Yesterday, this forum was devoted to discussion of the Defensive Player of the Year, and there was a ton of support for Tyson Chandler and LeBron James, with some love for Tony Allen and Paul George sprinkled in.
Today we turn to the Most Improved Player award, which is somewhat of a wide-open field this season.
I have an official NBA ballot to vote for the award, and I had been leaning toward Ryan Anderson throughout the season. I remember covering the Magic early in the 2009-10 season after they went to the finals and lost to the Lakers, and I commended Otis Smith for heisting Anderson from the New Jersey Nets for Courtney Lee.
At the time, Smith wasn’t so sure. At least that’s what he told me.
But that trade has been an absolute heist for the Magic, one of the primary reasons they considered themselves a legitimate title contender before Dwight Howard went out with a herniated disk and their season went to hell.
Anderson leads the NBA in 3-point makes with 164 entering tonight’s game against Charlotte, hitting them at a .396 clip (25th in the NBA in accuracy). But Anderson played 64 games last season and made 134 3-pointers at a .393 clip, so there is not the quantifiable improvement that merits a first-place vote.
Goran Dragic is another candidate that merits a hard look. I got my first look at the Slovenian point guard while covering the 2009 Eurobasket in Madrid, where the Team USA scouts were drooling over him (one of them, Todd Quinter of the Phoenix Suns, convinced his GM to trade up in the 2010 draft to select Dragic before the Pistons had a shot at him.)
Daryl Morey in Houston got the Suns to trade him Dragic along with a first-round pick for Aaron Brooks (another heist), but Morey also was prepared to send Dragic to the Hornets as part of the aborted original Chris Paul trade. But when Kyle Lowry went out with a viral infection in mid-March, it was Dragic who stepped in and led the Rockets on their playoff push — albeit one that came to a crashing halt over the past two weeks. He averaged 18.4 points and 8.2 assists in his 27 starts.
A year ago, he averaged 7.5 poins and 2.9 assists for the Suns and Rockets.
The Minnesota Timberwolves are making a p.r. push for Nikola Pekovic, who went from obscurity to a beast — but whose candidacy is hurt by the fact that he sat out 19 games because of injuries.
Columnist Chris Bernucca makes a case that James Harden (a lock to win the Sixth Man award) is worthy of consideration, improving his shooting percentage to .491 from .436, and his point production from 12.2 to 16.8. You want quantifiable improvement from a playoff-bound difference maker? There you have it.
But then what about Steve Novak? The former Marquette Warrior went from making 26 3-pointers all season with Dallas and San Antonio this year to making 126 for the Knicks. Not only that, he leads the NBA in 3-point accuracy at .468.
What do y’all think? Any glaring omissions? (Jeremy Lin?)
The comments section is open.
*Greg Monroe* enough said.
I don’t think he’s in the same category as a lot of these guys, but Avery Bradley deserves some love. His defensive intensity is always there and he’s improved with his jumper. He made not having Ray Allen for a period of time feel like much less of a problem.
He’d be in my top 5 for most improved. The Celtics don’t make this resurgence without Bradley playing the way he has.
You’d have to account for Ryan’s ability to grab offensive board too. He’s not just a catch and shoot player.
I believe Lin is still eligible for the award despite the missed games. If so, my vote would go to him. He turned the basketball world upside down this season and turned everything else into an after thought. He went from being the least important to arguably the most important piece for a team that was dying. Without him, the Knicks probably miss the playoffs this season (he stepped up when Melo and STAT were both out). He’s done things no starting players have ever done for various stretches. The award is named “most improved”, and he is the definition of those words. He played sparingly last season but when he did, he was terrible. I did not think he even belonged in the league.
