Most Improved Player
First, I have a question. Did anyone on this team improve this year?
Did Portis take any steps forward in his development? He had a really nice game against Boston in the playoffs, but that was about the same number of truly good games he had during the regular season and he had the defensive failures that I mentioned on the previous page. He’s a long way from being an important rotational piece in the NBA.
Grant had two good basketball games all season. Even when Rondo did his best to get banished into the ether, Carter-Williams had more layups off the underside of the rim than I’ve ever before seen in my entire life, and Sip was banished to the bench, Grant couldn’t grab the point guard job. He hardly played for the New York Knicks in his rookie year, so maybe there was some improvement over that, but yeesh.
I’m not buying in on any of these guys and I don’t think Butler’s improvement was an MIP affair. He was already the best player on the team, it just became more obvious this year as he get incrementally better in every major category.
The result: Most Improved Player goes to no one. Do better, everyone.