Ranking the Most Improved NBA Players This Season
In the NBA, as in any competitive enterprise, if you're not getting ahead, you're probably falling behind.
This is especially true for those youngsters still trying to establish themselves within the Association. For them, their best basketball and biggest paydays have yet to come.
That is, if they're ready, willing and able to put in the work, be it during offseason training sessions, individual skill development with coaches, focused team practices or detailed film sessions.
If they are, the spoils of success—from wins to awards to lucrative contracts—are well within reach. If not...well, there will never be a shortage of talented, hungry ballers gunning for their spots in basketball's premier league.
All of that makes the NBA's Most Improved Player race as agonizing and pointless for some as it is intriguing for others. On one hand, players should be getting better year by year, especially if they're still shy of their 30s. On the other hand, not everyone is putting in the same time and effort to expand and strengthen their respective games.
Nor does everyone have the same palette of physical traits from which to paint a masterpiece on the hardwood.
(Not to mention, how does one reliably define and measure improvement anyway?)
The award itself is broad enough in scope to include the likes of Kawhi Leonard, who's looked more like the reigning Finals MVP than ever before, or Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who's made considerable strides this season but looks primed for a bigger leap down the line.
There are no such concerns of MIP consideration for these seven risers, ranked here according to a combination of the vastness of their improvement in 2014-15 and the degree of difficulty inherent in reaching their respective newfound stations within the Association.
7. Victor Oladipo, SG, Orlando Magic
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In some respects, it feels unfair to consider NBA sophomores for the league's Most Improved Player Award. Hypothetically speaking, guys are supposed to grow by leaps and bounds in year two, if only because they're no longer doe-eyed rookies with little idea of what to do when the Association's bright headlights are coming right for them.
That being said, if we were to set aside experience as a factor, Victor Oladipo would belong in this conversation. His scoring (17.6 points) and shooting percentages (43.7 from the field, 33.5 percent from three, 83.3 percent from the line) are all up, and he's cut down on his turnovers—from 19.2 percent in 2013-14 to 14.2 percent this season, per Basketball-Reference.com.
As Grantland's Zach Lowe recently noted, Oladipo has his work cut out for him, especially when it comes to ironing out the wrinkles in his on-court partnership with Orlando Magic rookie Elfrid Payton:
"His evolution is going to be a long process. Oladipo remains a below-average shooter and ranks toward the bottom among shooting guards in gravity and distraction scores — proprietary SportVU tracking stats that measure how closely defenders stick to players (gravity) and how willing defenders are to drift away from those same players (distraction). Payton has the third-worst distraction score among all guards in the NBA, ahead of only Rajon Rondo and Ronnie Price, per data from STATS provided to Grantland. When Payton doesn’t have the ball, his defenders tend to ignore him to block Oladipo’s path to the lane...
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But that's to be expected of Oladipo. He's still only 22, playing on a Magic team that's slowly transitioning from terrible to not so terrible. All the while, Oladipo, whose frame (6'4") and game don't slot comfortably into just one traditional backcourt position, is trying to carve out a niche of his own stylistically.
"I’m just a basketball player, man," Oladipo told Grantland. "Whatever position they put me at, I’ll do my thing."
Oladipo's done it much better this year. In fact, he's nearly doubled his tally of 20-plus-point games in 2014-15 (23) from a season ago (12), including a career-high 38 points against the Phoenix Suns on March 4.
If Oladipo is already this productive at his age—and on a bad team that's still searching for the right mix of players to put around him—imagine how much better he'll be once the Magic (finally) get their house back in order.
6. Klay Thompson, SG, Golden State Warriors
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Of the last four Most Improved Player winners, three were either first-time All-Stars (Kevin Love in 2011, Paul George in 2013) or All-NBA debutantes (Goran Dragic in 2014).
Klay Thompson already has the former locked down, courtesy of his reserve duty for the West at Madison Square Garden in February, and could have the latter wrapped up by season's end.
Thompson has scuffled somewhat since returning from a recent ankle injury. Over his last nine games, he's averaged 16.4 points on 41.1 percent from the field (36.8 percent from three). As the San Jose Mercury News' Tim Kawakami described it following Thompson's 2-of-10 shooting night against the New Orleans Pelicans:
"Whew, he isn’t just missing shots, he looks like he’s shot-putting them up there. This happens to almost all shooters (except Curry), even the very good ones. Thompson is an excellent shooter and I fully expect him to figure this out. But for now—and if this slump recurs in the playoffs—that’s a huge issue for the Warriors.
