The Milwaukee Bucks, coming off a big win over the Miami Heat, are 23-22 and firmly entrenched in the Eastern Conference’s playoff picture. They are closer to the fifth-place Cleveland Cavaliers than they are to the ninth-place Brooklyn Nets.

Giannis Antetokounmpo, 20, is easily the most exciting player on Milwaukee’s roster. The second-year wing will be a fixture at All-Star weekend in New York City next month as a participant in both the Rising Stars Challenge and the Sprite Slam Dunk Contest. 

The Greek Freak finished tenth among East guards in All-Star voting, tops on the Bucks. Antetokounmpo’s time as an All-Star will come, but Brandon Knight, just 23 himself, has played well enough to get in the conversation as a reserve this season.

The Bucks haven’t had a representative in the All-Star Game since Michael Redd made the squad in 2004.

Knight, acquired by Milwaukee along with Viacheslav Kravtsov and Khris Middleton from the Detroit Pistons for Brandon Jennings in late July 2013, is averaging 17.9 points, 5.1 assists, 4.2 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.

His numbers aren’t spectacular, but his importance to what has become a playoff team after a 15-win season is unquestioned. Knight leads Milwaukee in PER and usage rate. He is one of four Bucks that have played in every game this season -- joining Antetokounmpo, Jared Dudley and O.J. Mayo.

Regardless of whether or not he’s named an All-Star by the league’s coaches, many already consider Knight to be of that caliber. Erik Spoelstra praised the four-year veteran this week without revealing how he voted.

“Brandon Knight is underrated, whether he makes the All-Star team or not,” Spoelstra said. “I think everybody views him as an All-Star.”

Many pundits predicting the seven Eastern reserves have Knight on the fringe, likely needing to edge out bigger names (Dwyane Wade, Kyrie Irving, Derrick Rose) for a spot.

Knight doesn’t have the scoring numbers to compete with Wade, Irving or Rose, but he is second among East guards in rebounding, bests Wade and Rose in PER and only Kyle Korver has a higher three-point percentage (.408) at the position.

“I can’t sit here and tell you I don’t want to make it,” Knight told Andrew Gruman of FOX Sports Wisconsin. “It’s something I would love to be a part of.

“It would mean a lot for me to be a part of that and definitely to be a part of that for the city of Milwaukee, a city that gave me a chance to play my game. It would be really special for me.”

Knight’s work ethic has been lauded. More often than not he’s the first member of the team to arrive for practice and one of the last to leave. He’s having a career-year under Jason Kidd, who was running NBA offenses less than two years ago.

He entered the league with a bit of a chip on his shoulder, slipping to the Pistons with the eighth pick in 2011 after just one year at Kentucky. The second guard taken after Irving, Knight hadn’t even worked out for Detroit that spring.

Knight, who admitted moments after being drafted that he was surprised to have lasted that long, continues to play with an edge. The Cleveland Cavaliers, Minnesota Timberwolves, Utah Jazz, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Sacramento Kings passed on taking him. It’s worth noting that the Golden State Warriors took Klay Thompson, the NBA’s current viral star, three picks after Knight.

I spoke with him just a few months into his rookie season and asked about his motivation to make teams pay for passing on him. Time had already healed his surface wounds at that point. “I was fine with it. My goal is just to come out and get better and do what I know I’m capable of and help my teammates,” he told me.

Knight has been able to channel his frustration over how the draft played out into positive motivation. That’s no surprise given his mentally acuity. Before he settled on playing for Kentucky, some Ivy League schools recruited Knight. He went as far as to visit Yale and was on the radar of Princeton.

A national ranking service had a 14-year-old Knight ranked as the top wing prospect among his peers, while he touted math as his favorite subject. He played five years of varsity for Pine Crest in South Florida and finished his senior year with a 4.3 GPA when weighted with Advanced Placement classes.

Brandon Knight is what you get when you combine intelligence, NBA-level athleticism and unrelenting desire.

Knight runs the point on Milwaukee’s five most-used lineups this season and the club’s best. Knight, Jared Dudley, Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Zaza Pachulia are +37 as a unit in more than 56 minutes as Kidd’s third-favorite lineup.

An improved shot is one of the main reasons why he has taken a step forward. Knight has a career-high 43.9% shooting percentage, which ranks 88th in the league (tied with Damian Lillard), but only 15 players have been more accurate from three-point range.

Knight has increased his three-point attempts in his second season with the Bucks, going from .310 to .331. A little more than a fifth of those attempts have come from the trendy corner territory, where he hits 42.2% of his shots.

He attacks the basket on about 30% of attempts, in line with his career numbers. Knight shoots 57.4% on those shots with 12 dunks, already a career-high. Like most players, the mid-range game hurts his percentages.

Milwaukee has leaned heavily on Knight since he arrived and that figures to only increase with injuries (Kendall Marshall, Jabari Parker) leaving Kidd with fewer options. His usage rate (26.9) ranks 19th in the league, which has led to an issue with turnovers. He is tied with LeBron James for the fourth-most this season.

Having the ball in his hands hasn’t led to only turnovers, it has also resulted in a career-best 27.1% assist percentage and perhaps allowed him to take smarter shots. You can point back to his intellect there, helping him analyze things on the fly.

His True Shooting Percentage (.560) is leaps-and-bounds better than anything he posted in his three previous seasons. As Bradford Doolittle points out in a recent piece on Knight for ESPN, he ranked 26th with 5.1 WARP through last week’s games.

Brandon Knight may or may not make the All-Star team. If he does, he’ll be deserving. If he doesn’t, that’s just more motivation for an experienced 23-year-old on the rise.