Who's your nomination for Most Improved Player? Early in the season it looked like Giannis, but he wore out a little. I'm guessing the favorite is Clint Capela.
Demar DeRozan was looking like a candidate there for a while. There also used to be a "Comeback Player" which got replaced by MIP. I would say Jrue Holiday would be a candidate for that, because I honestly thought he would just slowly slip out of the league with all those injuries.
I would agree with Oladipo as he has done a great job of keeping Indiana relevant and has really stepped up his game this year after being a somewhat disappointment for OKC last year.
I don't know who MIP will be but I do wanna know why everyone keeps saying hello to HCP in this thread.
Nurk's stats when down this from year from when he played for us last year so I don't think he'll get any mention. He's kind of the opposite of MIP.
He only played 20 games for POR last year. MIP is an award for season to season performance. You need to look at his total performance from last season, not just the 20 games he played in Portland, and compare it to his total performance this season. So yes, he did improve, substantially. He got off to the slow start this year, compared to how he finished last year, but like last year, he is finishing strong this year, too. His scoring and rebounding are both career highs, but the improvement is not significant enough to get him in the discussion for MIP. His most significant improvement has been on the defensive end, where he has become the anchor of the most improved defense in the league (24th last year to 8th this year). Look at how much his DWS has gone up. Sadly, voters for this award will pretty much ignore defense and just vote based on how much someone's scoring has increased from last year to this year. I do agree that Oladipo deserves to win, but if defense was weighted as heavily as offense, Nurk would deserve to be in the top 5 in the voting. BNM
My only complaint with Oladipo is that I don't see that his game has changed - he's just been installed as the #1 guy. He's like Isaiah Thomas in Boston - Thomas wasn't really better, he was just in an ideal system (after being in a very much non-ideal system before). Playing alongside Westbrook when you're better with the ball is about as unideal as you can get. Clint Capela, on the other hand, is suddenly a top 5 center, and he's stayed in exactly the same place as last season.
Forgot obvious candidate Tyreke Evans. But he is unlikely to win anything given how shitty Memphis ended up being.
Jokic also deserves some votes - like Antetokounmpo, he made "the leap". So does Dame, for that matter.
Evans has only played in 52 games this season, and only 6 since January 29: Player Injury (Personal): Evans is tending to a personal matter and it is undetermined when he will return to the lineup. (Updated Saturday, March 24, 2018) He was basically hurting their tanking, err... I mean the development of their young players, sent home and told not to come back. Unfortunately, I don't think there is an award for that. BNM
Did Jokic really make a leap? His per game numbers are up a little, but that's mostly due to playing more minutes. His per-100 possession and advanced stats are actually down. DEN added Paul Millsap, and they are pretty much exactly where they were the same time last year, battling it out for the final playoff spot in the West. BNM