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On the whole, though, Thompson has clearly come of age. He's on pace to set new career highs nearly across the board, from points (21.3) and assists (2.9) to three-point percentage (42.8 percent) and total threes made (220 so far, just three shy of his previous high). It doesn't hurt that Thompson's record-setting 37-point quarter also stands as arguably the individual highlight of the 2014-15 season.
And that's to say nothing of what Thompson has accomplished defensively. The Washington State product has not only remained a staunch stopper on the other end, but has done so while cutting down considerably on his fouls—from 2.9 per game last season to a mere 1.8 this time around.
Thompson is far from the sole reason for the Golden State Warriors' impressive leap from good to great (we'll get to another of those causes in a bit), but there's no denying the hand he's had in that or the extent to which the 25-year-old has come of age during this journey.
5. Anthony Davis, PF, New Orleans Pelicans
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Usually, MIP consideration is reserved for those who, to some surprise, transition from off the proverbial radar to squarely on it.
Or, in plainer terms, from nice role players to something much more than that.
Why, then, is Anthony Davis on this list? After all, he was an All-Star last season, led the league in blocks per game and finished as one of a handful of guys to average better than 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
As far as pure improvement goes, though, The Brow may well be leading the pack this season. In what feels like the blink of an eye, Davis has gone from "What's Next" to "What's Now." He's once again pacing his peers in blocks per game (just under three) and currently ranks among the top 10 in scoring (24.5 points), rebounding (10.3 boards) and field-goal percentage (53.5 percent).
At the tender age of 22, Davis is already a master of the mid-range game. According to Basketball-Reference.com, Davis has hit baskets at a well-above-league-average clip from three to 10 feet (43.4 percent), 10 to 16 feet (45.4 percent) and 16 feet to the three-point line (42.3 percent).
Scarier still, Davis has started to leverage that mid-range shot-making skill to open up opportunities for his New Orleans Pelicans teammates, per Grantland's Zach Lowe:
"Anthony Davis is the only player who inspires terror on the pick-and-roll by both diving to the hoop and popping for midrange jumpers...Davis over the last two months has made progress leveraging this attention into quick-hitting passes to open teammates...This is the next step in his evolution into the world’s greatest all-around player.
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The fact that Davis can now be considered the best basketball player on planet Earth without drawing too much disdain—with his historically great player efficiency rating (30.8) as just one eye-opening indicator of that—is proof enough of how far he's come and how quickly he's done it.
4. Rudy Gobert, C, Utah Jazz
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If by most improved we meant "before and after the All-Star break," Rudy Gobert would probably be No. 1 on this list.
The second-year center did some nice things for the Utah Jazz during the first half-plus of 2014-15. Prior to the All-Star Game, Gobert averaged a sturdy 6.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.2 blocks in 21.9 minutes.
Since assuming Enes Kanter's starting spot after the trade deadline, though, Gobert has been a godsend for the Utah Jazz. He's posted 10.9 points, 13.7 boards, 2.5 blocks and one steal in 35 minutes of action per game.
More importantly, Gobert's ascent has coincided with Utah's transformation into a defensive juggernaut. According to NBA.com, the Jazz have been far and away the most efficient defensive squad in the league post-All-Star, allowing their opponents to score an anemic 93.2 points per 100 possessions.
Gobert has been integral to that turnaround. According to Basketball-Reference.com, the Stifle Tower leads the league in block percentage, and, per the NBA's SportVU stats, no regular has held foes to a lower field-goal percentage at the rim than the 39.2 percent rate at which Gobert's have converted.
With or without honorary hardware, Gobert should have little trouble locking down a starting spot in Salt Lake City for the foreseeable future. And at the age of 22, Gobert might only be scratching the surface of his prodigious potential.
3. Draymond Green, PF, Golden State Warriors
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Draymond Green is already the front-runner for Defensive Player of the Year, but who's to say someone can't or shouldn't be in contention for more than one major award?
Green fits the bill for Most Improved Player as well as anyone—his Golden State Warriors teammate Klay Thompson included. Where once Green looked like an amorphous role player who did more work with his mouth than the rest of his body, he's now established himself as not only a full-time starter but an integral glue guy on the league's best team.
