot not just about the game, but the “mamba mentality”, the way of thinking and having the right mindset preparing for the main goal, while training with the retired Lakers legend. He is dominating in the paint, mainly because of his athleticism, and at that height with that huge wingspan, he can dunk the ball and penetrate almost from anywhere while in the paint.
Although he doesn’t have a 3 point shot yet, shooting only 16,9% from beyond the arc, the rest of the NBA can only fear when the moment will come, because at some point in his career, he will develop that aswell, but at the moment, he is doing just fine killing the paint.
Khris Middleton has quitely improved this season, and he is currently averaging all-star numbers, having 17.7 PPG, 5.6 Rebounds and 4.2 Assists although his shooting percentage is slightly less than the last season (46,6%), standing at 43,7% currently. At the point guard position, Eric Bledsoe is playing well, helping his team to win games alongside with the “213cm Steph Curry”, Brook Lopez, who started to make shots from “the parking lot” this season, is attempting 7 threes per game and is still shooting better from three point land than Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Bradley Beal, LeBron James, Kemba Walker and Joe Ingles, and that is kind of crazy.
Even though a lot of the analysts around the NBA said that the Boston Celtics are a lock for the NBA Finals this year, we can clearly see that there is a very hard competition going in the East, with Milwaukee Bucks, Toronto Raptors, Indiana Pacers and the Philadelphia 76ers all playing at a very high level.
Below, you have some highlights of the Bucks’ MVP candidate, Giannis Antetokounmpo:
Andrei Dilean, info@brainbasketball.net
