Which NBA player had the biggest single season improvement
Often MIP goes to a role player who takes a jump, but this could be an all star, all nba type player as well. Just the largest single season jump between years.
Dale Ellis went from 7.1 points to 24.9 points per game and CJ McCollum went from like 6.8 to 20.6
Tracy McGrady went from 15 ppg to 27 going from Toronto to Orlando.
McGrady definitely got better but he was clearly a star player and his usage changed going from 24% to 31% following the switch as he became the main guy. He was always going to take a leap but moving away from Carter facilitated that big jump.
the same way harden went from 16 to 26 ppg after leaving okc
i got to watch OKC play the Nuggets like 10 rows back in 2011 with the KD / Brodie / Harden trifecta playing. Watching the Proto-Beard play off the bench I was like, who the fuck is this guy and why isn’t he starting?
EDIT: sry you’re jealous i got to see the three play so close i could smell ball sweat captain downvote
Maybe I was too young to get all the discourse around the time but I thought Tracy was viewed as somewhat of a disappointment during his Toronto years? No doubt everybody could see he had talent but there were always question marks about his consistency and his work habits.
He missed a bunch of games his first 2 seasons and didn’t improve much from rookie year to sophomore year. He got better in year 3 on the Raptors and Vince was clearly the guy despite being in the league 1 less year than McGrady and already average 26 in his 2nd year.
McCollum was the favorite for the award before the season even started because we knew he would get more minutes as a starter. I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the award.
He averaged five points per game his rookie year and six points per game his second year though. Also there were a lot of guys people just thought would bust out and didn’t when their team gave them more opportunities. I remember when the Mavs made Rodrique Beaubrois untouchable in trades for what seemed like forever
You’re right, it’s not automatic to handle more responsibilities.
*Rodrigue Beaubois
No it doesn’t
Dale Ellis talked about this. It’s because he just rode the bench in Dallas since they were a deep playoff team. Detlef Scrhempf had the same thing happen once he left Dallas. He was always a good player which is why he was a top 10 pick but they had no chance to play him.
Probably something similar to Tony Campbell with the expansion wolves
deep cut, the Sunday morning Blumpy
as it turns out, NBA players are really, really good
Nickeil Alexander-Walker
Devonte Graham went from 4.7 to 18.2 once Kemba left the Hornets.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s increase of +11.4 PPG is the third-highest scoring jump from one season to the next in the last 25 years.
24-25: 9.4 PPG
25-26: 20.8 PPG
This is my pick as well!
His bag is way deeper than I expected, the hawks have finally climbed out of mediocrity purgatory
Tracy McGrady’s average jumped exactly 11.4 ppg from his last season in Toronto to his first season in Orlando (15.4>26.8)
Rollins went up 11.1 too
An interesting one for me, Aaron Gordon. He went from having a 29.0 3PT% and 65.8 FT% season to 43.6 3pt% and 81 FT%. This was from between the 23-24 and 24-25 seasons.
Every NBA player should consider gettin a warehouse and turning it into their personal basketball hideout to achieve such gains
Or moving in with AG for an offseason one yeah.
Everyone should just move in with AG. Mal already shoots 43%, he will become the greatest basketball player of all time if he stays and shoots around with AG over the summer lmao
Just add 10% to his 3 point % and crack 50% lol, no big!
I went to a pacers game early vs nuggets and he was out there the longest of any player working on his shot. Hard work and dedication definitely pays off.
Jordan Poole went from being a G-League level player to being a key contributor on a championship team
then he went back to being a G-league level player again
He was the backpack all along
Draymond CTE punch will do that to you
Going to the wizards and pelicans will do that to a mfer
why did the wizards and pelicans make him inefficient and low feel?
It wasn’t a single season, Poole improved for 3 years in a row, that was year 3, went from 8ppg to 12ppg to 18ppg
The most interesting answer to this question, in my opinion, is Steph Curry from 2014-2015 to 2015-2016. I realize he was an MVP already, but dude had a crazy PER jump between those years going from 24.1 to 31.5 and won the first unanimous MVP in NBA history.
Giannis and Butler are the other two that come to mind, but I think it’s honestly more impressive to go from MVP to maybe best season ever than it is to go from top 30 current player to top 10 or 5 current player.