The stats certainly support that assertion. He's nearly doubled his scoring, rebounding and assist numbers from a season ago while posting personal bests in just about every relevant category.
| Mins | Pts | FGA | FG% | 3P% | Reb | Ast | Stl | Blk | |
| 2013-14 | 21.9 | 6.2 | 5.6 | .407 | .333 | 5.0 | 1.9 | 1.2 | 0.9 |
| 2014-15 | 31.6 | 11.8 | 9.8 | .442 | .340 | 8.1 | 3.7 | 1.6 | 1.3 |
The lion's share of the attention paid to Green's burgeoning game during the 2014-15 campaign has focused on his defensive impact and rightfully so. His ability to check players of all shapes, sizes, skills and positions has helped to unlock an aggressive, switching scheme that's made Golden State's defense the NBA's most efficient all season.
"I’ve gotten to the point where I’m comfortable guarding any position on the floor," Green told Grantland's Jonathan Abrams. "It just didn’t happen overnight. It came with a lot of work, a lot of film study and everything. But now I’m comfortable guarding anybody. I’m not saying I’m going to stop or lock everybody down, but I’m comfortable."
Green figures to find even greater comfort this summer, when he's due to field some substantial offer sheets from around the Association in restricted free agency.
2. Hassan Whiteside, C, Miami Heat
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You don't have to dig too deep in the PER rankings to find Hassan Whiteside. According to ESPN, the Marshall product ranks sixth in that department with a PER of 26.25.
That is insane, considering that Whiteside, a second-round pick of the Sacramento Kings in 2010, hadn't set foot in the Association since April 2012 prior to his D-League call-ups with the Miami Heat this past December. In between, Whiteside spent time plying his trade and maturing in China and Lebanon before returning stateside to audition for teams around the NBA.
Since then, Whiteside has been nothing short of a revelation for the injury-and-defection-ravaged Heat. In 2015, Whiteside has averaged 13.3 points, 11.1 rebounds and 2.8 blocks while converting 62.7 percent of his field-goal attempts in 26.1 minutes per game. Along the way, Whiteside has racked up 19 double-doubles, four games of at least 20 rebounds and a triple-double with blocks against the Chicago Bulls.
Crazier still, Whiteside's performance has garnered the 25-year-old praise in comparison to Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell. But don't take my word for it; see what Bob Cousy, who won six championships with Russell, had to say about it.
"I have never said this in the 40 years since I retired, but he is the first big guy, not (Patrick) Ewing, (Hakeem) Olajuwon, Shaq (O'Neal), who reminds me defensively and on the boards of Russell," Cousy told the (Worcester) Telegram & Gazette's Bill Doyle. "He runs the floor well, he has excellent timing, he blocks shots and keeps them in play the way Russell did."
And Whiteside's done it all while earning a salary ($769,881, per Basketball-Reference.com) that, when accounting for inflation, is probably comparable to what Russell took home from the C's during the 1960s.
1. Jimmy Butler, SG, Chicago Bulls
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Yours truly recently covered Jimmy Butler's Most Improved Player candidacy. Suffice it to say, Butler hasn't done anything since then to harm his case. He's led the Chicago Bulls in scoring twice in their four April outings thus far.
That only begins to describe the extent to which Butler has shifted from the fringes of the Bulls' universe to the very center of it.
In his second NBA season, the Marquette product flashed some intriguing potential as a reliable three-and-D wing in the Windy City. While Derrick Rose spent the 2012-13 season recovering from an ACL tear, Butler went about his business by knocking down 38.1 percent of his threes on one end and pestering ball-handlers and perimeter scorers on the other.
The following year, Butler once again found himself in position to help fill the void of another Rose knee injury. Butler got the starting nod from day one, but the added responsibility of picking up for Rose's playmaking slack and adjusting to life without Luol Deng after a January trade took its toll on his performance. Butler's scoring soared to 13.1 points per game, but his shooting (39.7 percent from the field, 28.3 percent from three) suffered.
This time, Butler's put it all together—and then some. He's led the Bulls in scoring (20.1) from the jump while upping his contributions on the glass (5.8) and with the pass (3.2).
And, of course, he's still pestering opponents with the sort of ferocity and effectiveness that should earn him a second consecutive spot on one of the NBA's All-Defensive squads at season's end.
All told, Butler's been the best 2-guard in the East, with an All-Star nod to show for it.
Josh Martin covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter.
