Who is the Most Improved Player in the NBA?

[basketball20001]

"The Most Improved Player Award is given to an athlete each and every season. These select players over the years are guys that take a leap from mediocrity and uplift their game to the next level.

Throughout the years stars such as Tracy McGrady (’00-’01), Jermaine O’Neal (’01-’02) and Gilbert Arenas (’02-’03) have received this very prestigious award and ultimately continued to sky-rocket their game to new heights.

Other athletes such as Bobby Simmons (’04-’05) and Boris Diaw (’05-’06) obtained the award for campaigning in a career-high season but inevitably digressed from there on out.

NBA Primetime breaks down the top three contenders in the race for the Most Improved Player Award and debates whether or not the player will continue to exceed expectations or if they will slowly move back behind the shadows.


Marc Gasol (C, MEM)

After being dealt to the Grizzlies in a trade swap with his big brother Pau, Marc has unexpectedly made quite a name for himself in Memphis.

The Spaniard ranks third in the league in FG% shooting an outstanding 61.3 percent from the field (compared to 53 percent last season), and is one of only three players in the NBA to shoot at least 60 percent from the field while grabbing down at least 9 RPG and a minimum of 1 BPG (Dwight Howard and Erick Dampier are the other two).

On the season Gasol has 10 double-doubles in 26 games and is a sure candidate for the Most Improved Player Award.

Will he continue to improve or will he digress?

Standing 7′1″ and being only 24-years of age, Gasol has tremendous potential to become one of the biggest forces in the paint throughout the next few years. Without a doubt we believe he will continue to improve.


Carl Landry (PF, HOU)

In just 25.9 MPG, Houston’s forward Carl Landry is posting 16 PPG, 5.9 RPG, and just under 1.0 BPG on 57 percent shooting from the field.

Landry ranks amongst the most elite players in the NBA in PER (Player Efficiency Rating), ranking 14th in the league at 23.43 PER. (For an explanation of PER click here!)

For a guy that has never started a game in his career Landry seems well on his way to becoming a strong force in the league, highly due to his dominating 6′9″, 250 lb physique.

With improvements in every statistical category, Landry is another top tier guaranteed contestant in the award this season.

Will he continue to improve or will he digress?

With more playing time Landry could certainly evolve into one of the biggest forward scoring threats in the league. Being in the league for only 2 seasons, the forward still has a ton of more room to improve into an even better athlete.


Trevor Ariza (SF, HOU)

After playing for three different teams throughout four years it seems as if Ariza has finally found his home.

The young gun is posting career-highs in virtually every category on the season, dropping 16.9 PPG, 5.5 RPG, 3.4 APG, and 2.0 SPG in 38.8 MPG.

Ariza received the golden opportunity to start for the Rockets this season and has played at a much higher level than many anticipated, placing him at the top of the list for Most Improved Player this season.

Will he continue to improve or will he digress?

At the age of 24 Ariza, just like the others, has massive potential to grow into an All-Star throughout the next few seasons. With extreme athleticism and a knock-down three-point jumper, the sky is the limit for Mr. Ariza."

http://nbaprimetime.com/2009/12/19/nba- ... es-to.html

[TMACFORMVP]

Ariza has been a disappointment, not an improvement.

- 18th in the NBA in shot attempts per game. Among the top 50 shot attempt players in the NBA, Ariza shoots the 2nd worst percentage, and the worst percentage among players that have played at least 20 games.

- 2nd in the NBA three pointers attempted and 5th in three point attempts per game. Of the top 19-20 three point attempts leaders, only Rasheed Wallace, and Ariza shoot under 33% from behind the arc.

Another example to prove how much he's chucking, of the top 15 players in minutes per game, everyone ahead of Ariza (13 more), all are averaging at least 6 FT attempts per game (Ariza is averaging 39 minutes per game), while Ariza is getting to the line a whopping 3.1 times per game, and not even shooting well from there, at 68%.

His defense has not been as good as it was with the Lakers, which was expected, but considering his offensive impact has almost been a liability, I'd have expected at least the same sort of defensive intensity. I know people won't agree with this notion, since it's more opiniated, but defensively, I've seen him get beat by Roy continuously, and there's no denying that the first half against Utah on the road, he gave up 4-5 dunks on backdoor cuts because he simply didn't put in the effort, whether it was him thinking about chucking on offense, or he didn't really care.

His handles are terrible, he may be averaging a career high in assists, but that comes with the price of over nearly 2.6 turnovers per game. His shot selection has been terrible, and I have to say again that his handles are TERRIBLE, that alone will guarantee he doesn't have "all-star," potential.

He's athletic, and can get into the passing lanes, so that's nice. But IMO, he's getting way overrated for putting up the points per game he's putting up, when he's also averaging double the amount of shot attempts than he did last season, shooting horrid percentages, declined defensively, and becoming a higher usage player.

Seems harsh, and he still has talent, in which we hope he can develop, at least into a more efficient player, but so far, there's not much a case for him to be the most improved player IMO.

[YaoZaii]

what ariza needs to do is
1. take defensive lessons from Battier
2. take J shooting lessons from Landry
3. take shot-selection lessons from Scola
4. take handling lessons from Lowry
5. take 3-pt shooting lessons from Brooks

hell, he should just take lessons from basketball 101 level.

[Virus4762]

Why did that article say Landry has an efficiency rating of 23.43? It's only 17.31...and Ariza's gotten a HUGE increase in minutes since last year. I wouldn't say he's most improved.

[Virus4762]

He's proving me wrong tonight though.

[Teckon]

Why did that article say Landry has an efficiency rating of 23.43? It's only 17.31...and Ariza's gotten a HUGE increase in minutes since last year. I wouldn't say he's most improved.

23.43 is Landry's PER rating and it is different formula from the efficiency rating of 17.31. Average player in NBA has a PER of 15.00

[NJ To BK]

Chris Douglas Roberts....Second Round Draft Pick

[TMU]

Chris Douglas Roberts....Second Round Draft Pick

Carl Landry....Second Round Draft Pick

[TMACFORMVP]

Well, Ariza must be getting a kick out of my post.

[Baller 24]

I agree with everything that TMACFORMVP has stated...and I thought Ron Artest last season was bad...I'd EASILY rather gives all of those shot attempts and handles to Tmac, at least he can create and even probably score at a slightly more effective rate (remember before injuries hit him in '08 he was shooting 46% in Adelman's freelance system).

Carl Landry takes this, pretty easily.

[NJ To BK]

Carl Landry....Second Round Draft Pic

16 points a game though...from not getting any playing time last year....yeah you can say he is on a bad team...but he still has to work around getting the ball from clee devin harris and lopez...all scorers

[TMACFORMVP]

I don't think he was trying to diminish what CDR has done, but coming into the Rockets board and mentioning him being selected in the 2nd round kind of comes off as a sort of "CDR was a second round pick, so he should win the award," when all he was trying to point out was Landry himself was a 2nd round pick too.

Whom is also averaging 16 (was averaging 17 before he got injured - 16.6) but off the bench, on a team that's currently 5th in the Western Conference. I definitely agree though, CDR should be in the contention considering he was a non factor last season.