In terms of the least surprising writing we do on this site, what takes the cake is Giannis Antetokounmpo being voted the most important Buck every season, dating back to 2014 when we first did these rankings. There’s not much to say other than that: the sun rises and sets for the franchise with Giannis. He’s a main—maybe THE—reason the team remained in Milwaukee. The main reason they rose from decades of irrelevance through plucky playoff underdog to legitimate contender. The main reason they won
the whole damn thing in 2021. The reason they can’t just be written off as contenders—though now, maybe just for a run to the Conference Finals—while the team changed around him in the ensuing years.
Unlike in our last ranking, Milwaukee lacks star power around Giannis for the first time since perhaps his rookie season, depending on when you think Khris Middleton reached that status. And a healthy, albeit short postseason for the first time since 2022 from Giannis is the main reason the Pacers did not sweep them in the spring. Any hope of advancing out of the first round for the first time since 2022 rests on his health and continued dominance of the sport.
Everyone quibbles with the order of the top two or three players in the league, but to rate Giannis outside of that echelon is poppycock. A second year of averaging 30+ points per game with 60% shooting—still the only player ever to do this—from the field makes him arguably the most efficient scoring weapon in the league, while still acknowledging that Jokic is reasonably the best offensive player overall (more on that debate later today). And though we don’t always see it in the regular season, it’s still abundantly clear that of the league’s top 10-or-so players, Giannis is the best defender of them all—at least until Victor Wembanyama puts together a full season worthy of Defensive Player of the Year.
Looking at my summation of Giannis two years ago—“an elite high-usage primary scorer, a pretty damn good passer, a fantastic rebounder, an expert at drawing contact, and an extremely dangerous off-ball defensive threat”—in these rankings, I can confidently say he’s better now. Pretty damn good passer? Try outstanding. Go see his clips on YouTube. Factor this improvement in with what we already knew in the above paragraph, and it’s silly to call Luka Doncic the better player after he missed 40% of the season. Even after an MVP and ring, I have a hard time elevating Shai Gilgeous-Alexander over him too.
I said this last year and it still resonates with me: “those putting Luka Doncic ahead of Giannis are—gee, how can I put this nicely? I guess the most polite thing I can say is that they’re very, very wrong. I’ll die on the hill that Giannis’ 2023–24 season—which was the best of his career, by many metrics—should have merited him more MVP votes. Not being among the three finalists is criminal.” While he was an MVP finalist again last year, he finished in a distant third. Yet again, 2024–25 was the best of his career by many metrics. While I don’t think his MVP finish is criminal, his evaluation next to Doncic still is.
That’s a wrap on our 12th annual edition of Ranking The Roster. Thanks to all of you for voting along the way. Let’s recap the rankings, with links to each post discussing the given Buck:
- Giannis Antetokounmpo (last year ranked first)
- Myles Turner
- Gary Trent Jr. (last year ranked fifth)
- Kevin Porter Jr.
- Bobby Portis (last year ranked sixth)
- AJ Green (last year ranked ninth)
- Kyle Kuzma
- Ryan Rollins (last year ranked 17th)
- Cole Anthony
- Taurean Prince (last year ranked eighth)
- Jericho Sims
- Gary Harris
- Amir Coffey
- Chris Livingston (last year ranked 12th)
- Andre Jackson Jr. (last year ranked 11th)
- Tyler Smith (last year ranked 15th)
- Thanasis Antetokounmpo
- Pete Nance
- Jamaree Bouyea
- Mark Sears
Thanks for also voting in the gut check poll for each Buck. We asked you how confident you were that so-and-so would be a member of the postseason rotation on a 1–5 scale, 1 being “not confident at all” and 5 being “firmly in the rotation, playing heavy minutes.” For the holdovers, their gut check number from September 2024 is in parentheses. Neat to see rises from Gary Trent Jr., AJ Green, and Ryan Rollins:
- Giannis: 4.92 (4.53)
- Turner: 4.96
- Trent: 4.90 (4.72)
- Porter: 4.77
- Portis: 4.62 (4.3)
- Green: 4.45 (3.23)
- Rollins: 3.96 (1.25)
- Anthony: 3.58
- Prince: 3.27 (3.72)
- Kuzma: 3.12
- Sims: 3.03
- Coffey: 2.68
- Harris: 2.12
- Jackson: 1.86 (2.67)
- Livingston: 1.72 (1.86)
- Thanasis: 1.47 (1.45 in September 2023)
- Sears: 1.45
- Nance: 1.40
- Smith: 1.21 (1.55)
- Bouyea: 1.16
Once again, thanks for partaking. We’d love to read what your personal ranking of the Bucks is, and how it differs from our readership’s consensus, so feel free to comment or post it in The Feed.
