Milwaukee Bucks do not get enough credit for their individual defense. Sometimes, the team defense can be shaky due to the amount of threes that Milwaukee can give up regularly. That said, they have three guys that could easily be part of the all-defensive teams. They all happen to be the best players on the team. Jrue Holiday, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Khris Middleton all have the ability to make those all-defensive teams. Only two of three got it this year with Holiday and Giannis making the first team. Both are deserving and it’s good to see Holiday get the credit for what he does on the defensive side of the ball.

The 2020-21 NBA All-Defensive First Team:

🏀 Giannis Antetokounmpo
🏀 Rudy Gobert
🏀 Draymond Green
🏀 Jrue Holiday
🏀 Ben Simmons pic.twitter.com/ZlflnyWlLR

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) June 14, 2021

This is the second time for Holiday notching a first-team defense award. And Giannis’ third straight honor. These guys are tough to deal with when they lock in defensively. We’ve seen in these playoffs thus far. Holiday did a great job on Kyrie Irving and the host of Miami guards that they threw at the Bucks’ point guard. Giannis did an excellent job on Jimmy Butler and done well in spurts against the Blake Griffin’s of the world in this series. I do think some think Antetokounmpo could take a spell on Kevin Durant, but that’s not been a card that Mike Budenholzer has played. With these two guys leading your defense, it’s no surprise that Milwaukee has the best defensive net rating in the playoffs.

The next step is to get Khris Middleton a part of this group. He’s deserving too. Some could argue he plays better defense on Durant than P.J. Tucker. To me, Middleton’s defensive year is better than Jimmy Butler or Kahwi Leonard. Both are known great defenders but their year was less than desirable. Both got it on merit versus the actual games.

Charlie.