NBA Roundtable: Who Should Be This Year's Most Improved Player?

NBA predictions made months before the beginning of the regular season are incredibly difficult to make with any sense of certainty—doubly so for the Most Improved Player award, often given to a player whose production has increased out of the blue and with no logical indicator.

After all, how does one explain Hedo Turkoglu’s evolution into a superstar years into his NBA career?

Still, the award also tends to tilt toward very talented young players who weren’t given many chances to play in previous years, a criteria slightly easier to predict.

So, after putting on my Nostradamus cap and trying to predict the unpredictable, I present my candidates for the 2008-09 NBA Most Improved Player.

5. Francisco Garcia, Sacramento Kings

Someone will have to replace Ron Artest’s production on the Kings, and Kevin Martin can’t do it all himself. Garcia is a long, wiry athlete with the athleticism to force turnovers on defense, and the talent to be a productive scorer. With more responsibility, and with the inside track of playing the starting wing opposite Martin, Garcia has the chance to break out.

4. Wilson Chandler, New York Knicks

Chandler didn’t play much last season, but he’s a talented, versatile scorer with an NBA body who can rebound and block shots. With Renaldo Balkman gone, Jared Jeffries offensively deficient, and Quentin Richardson perpetually injured, Chandler has a chance to step in and be a serious contributor under Mike D’Antoni.

3. Luke Ridnour, Milwaukee Bucks

Every season, a random veteran inexplicably has a career season when a new variable is added to his current situation.

Last season, Beno Udrih moved from the end of San Antonio’s bench into Sacramento’s starting lineup and produced like never before because defenses had to focus on Kevin Martin, Brad Miller, and Ron Artest, and Udrih was smart enough to know how to play off pick-and-rolls.

For the Magic, you combine extra floor spacing in Rashard Lewis, a new coach in Stan Van Gundy, and the natural progression of Dwight Howard with Hedo Turkoglu’s out-of-nowhere increase in athleticism and awareness, and—voila!—a career year for Hedo.

For Ridnour, after injuries and depleted minutes crippled his last two seasons in Seattle, a move to Milwaukee should work wonders, especially as he's primed to be the starting point guard on a team loaded with offensive weapons. Scott Skiles will get the most out of him, production-wise.

2. Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City TBA’s

Durant did score over 20 points per game as a rookie, but his game took a dramatic increase toward the end of the year and he should only get better. Since Oklahoma City still doesn’t have too many offensive weapons, and since Durant will be force-fed playing time to accelerate his development, he’ll have every shot at averaging 30 points a game.

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