Linsanity has missed a large (roughly half) chunk of the season, so he’s out. Same goes for Pek, who finally acclimate/got PT in the NBA to remind us that he was arguably the best big man in Europe (Draft Express actually ranked him as the #1 foreign player in the draft ahead of Gallinari). Dragic has actually been remarkably consistent stat wise from his second year to this with the only difference being playing time, however Courtney Lee also deserves a lot of cred and if you look at his production in that same stretch as Dragic (as well as comparing their season stats) you’ll see that he’s very comparable and he guards the oppositions best player. I can’t believe nobody is even mentioning Kevin Love. If Harden gets mentioned then Love should too. Last time i checked he improved himself into an MVP candidate. If you compare D-Roses numbers from his second year to his MVP season and then compare K-Loves numbers from last year to this one then you’ll see that the jump made is quite similar, except Love has had to deal with more injuries to his supporting cast. My four candidates, in no specific order, would be Love, Harden, Dragic, and the aforementioned Paul George (dark horse). Honorable mentions going out to Lin and Lee.
I forgot to mention Anderson and Novak, although they still wouldn’t go into my top four as I believe that the four mentioned have more impact/responsibility in a game. Kudos to the insane shooting of these two this season.
Oh my pick would be Love btw.
I’m definitely against giving the award to Most Improved Minutes; Bynum wouldn’t be in my top 10. Dragic isn’t playing any better now than he was last year after going to Houston, just that he was wasting away in Phoenix with an organization that didn’t work for him.
Lin definitely showed a huge improvement, but nowhere near what Pekovic did. Anderson showed a more marginal improvement, and is a slightly better player than Pekovic in my view (Bynum is also better), but Pekovic was much worse than Anderson was last year.
I think a lot of it comes down to how you judge – is it really the degree of improvement we’re looking for, or is it “best player who was a significant surprise?” If the latter, maybe Anderson could be the guy.
Lin’s improvement was once again GREATER than Pekovic. Lin went from 2 ppg to 14 ppg,
That is a deceptive way of looking at Ryan Anderson. He is going from 2.1 3’s to 2.7 3’s a game, which is really an entirely different stratosphere of 3 point shooting more akin to Ray Allen in his prime than any other comparable.
Not to mention, he doesn’t just shoot the 3. He is a monster on the boards and is averaging 3.6 offensive rebounds right now. That kind of production cannot be ignored in this analysis.
Anderson still has my vote.
Bynum is a close second. He has taken it to another level this season.
Just to add to the point. He is averaging more offensive boards than bynum even while spending all that time on the perimeter.
And his +/- numbers are right at the top of the league.
No offense but I don’t think i’ve ever heard of anyone who averages 7.5 boards called a “monster on the boards”. To put that in comparison Melo averages 6.5 and plays on the perimeter a lot and to give the extreme, Kevin Love averaged 15 last season and Rodman averaged 18.7 in his best season. And +/- is a skewed stat because guys who don’t handle the ball in large quantities are less likely to turn the ball over/miss shots.
With that said I agree Anderson deserves consideration, I just don’t think those are the stats you want to use to convey your message. This would of been better, Anderson has attempted 414 3’s this season. The next highest total is 326 Wes Mathews, and Novak has the highest FG% while shooting 269. After taking almost 100 more 3’s than the rest of the league Anderson is still shooting a blistering 39.6% from the 3pt line and averaging 16 pts a game.
I’d say Dragic or Novak as they have had the biggest improvements and the award is “Most Improved.” Pekovic and Lin could have shots, but neither played enough, in my mind, to show that they could do it over an entire season (of 66 games). Lin would have won it hands down if he had stayed healthy and continued to play at a decent pace.
Is there a games qualification? If not, I don’t really care about games missed or minutes played as part of most improved- it’s gotta be Jeremy Lin.
Otherwise I’d be more than happy to give it to Pekovic (who again has seen a massive improvement from being a nobody to being legitimately starter-quality), or to Bynum (who has taken the same situation and same minutes and lifted himself up a tier). Leaning to Pekovic, because we always knew Bynum could do this if he put his mind to it and stayed healthy- “most improved” is almost an indictment on how much Bynum hadn’t done the last couple of years. Pekovic has just flat out improved bigtime.
