A Nets player will win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award

I think a Brooklyn player has a very good chance to win a major award this season: the NBA’s Most Improved Player. The past winners of the MIP award have made the jump into All-Star territory or beyond to All-NBA or MVP and are all impressive names.

2022–23 – Lauri Markkanen

2021–22 – Ja Morant

2020–21 – Julius Randle

2019–20 – Brandon Ingram

2018–19 – Pascal Siakam

2017–18 – Victor Oladipo

2016–17 – Giannis Antetokounmpo

2015–16- CJ McCollum

2014–15 – Jimmy Butler

2013–14 Goran Dragić

2012–13 Paul George

So the current/pre-season favourite (according to betting odds) is Mikal Bridges. On the Suns he was averaging 17 points per game. His post-trade deadline form with Brooklyn increased to 26 points on similar efficiency. If he can repeat that form while being able to be a lockdown defender again then he has a very good chance to win. It would be awesome if Mikal can continue his form and show he belongs in the upper tier of players in this league.

There could be a case made for Nic Claxton to win MIP although he seems more focused on the Defensive Played of the Year award. At media day Clax spoke with passion about how he feels he was robbed of the award after KD and Kyrie were traded and the media focus left Brooklyn. He has a very good case for being All-Defence last season.

An off-season of working out and adding muscle, improving his shot and maybe this season we see some of those “Big Guard” skills which the Claxton family have talked about Nic having since college. We haven’t seen them so far in the NBA.

This is also Claxton’s contract year and he’ll likely sign a contract for generational money in the off-season. I expect the Nets to extend him but it will be very expensive. If thats the case it means Brooklyn have a top (defensive) player for his prime years. A great selection by Sean Marks in the second round of the draft.

The unlikely candidate but in my opinion still possible to win MIP is Cam Thomas. One reason for this is his stats should improve more than almost anyone else competing for this award.

Cam Thomas has a career average of 9.5ppg but if he is given/earns consistent minutes it would seem probable he could double those numbers easily and that would make voters of the award take Cam seriously, it is an award for monitoring improvement.

The third season is generally when players tend to take a leap and we saw from media day that Cam has worked on his body over the summer putting on 10 pounds of muscle. This will help him on both ends of the floor.

For all the people that say Cam doesn’t pass or defend we’ve heard that refrain constantly but few players in the league are as gifted scorers as Cam Thomas. His stats are eye-popping.

I believe in the 15 games where Thomas played 25 or more minutes this past season, he averaged 26.1 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 2.6 assists on 48/50/90 shooting splits. Elite efficiency. According to StatMuse when Cam Thomas starts he averaged 33 points, 4.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists. However, he has started only 6 games in his career. Yet it is these numbers which point toward Cam being a very special player.

[https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/cam-thomas-stats-as-a-starter-career#](https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/cam-thomas-stats-as-a-starter-career#)

Mikal will be the first option for Brooklyn but I wouldn’t be surprised to see Cam Thomas become the most reliable late clock option when the team needs a bucket as time winds down.

We know Cam can go off for 40+ points like he showed four times last season. And in two of those he played against CJ and Mikal while they were on the Suns just before they got traded and he scored on Kawhi and PG against the Clippers. He wasn’t putting up numbers on nobodies.

I suspect we’ll see several more 40 point games from Cam this season, I even believe he’ll go for 50 twice this season and if there is any Net that I think could break the franchise record for points in a game currently held by Kyrie then I think Cam could score 61 and break the record.

by addictivesign