Tuesday 21 April 2020 13:47, UK
Ovie Soko is backing Giannis Antetokounmpo to win the Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season, something only two NBA players have done before.
With Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year, I think it is very possible we see Giannis Antetokounmpo pick up both awards. That would be a great reward for a special year in which he has led the Milwaukee Bucks offensively and defensively.
What the Bucks have been able to do is so highly predicated off Giannis' unique abilities and gifts.
Giannis could take two end-of-season awards away from Lakers players. LeBron James is his competition in the MVP race while Anthony Davis is one of his main rivals - along with Utah Jazz center Rudy Gobert - for Defensive Player of the Year.
I do not think winning the MVP is a priority for LeBron. If he wanted to go out every year with the goal of winning it, everyone knows he could do it. His performance this year has given him a new kind of respect. The guy is 35 years old and no one would be angry if he was the MVP, it would not be wild.
But on the strength of the numbers - individual stats and team wins - you have to give MVP to Giannis.
Similarly, you could legitimately give Defensive Player of the Year to Utah's Rudy Gobert or the Lakers' Anthony Davis. I see the Lakers as the best defensive team in the NBA - we have not seen them get anywhere near their ceiling yet but they have still been special on that end of the floor and Davis is major reason for that.
But the Bucks are able to run their defensive system in a different way to most teams because of Antetokounmpo. He is one of the most mobile seven-footers the world has ever seen!
When you look at a guy like Gobert, he changes the game defensively against most teams in a traditional way but he has not bought a different way to defend in the way Antetokounmpo has. Gobert's approach is no different to the dominant big-man defenders we have seen in the past.
With Giannis, how many times have we seen a 7ft defensive player earn as much credit for his mobility as well as his size? That adds a different element. In certain situations, Giannis is able to do things that 6ft 5in guys are doing.
If Kyrie Irving, for example, gets Rudy Gobert on an island on the perimeter, it leaves the traditional big man in no man's land. In that same situation, Antetokounmpo's mobility allows the Bucks to take that one-on-one risk against a player like Irving. He can use his lateral quickness so keep up with a perimeter player and use his height to force a tough shot.
When Giannis is a factor defensively on the perimeter as well as in the paint, it's a completely different game. That, for me, is why Giannis edges out Davis and Gobert for the award.
Winning Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season is something only achieved by two players before - Michael Jordan (1987-88) and Hakeem Olajuwon (1993-94).
If Giannis adds his name to that exclusive list, that would make two of the three players from Nigerian backgrounds. That is pretty mad.