It’s stupid as hell to have anyone but Lin on this. It’s honestly a slap in the face. He increased his output by a factor of 7. Lemme know when you find someone else that can say anything close to that. He put up better numbers than any active pg over their first 25 starts as well but oh well. This article is to drum up ooohs and ahhhs about how you left off Lin’s name completely. Typical beat writer bullshit. Any self made drama for the sake of the almighty click. Just pointing out your admission of him is disgusting, it’s like saying “betcha thought you’d see this name!” It shows that not only do you know that Lin deserved the award, but that your article had no real merit without mentioning him.
Nobody has improved their PPG average more than me from last season to this season. As usual, though, this website likes to pretend that the Hawks don’t exist.
Jeremy Lin not only increased more than you, but last year he scored less than half of what you scored and this year he has a higher average.
Congratulations on being a full-time starter this year, Jeff and thus seeing your PPG go up. How about points per 48 minutes?
Decent season so far. Good luck in the playoffs! But Jeremy Lin has you covered among point guards for most improved, it isn’t even close.
Hands down, demarcus cousins.
Check the numbers. And dont forget he led the league in charges taken too
An overlooked candidate, for sure. Don’t think he’s the guy, though.
Andrew Bynum, no question.
He’s my winner.
Nikola Pekovic needs to take the trophy. Dude is a BEAST. He’s an offensive rebounding machine, he has better moves inside the paint than Ricky Martin and his tattoos scare little children. If rubio didn’t go down wolves would have been contending for the 8th spot.
Nikola Pekovic.
Agree
I nominate Alonzo Gee. Went from UDFA to a solid contributor and defensive stopper:
2010-11:
7.4 PPG, 3.9 RPG, 0.8 APG, 0.8 SPG
2011-12:
10.6 PPG, 5.1 RPG, 1.8 APG, 1.3 SPG
What about Ersan Illyasova? He has been a monster for the Bucks in rebounding and is #3 in the league on 3pt%. He should win the award and you didn’t even consider him!
Ersan should get it.
Here’s why, Jordan. Ersan was a beat two seasons ago, then he was horrid by comparison last year, and now he is definitely an improved player. But when you go from very good to not so good to very good, that has to count against you in my book. Ersan is Exhibit A of a player whose national team commitments impacted his NBA season. Remember, Turkey went to the gold medal game of the 2010 Worlds in Istanbul, and then Ersan came back to the States and had a poor year — same as Hedo. He had last summer off, and he is certainly going to get papered this summer as a FA.
I think the very first criteria should be if the player’s team is or isn’t in playoffs – therefor, I discard Pekovic, Dragic… I thing Novak should be rewarded as MIP
It’s not Most Improved Team.
I liked Anderson before reading this post.. But looking at the numbers, I’d say my vote would be for James Harden.. I know he’s going to win 6th man so it’s unlikely he’ll double up and win most improved too, but i like the fact that he is a significant contriubtor to a championship contender and I think that should weigh higher than someone like Dragic or Pekovic who are playing for non-playoff teams.. I think the improvement of Harden this season has transformed the Zombie Sonics from just being a playoff team to becoming a serious championship contender.. He’s got my vote
Andrew Bynum! Dude went nuts this season, he averaged 18 & 12 throughout the year playing along Kobe & Gasol. He took Pau’s place as the 2nd option for the lakers. Had a 30 rebound night. He was named player of the week a couple of times. Look at his month of March stats. Has demanded double and triple teams from every team in the league. No one has been able to stop him 1 on 1.
His only issue was perceived immaturity, but that hasn’t affected the perception of his basketball improvement.
Trust me, he’ll be the Lakers X factor in the playoffs; if he plays up to his potential, they’ll win it all.
OK, Martin has discovered the first egregious omission, and he makes his case quite clearly and succinctly. Props to Martin.
I would have said Jeremy Lin, if he didn’t get injured. He definitely would be the front runner if he finished the season.
Either BigPeck, Jeremy Lin or Dragic.
Nikola Pekovic, and it’s not close!