Key Highlights
- Rather than choosing three frontcourt players and two backcourt players in each conference, the ballot has gone fully positionless.
- Just pick five guys, and keep it movin’.(Jonathan Castro/Yahoo Sports Illustration)EastGiannis Antetokounmpo, BucksAdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementCade Cunningham, PistonsTyrese Maxey, 76ersJaylen Brown, CelticsDonovan Mitchell, CavaliersAll stats and records entering Friday’s games. Giannis Antetokounmpo, BucksYes, the Bucks are crummy — 17-24, two games out of the play-in spots in the East, in the bottom 10 in both offensive and defensive efficiency.
- Most of that crumminess, though, emanates from the time when Antetokounmpo isn’t available: Milwaukee is 14-13 when he plays, and just 3-11 when he doesn’t. As it turns out, it’s pretty useful to have a dude who scores nearly a point per minute — 28.8 points in 29 minutes per game — while making two-thirds of his 2-point shots, averaging nearly 10 rebounds and six assists per game, creating more 3-pointers for teammates per 100 possessions than anybody but T. J.
- McConnell (!), and leading the NBA in points in the paint … despite missing 14 games. With Giannis on the floor, the Bucks have actually outscored opponents by a very strong 7.2 points per 100 non-garbage-time possessions in his minutes, according to Cleaning the Glass — the net rating of a 57-win team — and have scored at a clip commensurate with the Nuggets’ league-leading offense.
- The big fella still moves the needle to a degree unmatched by any other force in the Eastern Conference … which is probably why his relative satisfaction levels, contract status and prospective next moves are so closely watched and so often discussed by so, so many people. Cade Cunningham, PistonsSomewhat less frequently remarked upon than Giannis’ future: The present-tense excellence of the Detroit Pistons, who have firmly established themselves as the class of the conference.