The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named the 2019-20 NBA Defensive Participant of the 12 months, the NBA introduced within the early hours of Wednesday morning.
It’s the first time Antetokounmpo, who completed in second place final season, has received the award.
Antetokounmpo, the 2018-19 NBA Most Priceless Participant, turns into the fifth participant chosen as each the NBA MVP and the NBA Defensive Participant of the 12 months in a profession, becoming a member of Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon, David Robinson and Kevin Garnett.
The 6ft 11in Greek ahead additionally joins Sidney Moncrief as the one gamers to win the NBA Defensive Participant of the 12 months Award with the Bucks. Moncrief performed for Milwaukee when he earned the honour in each the 1982-83 and 1983-84 seasons, the primary two seasons the award was introduced.
Antetokounmpo obtained 75 first-place votes from a world panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 432 whole factors. Los Angeles Lakers ahead Anthony Davis (200 factors; 14 first-place votes) and Utah Jazz heart Rudy Gobert (187 factors; six first-place votes) completed in second and third place, respectively. Gobert was honored because the NBA’s Defensive Participant of the 12 months in every of the earlier two seasons.
Gamers had been awarded 5 factors for every first-place vote, three factors for every second-place vote and one level for every third-place vote. The voting was performed primarily based on regular-season video games performed by March 11.
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The seeding video games, which had been performed between July 30 and August 14 as a part of the 2019-20 season restart, didn’t depend towards voting for the NBA Defensive Participant of the 12 months Award or the league’s different conventional end-of-season awards.
In video games performed by March 11, Antetokounmpo led the Bucks to the NBA’s greatest defensive score as they allowed 101.6 factors per 100 possessions. With Antetokounmpo on the court docket, Milwaukee allowed solely 96.5 factors per 100 possessions, the bottom defensive score among the many greater than 300 gamers who averaged a minimum of 15.zero minutes per sport.
From the start of the season by March 11, Milwaukee’s opponents shot an NBA-low 41.three per cent from the sector. Antetokounmpo held his match-ups to 36.5 per cent taking pictures from the sector, the bottom share among the many greater than 250 gamers who confronted a minimum of 300 photographs.
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Antetokounmpo averaged an NBA-high 11.5 defensive rebounds in video games performed by March 11, highlighted by 9 video games with a minimum of 15 defensive rebounds. He additionally averaged 1.04 steals and 1.02 blocked photographs, making him one among six gamers to common a number of in each classes.
Along with being named the Defensive Participant of the 12 months, Antetokounmpo is a finalist for the 2019-20 Most Priceless Participant award after averaging 29.6 factors, 13.7 rebounds and 5.eight assists in video games performed by March 11 whereas serving to Milwaukee submit an NBA-best 53-12 document throughout that interval.