Curry improved greatly because the Warriors replaced Mark Jackson with Steve Kerr, the offense Kerr implemented fitted Curry’s game. Mark Jackson was wasting Curry’s potential
I mean maybe. Kerr started coaching in 2014 and the jump I am looking at is actually the year after, in 2015-2016, so crediting the coach with that massive of a change is a bit odd. I agree Kerr and Steph greatly complement each other but to say that Steph improved that much because of a coaching change is a bit suspect. Kerr definitely had a good amount to do with it but I think 2015-2016 Steph would still be Steph even under a shit coach while on the Kings. He was the best player on the planet for that year, except at the very end, and it was truly breathtaking to watch.
Would he? The reason he was so crazy is because he had Draymond taking the brunt of playmaking and a system that featured the 2nd best shooter of the generation. The Warriors had a crazy system in place that a shit coach with a shit roster on the Kings simply couldn’t replicate. Steph would be great in any scenario but he was having the goat offensive season because he was in a system that benefited him as well.
I mean no doubt Steph was in a great fit for him and I am not arguing that he was in a bad situation by any means, but I literally think Steph could play with any player ever and elevate their game. I think him and LeBron are truly the two guys that you can fit on any team ever and immediately they would make it substantially better. It’s hard to imagine that Steph’s shooting and gravity in 2015-2016 wouldn’t have been all-time great even on the Kings.
He obviously doesn’t win as many games and he certainly doesn’t win a unanimous MVP but I would bet he still makes 350ish 3s on 42%+ shooting from 3 and 30ppg that year even on a bad team.
Curry shoots under 38% from 3 without Draymond over the last 11 years.
4% worse when your best playmaker is off the floor makes sense. But we are talking about Steph’s greatest season ever. Going from 45.6 to 42 is a 3.6% drop off compared to Steph’s career with and without Draymond going from 42 to 38. I don’t think anything I said is inconsistent with this.
We out here catching strays smh.
Actually, from what I recall, Walton was notoriously more loose than Steve Kerr. Steph was already shooting 8 3s, but he went and shoot 11 that season. He also let Draymond basically run free.
It’s Walton that coached for like the first half of the season.
Obviously Walton was the dude that was on the sideline for the first however many games of the season, I remember he had the historic like 20 something win streak to start the year, but I would imagine they were still running Steve Kerr’s offensive gameplan. He was only on the floor because Kerr’s back was hurt and he couldn’t be there. But I doubt Kerr just said hey man implement your own system.
Of course ! :)
Yeah but back at that time. Everybody was expecting Kerr to run the triangle once he arrived. Which would’ve have been a minor upgrade compared to mark jacksons elevator play and inside out offense.
But the shocker was that once Kerr arrived. He implemented the spurs motion option offense and decided to extend that to the three point line. Basically utilizing Steph and Klays three point accuracy. What brought it over the top was literally Steph curry becoming Steph curry.
You could also say Draymond green becoming a point forward/center which allowed them to be able to run as well. Something that might not have happened if David Lee didn’t get injured to start the season.
Look I get Kerr greatly helped curry but I just still think curry becomes curry even without Steve Kerr. He doesn’t reach the same peak but I still think he wins an mvp and a ring. He, and that team, was just too good.
Agreed on the Draymond point too but I still think curry reaches like 90% of his potential even without Kerr.
There was a post i read before something like Jackson has a Ferrari but drives it like a Kia
I’m so glad that you did mention Curry. Imho going from fringe MVP to top 5 season of all time… That was quite the improvement. Well, basically I could’ve said word for word what you just said. I just completely agree !
On another note, I think of the weakest MIPs is McCollum. He just went from somewhat insignificant to unidimensional scoring starter. And ironically, it was the very same year.
I always maintained until recently that Steph should’ve gotten the MIP that year. But 10 years removed and looking back, the stat jump was 100% just Luke Walton telling Steph to “shoot it whenever you feel open bro, I don’t care”. He could’ve averaged just as crazy stats that first MVP season if his light was greener.
Steve is very hard headed when it came to the “we are a team” aspect of coaching which basically culminated into KD leaving. Only time Steph had a similar green light was when he got the scoring title and the Warriors roster was some absolute garbage coming out of the pandemic.
This is the correct answer. I prefer this to a player who went from “bum” to “pretty good”
He started shooting more and kept his efficiency (even improved it) but he wasn’t really doing much he wasn’t doing before.
How exactly is going from a 24.1 PER to a 31.5 PER not doing really much more than you were doing before? What are you saying?
Is improving your scoring by 6ppg, raising your efficiency, leading the league in steals, and leading an NBA team to the greatest regular season record ever not doing more than you did the last season?
