NBA Most Improved Player Predictions

The NBA’s Most Improved Player award has been known to go to players who shock the league by completely changing the trajectory of their careers, or (when there’s not such a case) to a young player who takes that next step to stardom.

Here are some *very* early candidates for this season’s Most Improved Player award.

Jordan Poole

For Poole, school’s in session and there are no more teachers. He has carte blanche to unload 20 FGA and 10 or more threes per game. A 28-foot elbow three-pointer with 15 seconds left on the shot clock will no longer be met with a mouthguard throw by Steph Curry or long locker-room lectures by Draymond Green.

Poole has the potential to average up to 27-29 points per game (PPG) this season just on sheer volume.

Poole has averaged 23.3 PPG in 23.1 MPG this preseason, highlighted by a 41-point (6-12 from three-point range) performance, tying the Wizards record for most points in a preseason game set by another Jordan (yes that one).

Poole has plenty to prove after the Warriors lost patience with him just one year after signing the 24-year-old guard to a four-year, $140 million contract extension. But four of the last six winners of the award have made the playoffs, and the Wizards will likely finish the year toward the bottom of the league. Unless Poole improves on defense (despite having zero pressure to do so) there may be more efficient, winning candidates.

Tyrese Maxey

Tyrese Maxey, much like Poole, has spent his career on a winning team being forced to find his niche in the shadow of NBA superstars. But with a storm of uncertainty surrounding James Harden’s availability this upcoming season, Maxey is potentially in line for more opportunity.

Nick Nurse has talked this offseason about having a “Plan A” and “Plan B,” for this season. One includes James Harden returning and resuming his role as the primary ball handler.

In the other, Harden is elsewhere (whether traded or sitting out), and Maxey is inaugurated as the team’s primary playmaker.

“He worked really hard doing a lot of things out of pick and roll reads this summer… getting it to the roller or getting it out to the weak side,” Nurse said on the PHLY Podcast on Oct. 3.

The 22-year-old Maxey may be dropped into Harden’s role this season and be forced to become a more deliberate and peripheral passer in transition and the pick-and-roll with Joel Embiid.

The potential for more shots and an uptick in assists makes Maxey an obvious candidate, especially if he can maintain last year’s impressive efficiency (48/43/85). However many around the league would expect this jump for the fourth-year player who’s improved his marks in every season so far, which may taint his chances if a more unsuspecting candidate were to break out.

Patrick Williams

The former fourth-overall pick in the 2020 NBA draft has not exactly wowed in his first three years in the NBA. But after playing just 17 games in his second season due to torn ligaments in his left wrist, Williams played all 82 games last year and became a willing three-point shooter.

Last year, he doubled his three-point attempts from the 21-22 season and kept impressive efficiency (41.5%). With his lengthy athletic frame and a defense-crazed Billy Donovan as his coach, leaping to an All-NBA level of defense is not out of reach.

While a more unlikely candidate (+5500 on DraftKings), the 22-year-old Williams upping his shooting volume and earning defensive honors could make him this season's breakout player.

Honorable Mentions:

Naz Reid

Jonathon Kuminga

Tyus Jones

Brian Eife is a second-year majoring in digital/print journalism, to contact him please email bae5288@psu.edu