Improvement in counting stats is important, but it’s often difficult to untangle whether a player’s statistical jumps stem from his improvement rather than because he changed teams or had a coaching change. Josh Robbins: To me, this is the most interesting of the NBA awards, precisely because it’s vague and because so many factors should be taken into account. When looking for a Most Improved Player, I do my best to look around the league and figure out whose production improved the most from one year to the next and which of those jumps had the greatest impact on their team. Empty stats on a losing team doesn’t move the needle much for me.Įric Nehm: I’ll be honest, this is pretty vague, but I also think the award is pretty vague, so I guess it checks out. It has to be a combination of individual development and how that correlates with team impact. I’m not the biggest fan of advanced stats like Per-36 because multiple factors can influence playing time, but if Player X is averaging 16 points per game in 25 minutes and averages 22 the next season in 36 minutes, did he really improve? Or did he just get on the floor more? So often folks correlate “most improved” with the biggest jumps in counting stats and make their decisions based on that, but it can’t be that surface level. Kelly Iko: This is the award that arguably has the most gray area. What are your criteria for selecting the NBA’s Most Improved Player? To answer that question, The Athletic has assembled three of its beat writers who voted for the award last season: Kelly Iko, who covers the Houston Rockets Eric Nehm, who covers the Milwaukee Bucks and Josh Robbins, who covers the Washington Wizards. So with roughly one month remaining in the season, who leads this year’s race for the award? The 2022-23 NBA Most Improved Player race is an interesting one, partly because the award itself is plenty vague.
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