It was Granger last year.
Thank you. He had a solid case for MIP.
Also, there's no way the media would overlook his high scoring + annual scoring increases. Rondo never stood a chance.
I thought MIP was among the great injustices of last season's awards as I'm not sure anyone offered a viable contest to Durant in that realm. In addition to increasing his scoring average by five points per game (I know Granger's jump was almost six), the jump in Durant's efficiency was incredible (and it allowed him to pick up the scoring with nothing more than a nominal increase in his usage rate, whereas Granger's jumped significantly), going from less than 52 percent true shooting to nearly 58 TS%.
Durant also made a significant jump in rebound rate, while Granger declined noticeably there.
-sw
Steve, you make a good point.
However, I think the Most Improved Player Award is like the Most Valuable Player Award in that it is not meant literally - it has some implied provisions.
It could be argued that the MVP Award generally applies to the most impressive, most exciting, most clutch, most dominating player in the league (and not necessarily the player who is most important to his team's success). Kobe, for example, is perennially considered a MVP contender even though he perennially plays with a pretty outstanding cast. Dwyane Wade, by contrast, has to carry his team pretty much night in and night out, yet he receives at most a similar level of consideration. In the last couple of years, LeBron has rightly received recognition as the MVP because he is both the most dominant player in the league as well as absolutely integral to his team's success - Cleveland would be
utterly lost without him.
Similarly, the Most Improved Player Award seems to be reserved for a previously unheralded player who elevates himself to the next level - whether that means going from role player to starter or starter to All-Star.
By that token, I don't think Durant is ever really going to be a candidate for the award. He's too well known. Everybody knows Kevin Durant is one of the budding young superstars in the league. It's practically a matter of course that he is going to improve by leaps and bounds every year (quite literally in fact). The MIP Award, quite rightly in my opinion, seems to be used to highlight the efforts of a lesser known player to make a name for himself.
As such, the Boris Diaws, Monta Ellis's, Hedo Turkoglus, Danny Grangers, and Gerald Wallaces of the league deserve to get the award, even if they aren't in truth the players who literally improved the most. I'm willing to bet that not many of the average NBA fans could tell you who Danny Granger was before winning that award. Honestly, they probably still can't. But the average NBA fan almost certainly knows who Kevin Durant is. He is going to be a 1st tier star throughout his career no matter what he does. In all likelihood, he'll win the MVP someday anyway. Players who make themselves into second tier stars through hard work deserve to get some recognition, and that's what the MIP Award does.
Topic: Do you think Rondo is the favorite for MIP? (Read 7799 times)