Ken discusses NBA Most Improved Play and what to look for af the NBA Off Season rolls on
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00:00Good. Let's say John Morant didn't have any gun charges.
00:03Could he win it?
00:03Like, is it is it something as silly about that?
00:06But like, I know.
00:07But you're talking about like injuries.
00:09You can win it from coming off of an injury, too, right?
00:11That's something that you can kind of look at and say, oh, yeah,
00:14he's better this year was hurt last year.
00:16So the this this award doesn't quite work like that.
00:20Whereas NFL Comeback Player of the Year, that was what I was saying.
00:23You're absolutely right.
00:24NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
00:25It's it's the hurt guy that was a really good player,
00:30like Tom Brady, one comeback player of the year.
00:32I think like Drew Brees, one comeback player, like just like big player
00:36gets hurt, comes back, plays awesome.
00:38That's the kind of player that wins NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
00:40That's that's like who the NFL wants to win.
00:42Comeback player there.
00:43Unless someone's coming back from like a really like a sensitive bout
00:46with an illness or like a disease or something, Alex Smith with his leg,
00:49which they made documentaries about and his return to the field,
00:52like unless it's one of those kind of heartwarming stories
00:55that the NFL would love for it to be a superstar player that that,
00:57you know, had a significant injury, comes back and plays really well.
01:00So you're if for that award, you're absolutely right that that's what it is.
01:03The way I would describe this award for people who have never handicapped it
01:06before, it's pretty straightforward what you're looking for.
01:09Even if it's tough to find, you know what you're looking for,
01:12which is you're essentially trying to find a player
01:14who has never made an all star team before,
01:17who could conceivably make the all star team this year,
01:21like doesn't have to make it.
01:22It's not like you have to make it.
01:24It would be good to make it.
01:25It helps. Maxi made it.
01:26Larry Markin had made it.
01:27He won the year before.
01:28Like you ideally would want to make the all star team.
01:31But you you have to have not made it before, because the idea is
01:34if you have already made the all star team, you can no longer improve.
01:38Like that's the top. Yeah.
01:40Like you're the all star. Got you.
01:41You could. So even though you could improve to be like MVP,
01:44you would just win MVP.
01:46You wouldn't win most improved player.
01:47There's there's not enough ceiling there to kind of you're you're already
01:50the ceiling is the roof, whatever the Jordan quote, you're already there.
01:53And and so what you're looking for is basically like a good player.
01:57Like some past winners of the award for people that haven't followed this
02:00recently. So Maxi won.
02:02Yep. So Maxi won this past year
02:05and kind of a unique circumstance, like a B star who had to be an A star
02:08because the A star got hurt for so often.
02:10So that kind of his opportunity opened up really, I think, as a result of that.
02:14Larry Markin and won the year before.
02:16That's the perfect example of like a guy who was never an all star,
02:18never even an A guy goes to a tanky situation, becomes an A guy.
02:23That's I mean, that's perfect. Makes the all star.
02:24I mean, that's a carbon copy.
02:25That's exactly what you're looking for in terms of this award.
02:29Ja won the year before.
02:31And the interesting thing about his win was that he is kind of like the best player
02:35who's ever won this in terms of what he was going into the year where he won.
02:39Like he was already awesome.
02:41And then he just got awesomer.
02:43And it actually led LeBron, among other people, to complain
02:46that Josh should be like, like this is beneath him.
02:49Like he shouldn't even get the like he was already too good.
02:52And, you know, like that was two years ago.
02:54We haven't really seen it factor into the voting.
02:56Just interesting that like he reflects that he almost averaged
02:5820 points a game already in a season was clearly a great player already.
03:03Julius Randle won the year before that, when he got when he went to the Knicks
03:06and kind of ended up being their A guy that year.
03:08Brandon Ingram won the year before that.
03:10Giannis has won.
03:11Jimmy Butler has won this before.
03:13Paul George has won this before.
03:15Kevin Love has won this award before.
03:17So like so big time players, to be honest, like this isn't
03:21this is one of the things that made Kobe White such a frustrating handicap last year.
03:24Is it kind of made sense?
03:27But it kind of didn't because it wasn't this.
03:29It wasn't this list.
03:30Maxi makes a lot more sense on a list like this.
03:32But Maxi, it felt like for three years he was winning most improved player.
03:36Like it was just a little weird.
03:38And that's one of the things that made last year a little tougher to figure out.
03:41Honestly, I think a lot of people were torn between those two players
03:44in trying to make a good decision.
03:45It doesn't always have to be a great player.
03:46Ryan Anderson won this award.
03:48Aaron Brooks won this award.
03:50Siakam won this award.
03:51Siakam's a good player, but you get the idea.
03:53Like it doesn't have to be Giannis.
03:54It could be somebody who's at least like a B-level star.
03:57But I would be thinking in terms of so player who hasn't
04:01cannot have made an All-Star team.
04:03If you made an All-Star team already, you're out.
04:05And if you have not made it, is it reasonable
04:08that you could at least be in a conversation this year?
04:11Hey, should that player make the All-Star team?
04:14Maybe you don't have to make it, but like, could you make the All-Star team?
04:17Siakam didn't make the All-Star team the year that he won.
04:19You don't have to make it.
04:20McCollum didn't make it when he won.
04:22Goran Dragic didn't make it when he won.
04:23But you're at least in the in the discussion to make it.
04:26So it's kind of it's I think that's the kind of the that's the layout here
04:29for how I'd be thinking about.