NBA Awards 2019: 3 reasons why Giannis Antetokounmpo should win the Defensive Player of the Year award

#1 The hidden stats

Milwaukee Bucks v Toronto Raptors - Game Six

Giannis had 92 steals and 110 blocks this season, which makes it around 1.3 and 1.5 of them per game respectively. With that, he also had 739 defensive rebounds this season which puts him at the second place in the category. But these stats just scratch the surface.

Let's look at some of the other stats as well. Giannis had an excellent defensive field goal percentage (40.1) among the players who faced the most number of shots. He topped the Player Efficiency rating with 30.9, leaving James Harden at the second place. With a defensive rating of 99.4, which is second in the league, he had third best defensive win shares (5.5). His defensive Box Plus/Minus is 5.0, which is equal to the table leader, Rudy Gobert (5.0).

These are not just stats, they also prove how big of an impact this guy had on the league. He inevitably deserves both the MVP and DPOY this year.