Doing more and not doing much of what he wasn’t doing are two different things big man. That’s not what MIP is for. His 2015 playoff run was already top 2 in the league with improved PER, PPG etc.
Did you even read? The question was what’s the biggest improvement in nba history and I answered with my take. It wasn’t who should have won most improved player in the league when they didn’t. MIP always goes to a bench guy becoming a starter not to a good player becoming all-time. This clearly wasn’t what the thread is asking about.
Plus his 2015 playoff run was not top 2 in the league with improved per or ppg lmao. He averaged 24 ppg in 2014-2015 and 24 in 2015-2016.
I hate when dudes just be typing. Doing more is also definitionally different than not doing what you were already doing. The thing he wasn’t doing was more lmfao. What are you even saying?
Curry in 2015-2016 was the first player in NBA history to make more than 300 threes in a season. He did that by making 402. You can reread that again. Maybe breaking a record by over 33% is doing more than you did last year, no?
You got it bro.
Get bodied.
Coming 4th in MIP after winning MVP in the previous season is pretty nuts
completely forgot that he was seriously coming up in conversations for the award fresh off an MVP lol. he was absolutely surreal that season
I think this was kind of the answer I was hoping for, a borderline star becoming a best itw type player. most of these discussions are about bench players not players who were already pretty good
i actually feel horrible for the kids that never got to watch prime curry, it was the most insane thing we’ve ever seen. bro was automatic and he’s an incredible human being
PG went from podcasting to playing again
Hardest road fr
A podcaster who became a drug addict then after a few months became sober and doing 20ppg is an amazing story! And all of that happened just this year.
He should win a Kia award
Stockton went from backup point guard to all-nba second team in 1988. He didn’t win MIP.
Who did?
Duckworth. Went from 6 to 16 PPG. From bench to starter as well. Nowhere close to All NBA of course.
I remember Jaylen Brown really taking off from year one to year two, but that might just be selective memory. He seemed to go from “this guy is sorta promising” to “holy sh*t” overnight, but I’m sure there are a lot of other more dramatic cases.
KG kinda did the same thing. And then the jump he took from all-star to top 3 player was pretty dramatic too.
Well said. And somewhere along the line he managed to step directly on my beloved Grizzlies’ necks while doing so.
I had just gotten back into basketball after a long absence and was really amped about this scrappy Memphis team (I had just moved there) but every time we played the Thunder I saw KD and was like “well this can’t be allowed, humans shouldn’t be able to do that though…” in his prime, he was absolutely undeniable. It wasn’t right.
He said KG
Yeah man, that’s Kevin Gurant for you.
Yeah I’m a dummy, I got the initials crossed up but hey, my stupid mistake makes me wonder what KD and KG would be like on a team together…
Hey, it’s all jokes and fun. KD and KG would have made me stop watching the league for a while.
The poor announcers, it would have been like narrating the f*cking Hindenburg crash. Every single possession would have just been “OH, THE HUMANITY” over and over again.
I’m kind of inspired now, based off my silly misreading of initials, here’s the starting 5 all Kevin lineup:
PG: Kevin Johnson. KJ. Mr. Mayor. No question. SG: ok this is the only tough one, but I’m going with Kevin Martin. I think he was low key good back in the day. Pickings are kind of slim, but it’s about to take off, bear with me. SF: KD. Duh. PF: KG. Double duh. C: here we go… Kevin Duckworth. I was a HUGE Blazers fan back in the day, and I loved the duck. He was the man. MIP, 2x all star… let’s give this man his flowers.
And that is my all time all Kevin team that absolutely no one asked for.
Would definitely take the Michael team into deep waters if not straight up beat them
I think the Mikes have much more individual talent at certain positions (obviously, I mean 23 is there) but amazingly enough, I think the Kevins actually have more team cohesion and depth, especially with Love and Willis (who I unintentionally forgot but definitely deserve respect) coming off the bench? That’s a hell of a rotation.
I mean, who’s holding down center for the Mikes… f*cking Olowokandi? I’ll take my chances with KD/KG obliterating the midcourt/boards/basically everything any day of the week, thank you. The Mikes can small ball us to death as much as they want. This is the land of giants.
Basic reading comprehension apparently eluded me, my bad. I stand by what I said but I totally whiffed on that one. Good lord.
The difference was getting The Jays nickname in season 2
I think I read somewhere that Derrick Rose is the only mvp to not get an mvp vote the season prior
Not to welll achsualllly you, but since 2 rookies have won MVP before that can’t be true.
How could you vote them for MVP before they are rookies? Your point doesn’t actually make much sense.
