Antetokounmpo has continued rolling this season. He has led his team in the aforementioned categories. He has also come out with such a hot start that he leads the entire league in scoring, averaging almost 35 points per game through Milwaukee’s first six games. This includes a career-high 44-point game in a victory over the Portland Trail Blazers Oct. 21 and a 37-point, 13-rebound game in a victory over the Eastern Conference runner up the Boston Celtics Oct. 18.

Antetokounmpo’s spectacular game against the Trail Blazers ended with a steal and fast-break dunk to put the Bucks ahead. Then he blocked Portland’s Jusuf Nurkic to seal the win for the Bucks.

Antetokounmpo’s dominance comes from a deadly combination of attributes and skill. The 6’11” lanky forward has a 7’0” wingspan, the same frame as former three-time defensive player of the year and future Hall of Famer Dwight Howard.

Antetokounmpo combines his gigantic size with guard-like speed and handling and Jordan-like jumping ability to make him virtually impossible to guard in the open court. That’s not all.

Giannis consistently uses his basketball IQ to position himself on the floor so that anytime he touches the ball he’s a legitimate threat and punishes any team playing lazy interior defense. His scoring ability is combined with his great court vision to find open teammates for assists.

The way Antetokounmpo can use his length to block shots and get steals on defense makes him one of the better defensive players in the league. If he can ever get a consistent three-point shot, he may actually be impossible to handle. Most wouldn’t have expected this meteoric rise from his beginnings in the NBA.

Antetokounmpo and three of his four brothers were born and raised in Athens, Greece after his parents moved there from Lagos, Nigeria. His parents struggled to find work, and he and his brothers had to sell watches and fruit on the streets of Athens to for extra money.

Antetokounmpo began playing basketball at age 12 and by age 14 was on the youth squad of Greece’s professional Filathlitikos team. He was drafted in 2013 as a high-ceiling 18-year-old international prospect by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Obviously the risk payed off for Milwaukee, as Antetokounmpo is on pace to be one of the greatest players in franchise, if not league, history.

Antetokounmpo’s hot start is not a surprising one after his 2016 season, but if he keeps his current pace, he will remain as the frontrunner in the MVP race this season. If the young star continues to play at this level, he could end his career in keeping with some of the greatest players of all time.

The Houston Rockets defeated defending champions the Golden State Warriors in Oakland 122-121 after Kevin Durant’s final basket at the buzzer was waved-off. This gave James Harden and his Rockets their first win of the season while dropping the Warriors to their second 0-1 start in a row.

LeBron James and his defending Eastern Conference champions the Cleveland Cavaliers welcomed back former teammate Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics to Cleveland for their first game of the season. Irving was traded to Boston late this offseason after requesting a trade from his team of six years, the Cavaliers, this summer. The Celtics quickly fell into a large deficit after newly-acquired star Gordon Hayward gruesomely broke his ankle in the early minutes of the game. The Celtics were able to recover, but LeBron’s 29 points, 16 rebounds and nine assists proved too much for Boston with the Cavs taking the win 102-99.

These two nail-biting games featured both teams from the NBA finals last year and set the tone for what should be an interesting and competitive season. The big question after the Warriors’ 15-1 postseason championship run and the Cavaliers’ pre-finals 12-1 record is whether these two “super-teams” will have any legitimate challengers this season.

Photo courtesy of Bleacher Report

A wave of talent hit the Western Conference as the Houston Rockets and Oklahoma City Thunder have each added All-Star players to their already playoff-caliber rosters and will undoubtedly be in the conversation of top teams in the Conference. Reigning MVP Russell Westbrook added All-Star forwards Paul George and Carmelo Anthony to the Thunder from the Eastern Conference but lost interior defense and bench depth as a result. MVP finalist and All-NBA guard James Harden added former All-NBA guard Chris Paul to the Rockets’ back court, sacrificing bench depth as well in the process.

However, with reigning sixth-man of the year Eric Gordon still on the roster, don’t expect Houston to lack the bench scoring necessary to be a contender. MVP finalist and current MVP favorite Kawhi Leonard and his San Antonio Spurs will surely be in the conversation as well. They have the best coach in the NBA, Gregg Popovich, on their bench. With players like center Lamarcus Aldridge embracing and thriving in their roles, the Spurs will surely be a team to beat in the West this year, as always.

Photo courtesy of NBA.com

Finding a team in the Eastern Conference to challenge LeBron has been an issue since Paul George and his 2013 Indiana Pacers team pushed LeBron’s then Miami Heat team to seven games in the conference finals. Eastern Conference runner-up the Boston Celtics are the only team in the East that have drastically reloaded their roster, adding two All-Star players in guard Irving and forward Hayward. Unfortunately, Irving’s addition came at the expense of adding talent to the Cavaliers rosters in the form of playoff-superstar guard Isaiah Thomas and three-and-D forward Jae Crowder.

With these additions, along with former MVP Derrick Rose and Finals MVP Dwayne Wade, combined with Hayward’s season-ending injury, the Celtics still may not be at the level of Cleveland and “King” James. The usual Eastern powers like John Wall and the Washington Wizards and the All-Star backcourt pair of DeMar DeRozan and Kyle Lowry for the Raptors in Toronto will surely make their presence felt in the east, but perhaps some fresh teams will look to make the jump to contenders this season.

Giannis Antetokounmpo has absolutely exploded out of the gates to start his 2017-2018 campaign. Leading the NBA in scoring and leading his Milwaukee Bucks to one of the best records in the league have given Antetokounmpo a very real stake in the MVP race as well as giving his team a chance to compete with the Cavs as a top team in the Eastern Conference.

The average draft position of the Philidelphia 76ers’ starting lineup is 5.6 overall and the average age is 23.8 years old. Led by second-year phenomenon Joel Embiid, attempting to play the first full NBA season of his career, and two consecutive number one overall picks in Markelle Fultz and Ben Simmons, the 76ers’ young and overflowingly talented roster may just make their mark on the East as they will attempt to reach the playoffs for the first time since 2012.

The 82-game narrative that began this October will end sometime next June and will surely be a memorable one. If it is anything like previous seasons, there will be drama, excitement and anger, and if fans are lucky, history will be made on multiple occasions.

Photo courtesy of Uproxx.