The 2020 NBA M.V.P Race

The NBA is back but the debates never stopped and one of the biggest debates this season has been 'who will win the mvp Giannis or LeBron' many believe that Giannis has played so well this season that he could win the mvp and defensive player of the year as well as a championship, while others say that LeBron's ability to play at an all star level and be a top 5 player in the league at 35 is telling of how deserving he is of the award. Both sides have good arguments but there's still a lot to look at when deciding who deserves the title of 'Most Valuable Player'

The reigning MVP has gone on a rampage this season leading his team to the first seed in the east while also giving them the best record in the league at 53-12 before the seasons abrupt end. He's as aggressive as ever and Mike Budenholzer's offensive plan that centres around letting Giannis let loose in the paint has allowed him to play even better then he did last season. Giannis is a lengthy 6'11 Power forward that posses enough strength to intimidate anyone who stands in his way and bulldoze those who try to stop him. He's gotten a lot of criticism from people around the league because of the fact that he lacks a reliable jump shot but where he lacks in shooting he more then makes up for with his unstoppable driving ability and dominating defensive presence. The Bucks forward has been improving steadily year by year to the point where he has an argument for Most Improved player every year since he entered the league. He dominates in the paint where he's able to get good position and receive passes up high this accompanied by his muscly frame allows him to then bring the ball down and back his way into his post to lay it into the basket or dunk on the person defending him. Shaq has compared the Greek freak to himself even going as far as to say that Giannis is better then him at the same age and he's also been compared to players like Amar'e Stoudemire, Shawn Kemp, David Robinson and Kevin Garnett however these comparisons can sometimes be hard to justify because of how versatile and skilled Giannis is. He can drive into the paint and shrug of contact then dunk on just about anyone or he can drive into the paint and euro step around a defender he can even hit a player with the crossover and blow by them if he wants and if neither of those work he can back a defender down and score that way and even if all else fails he's a capable playmaker that can find the open man for a 3. Giannis is unlike anything we've ever seen before and there's no doubt in my mind that He'll bring a championship to Milwaukee within this decade.

Lebron, King James, that kid from Akron. Lebron James has gone by many names throughout his Career but one thing that hasn't changed since he entered the league 17 years ago is his dominance. While the king isn't as aggressive and dominant in the paint as his Miami or Cleveland days he's still shown us that he's got it and he proves to everyone night in and night out why he deserves a place in the G.O.A.T debate. The biggest changes we've seen from Lebron this season are in his shooting and playmaking he currently leads the league in assists at 10.6 APG and while he's always been an average 3 point shooter the difference this season comes with his attempts. After taking all of LeBron's 3 point attempts from the year he was drafted (2003) to the 2018-19 season we can see that he's averaged 4.2 3 attempts for the majority of his career, he's currently averaging 6.4 attempts a game. As well as shooting more 3s he's also started turning to the fadeaway jumper more since joining the Lakers often opting to drive into the paint and backdown opponents before shooting or alternatively dribbling up to the 3 point line and then looking at his right hand before pulling up for a 3 in the face of his defender. Despite this seemingly less aggressive style of play has done a lot for the Lakers as Anthony Davis and himself have been able to take the first seed in the west and are now the favourites to win the championship in Orlando.

When looking at both players side to side Giannis has a clear edge over Lebron which is made more apparent when you consider that he's playing less minutes then the king. An argument could be made that because Budenholzer's game plan is essentially to play through Giannis it means that he gets the most touches and therefore more chances meanwhile Lebron has to share the floor with another star in Anthony Davis. However another thing that should be considered is how much both player have improved their numbers from the last season in which case Giannis still wins out as he's improved on all of his mvp stats whereas LeBron seems to have stagnated.

This table shows us the first 10 payers in the Lakers roster, their minutes, points, field goal percentages and attempts this season as well as games played and we can see the story of one two punch dynamic taking place with Lebron and Anthony Davis having 14.2 more ppg then the next highest scoring player on their team and while this isn't a bad thing it can be seen as the Organisation and Frank Vogel wasting talent because while Lebron and A.D are all stars and put up amazing numbers they're on a team full of players who can put up solid role player numbers if not better in some cases, this lack of spread out scoring could become a problem in the playoffs when teams start to play more intense defence and those other players such as Quinn Cook, Caruso and Kcp have to suddenly increase their numbers dramatically. That being said it's clear that this one two punch dynamic isn't a failure and has worked out very well for the team so far so it'll be interesting to see if and how the Lakers will change their game plan for the playoffs.

In Conclusion I think that Giannis Antetekoumpo deserves the award overall he's had a better season then Lebron and a better season then the one that got him his last M.V.P, he's also led his team to the best record in not just his conference but the entire league and he could arguably win more then just the M.V.P this year. By no means is Lebron a bad player but this year Giannis had the edge and he definitely deserves the award more.