The Super Official 2016-17 NBA Awards
Crowning an MVP, discrediting Kawhi Leonard, and a bunch of other fun awards in between
Most Improved Player
1. Isaiah Thomas 2. James Johnson
3. Bradley Beal
Shouts: Tyler Johnson, Seth Curry, Jimmy Butler
I have one key MIP rule: you’re ineligible if you’re still playing on your rookie deal. Young players either improve by leaps and bounds or they’re out of the league. Giannis Antetkounmpo got a lot better. So did Jokic, Gobert, Towns, Porter, Randle, Caldwell-Pope, and others. It’s far more impressive when a veteran makes the leap after years of toil, long after their athleticism peaked. And what Isaiah Thomas did this year was spectacular. Without any warning, he transformed himself into a carbon copy of last year’s unanimous MVP:
Thomas put up nearly identical shooting numbers and scored more points per game while obviously surrounded by fewer offensive threats. Players aren’t supposed to make a leap like this out of nowhere. This is a guy two franchises simply gave away, a former draft Mr. Irrelevant, and he just put up MVP numbers as the sole offensive threat on a 1-seed.
