Several sports books predictions for Most Improved Player have their highest odds on guys like Edwards, Zion, Cade, RJ. Why are young top overall picks even being discussed for this? They are supposed to be GREAT. Not to mention the fact that these guys have already proven themselves as 20ppg scorers. Zion himself literally averaged 27ppg in his second year how can he possibly be considered for this award?!?!
https://www.covers.com/nba/most-improved-player-odds
https://www.vegasinsider.com/nba/odds/most-improved/
https://www.si.com/betting/2022/10/06/2022-23-nba-most-improved-player-odds
Just take a look through these lists. Most of these players have already proven themselves as great young talents. Hoping this doesn’t last because the narrative for this award needs to go back to being considered for guys who truly breakout when no one expects like Siakam or McCollum.
by shiftyt05
30 Comments
Ja wasn’t even the MIP of his own team lol
I actually agree with this take. Give it to the role players who bust their ass, not the guy who was supposed to be the franchise player…
Zion being on there is wild, but I don’t see why Cade, RJ, or Edwards couldn’t win it if they put up the numbers to get it as well as lead their team to success, which is almost always the deciding factor on MIP. Very rarely do you see a guy on a bad team winning the award. (BI in 2020 and K-Love in 2011 the only real recent anomalies)
The best MIP award was Julius Randle when he did a 180 on his career over a single off-season. Role player to all-star.
It should’ve been Maxey
lmao if Zion wins MIP the award lost its meaning completely. Although Ja Morant shouldn’t have won, his numbers did take a leap. For Zion to actually deserve it he’d have to put up 30+ ppg, or greatly improve his assist and rebound numbers
Ja would agree with you.
I get ur point, but who tf should they give MIP odds to then? Most likely it shouldn’t be a top pick, it should be a guy you’d never see contributing at that level….if you could accurately predict that you should be working for a team
Most Improved Player should go to the most improved player. Don’t care where you’re drafted. Perhaps there were other more improved players last year than Ja, idk, but that analysis should be independent of draft position.
For what it’s worth, MIP award is the successor of the Comeback player of the year award. It really has no place being given to great young phenoms who take that expected jump, but it’s easier for the voters that way I guess
Edit: for further context, PG and Kevin Love both won it in there 3rd seasons, just like Ja, so it’s not strictly an age thing. But I think it’s because they made a leap from just a good player to an all star caliber one in that season; whereas Ja already was. It’s just odd because there were better candidates.Hell, Morant wasn’t even the best candidate on his team.
I kind of disagree. I don’t think expectations absolutely need to be a factor in mip. Ja took a leap and started looking like he could be a legit superstar. He scored like 10 more points per game and increased his efficiency a lot.
I don’t think it sets a real precedent. Preseason betting odds for this award don’t mean a ton.
I agree those aren’t guys in would expect to win it. But if one of them truly ascends and has a large statistical increase I don’t see an issue with them winning. Though Zion would be pretty absurd.
Friendly reminder for the people thinking Zion previously performed too well to receive MIP votes:
The year after Lebron almost got unanimous MVP, he received votes for Most Improved Player.
If Zion gets it the award is officially meaningless. Might as well just rename it “MVP for players under 25”
Morant went from scoring 28 points per 100 possessions, to 39.6, and his TS+ went from 94 to 102. I’m struggling to find a bigger increase than that in scoring.
It should’ve been Poole. Everyone said when they gave it to Ja. I’m not even a Ja hater like most of this sub but it’s so dumb that he won it
Yeah this could quickly just turn into the MVP award for second or third year lottery picks. Against the spirit of the award imo, really don’t like the direction we’re headed with this
this is not something new Paul Geoge, Oladipo and even T mac have an MIp
Until they define the award more it’s pretty meaningless. Typically just goes to a player already on the rise that now gets more opportunity.
Yea I can’t believe Poole didn’t win MIP. Ja was close
To as good last year, also that’s why he gave it to Bane cuz he knows Bane improved more than him lol.
Set a bad precedence for an award absolutely nobody cares about?
Hopefully Ja giving it to Bane helps them get their heads out of their asses, but there’s no way we can avoid Zion getting it in a healthy season this year.
They didn’t wanna put him in talks for abythigg no else, bro shouldn’t have even been in talks for MIP
T-Mac, CJ, Oladipo, Love, and Ingram were all lottery picks who were expected to be great anyways, and each won the award. I think the MIP varies year to year, but it seems to lean toward a players have zero to slim chance of being an all-star and/or all-nba one year, to exceeding that expectation the next.
Didn’t we see almost an exact replica of this with Brandon Ingram?
Richard Jefferson winning that this season would really be unprecedented.
Poole Garland Murray. My vote was Poole but any of those 3 winning would have made sense. Ja was already an all star caliber player.
Jordan Poole was robbed. Ja was an MVP candidate, which means he’s expected to play at a consistently high level. Just goes to show how the narrative peddlers at ESPN and company ruin these aspects of the league.
I can’t name a single MIP and I don’t plan to start any time soon. There’s no award that means less well getting more talk.
I don’t understand this. A lot of people share this sentiment, but why is this a thing? The award is meant for the player who improved the most. Not the player who improved the most who was not supposed/expected to. Is there a reason for this? Even when people say “but it shouldn’t go to second year players, because that improvement is expected”, why does it matter? Does the improvement have to happen in an unexpected manner?
Maybe I’m missing something, but I just don’t understand why we don’t award it to players who have improved the most, independent of the expectations set of them.
Agree. Zion had a similar jump but it would have seemed dumb to give it to him. Keep it guys who were bad and got good.