Of all the awards handed out at the end of the season, Most Improved Player has to be my favorite. But at the same time, it’s also the most subjective. For example, should it go to a guy like Dorell Wright who went from 7.1 to 16.4 points per game – the highest increase in the NBA – including a league-leading 194 threes this season? Or a guy like Kris Humphries, who finished the season averaging a double-double, one of only eight players to do so. Regardless of how you look at it, there are always going to be about 10 guys in this conversation that have either gone from unknown to know, role player to starter, or star to superstar. This year, it appears Kevin Love‘s miraculous season will earn him some hardware.
According to Jerry Zgoda of the Star Tribune, Love will be named the NBA’s Most Improved Player later today – a well-deserved honor. This season, the first-time All-Star averaged an impressive 20.2 points and 15.2 rebounds per game – up from 14.0 and 11.0 a year ago – and led the NBA in rebounding. He posted career highs in scoring, rebounding, assists (2.5), free throw shooting (85 percent), three-point shooting (41.7 percent) and minutes (35.8). Oh yeah, and he had that ridiculous 53-game double-double streak, the league’s longest since the ABA/NBA merger in 1976.
While Love joins Jermaine O’Neal (2002) and Danny Granger (2009) as the only players to be named an All-Star in the same season they win the award in the past decade, there’s another startling stat that he might not be so pleased to hear. Since its inception, the award has been given to 25 different players, and none of them have ever gone on to win an NBA Championship.
What do you think? Should love have won the Most Improved Player award?
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