It’s not true that Derrick Rose is the only player in the NBA history to not receive an MVP vote prior to winning his MVP because two rookies have won the NBA MVP. Them being rookies makes it impossible for them to have received prior MVP votes, but that makes them qualify for the condition OP stated. Just because you don’t understand it doesn’t mean it doesn’t make sense.
It’s clear OP meant players who would qualify to receive a vote in the previous season. That clearly does not include rookies.
This post is regarding players who improve from one season to the next. You’re making a nonsensical point.
“I think I read somewhere that Derrick Rose is the only mvp to not get an mvp vote the season prior”
This statement is false because 2 rookies have won an MVP. I really don’t know how else I could explain this to you.
You are the one reading this into the statement:
“It’s clear OP meant players who would qualify to receive a vote in the previous season.”
It’s crazy you’re just this wrong and are willing to die on this hill.
A rookie mvp absolutely qualifies as a person who did not receive mvp votes before. If you want to get really technical, then the person who won the first nba mvp award also qualifies, but that’s against the spirit of the question.
This is inevitably going to change now with the 65-game rule.
There are some interesting circumstances with that MVP aside from his improvement. It’s the Bulls that massively improved under Thibs and it was arguably a classic best player/best team MVP award. Arguably both Lebron and Dwight had better individual seasons.
Hell also probably be the only mvp to not make the hall of fame
Maybe not quite the literal answer, but the ‘spirit’ of improvement should be Daniss Jenkins. A G-League player who barely got any garbage time last season had a “Jenkinsanity” run and has proven to be a key rotation player for the top seeded team in the East. That’s such a great narrative. I wish Most Improved went to those sorts of players, more than ‘guy who became an all-star’ award.
eObviously he isn’t considered but Carter Bryant made incredible progress throughout the year.
It started with that december game where he missed two easy dunks in the same game could barely get 2 points a game, spent a few games in the G-League and now putting up some crazy stats and revealing himself as a potential elite shooter. (Made 9 of his last 11 3pts!!!)
I could see him going for MIP next year.
Edit: My bad I thought it was a discussion about this year’s award
Well maybe he does become the MIP of all time next year
Would Ryan Rollins count? A g league Guy who was shoplifting to having a chance at the majors once Dame went down.
Lauri Markannen probably the best example of a guy that wasn’t a rookie/sophomore suddenly improving
Tracy McGrady had a nearly 12 ppg jump from year 3 to 4. Dale Ellis had an 18 ppg jump from year 3 to 4.
Bam from last year to bam this year with the record
Steve Nash went from not being selected as an All-Star or any All-NBA team in 2003-04, to league MVP in 2004-05. (Although not a huge leap in individual statistics from season to season)
Keynote!
Moooose
Ben Simmons is having a great 2026.
Austin Reaves obviously
22 Shai was a limited player in many ways and without changing roles at all he jumped 7ppg to 31ppg all from efficiency in 23
Lauri maybe
Kevin Willis was kind of an average guy for 6 or 7 seasons and then he turned into a monster, suddenly scoring close to 20 pts a game and averaging 15.5 rebounds/game.
Nash, SGA and Lauri comes to mind
2020-21 Ja Morant
19.1⁄4.0/7.4 in 32.6 mpg 5.9 FTA per game .537 TS% 27.2 USG% 16.7 PER .074 WS/48
2021-2022 Ja Morant
27.4⁄5.7⁄6.7 in 33.1 mpg 7.3 FTA per game .575 TS% 33.7 USG% 24.4 PER .171 WS/48
Ja went from just good to superstar and among the best players in the league, in the space of a year, nd won MIP in the process. He did the rare thing of making a massive leap without a big change in minutes or role or moving teams.
The prior MIP winner (another former #2 pick in Julius Randle) didn’t have anywhere the same jump as Ja, yet he was somehow perceived to have made an insane leap and was viewed as fully deserving of his award in comparison to Ja.
This is year 2 ja right? Year 2 players should almost never win MIP. Thats when everyone makes the biggest jump
Randle won bc he was mid career, “it’s never gonna happen” and suddenly figured it out
JJJ miami
Giannis could win MIP twice imo.
Gilbert Arenas went from 8.9 to 24.4 PPG when he left the Warriors for the Wizards. People knew he was talented but there was a stretch where he legit looked like truly elite. His game wasn’t that far off from where prime James Harden landed until the wheels fell off.
Unsurprisingly basically everybody is just naming players on their favorite teams