The end of the 2024-25 NBA season is less than two weeks away, which means conversations around end-of-season awards will be ramping up. While we’ll have the regular debates over MVP, DPOY, or even Coach of the Year, some awards are harder to argue over because people don’t know what the league wants from the winner.
The Most Improved Player of the Year award is exactly one of those awards, with candidates being very unclear due to the subjectivity of the award. Los Angeles Lakers head coach JJ Redick said he ‘hates’ the award and how the NBA has been handing it out in recent years.
“I hate that award. They fail to define it. I think the spirit of it has been taken out of wack. I don’t like that award. Just call it the ‘high draft pick who’s one a max contract now and is an All-Star.’ Just call it that award because that’s what it is now.”
“Am I wrong? That’s what it’s become. In the last five years, that’s what it’s become. I don’t think that’s in the spirit of the award.”
Redick was asked about Austin Reaves‘ case for winning the award, to which he had a very frank response.
“He’s not gonna win it, but I’ve sang his praises all year.”
Hard to disagree with JJ Redick here on the NBA Most Improved Player award: pic.twitter.com/xUJVMTdzil
— Daniel Starkand (@DStarkand) April 2, 2025
The 2024-25 Most Improved Player of the Year is expected to go to Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons. The former No. 1 overall pick saw his scoring average jump to 25.7 points from 22.7 points last season, as the Pistons went from the worst team in the NBA to a top-six East team returning to the Playoffs after six years.
Cade is phenomenal and has taken a massive leap this season. However, he’s a former No. 1 overall pick from 2021, so many would argue he’s just doing what his potential always showed he was capable of doing. This leap was expected to come sooner rather than later, finally happening in Cade’s fourth NBA season.
Instead of rewarding the former No. 1 overall pick going through a normal superstar developmental cycle, it would’ve been nice to see someone like Dyson Daniels or even Norman Powell be recognized with the award for the noticeable jumps in production they’ve taken this season.
Powell, in particular, increased his scoring average from 13.9 points last season to 22.6 points this season, leading the Clippers in scoring ahead of Hall of Famers James Harden and Kawhi Leonard. In my eyes, he’s the true Most Improved Player for taking an unexpected leap in his 30s and being a genuine All-Star candidate.
The award has been given to big-name players in recent years. You could argue it started with Brandon Ingram winning the award in 2020 as the No. 2 overall just a few seasons ago. It got egregiously bad when another No. 2 pick, Ja Morant, won in 2021 while coming off his 2020 Rookie of the Year win.
Lauri Markkanen was a deserving winner after re-emerging as a star after a few years as a role-player, becoming an All-Star for the Utah Jazz. Tyrese Maxey won it last year for taking a huge production leap, but it was facilitated by injuries on the Philadelphia 76ers, leading to other candidates like Coby White on the Chicago Bulls getting ignored.
The NBA might need to establish some rules for this award to make it fairer. It could involve disqualifying lottery picks for the first five years of their career to be eligible for the award, but it seems hard to execute.
