RCP Roundtable: NBA Awards
By Jakob Ashlin
Most Improved Player
It may be controversial not to go with Pascal Siakam or D’Angelo Russell. However, I believe that Hield has made the biggest leap. He is averaging 20.8 points per game and is fourth in the NBA in three-pointers made trailing only James Harden, Stephen Curry, and Paul George. More importantly, Hield is a big reason why the Kings have won 12 more games this year.
What an outstanding season it was for Nets point guard D’Angelo Russell. The 23-year-old was the second overall pick of the Lakers back in 2015. After two not so great seasons in Los Angeles, Magic Johnson shipped him to Brooklyn. In his second year as a Net, Russell showed the world why he was taken only behind Karl Anthony Townes in the NBA Draft. Russell made it to his first carer All-Star game after averaging over 21 points per game with seven assists. His previous high was 15.6 in his last year with the Lakers. Talk about improvement and the conversation has to start with Russell.
This is another tight two-man race that could easily go to D’Angelo Russell as well. Russell improved his game enough to get the All-Star bid this season, but when looking at where both players were a season ago I think Siakam was the bigger surprise and improved more as a whole. Siakam had a 9.7 ppg increase from last season (17.0 ppg), a 2.4 rpg increase (6.9 rpg), and a 1.1 apg increase (3.1 apg); Russell had a 5.6 ppg increase from last season (21.1 ppg), no increase in rpg (3.9 rpg), and a 1.8 apg increase (7.0 apg).
This shows Siakam’s improvement is slightly more from last season to this season. I also think it is harder to show improvements on a better team where you are at best a 3rd option. While the Nets made a huge leap this year, they still weren’t quite the team that the Raptors were. With no veteran All-Stars on his team, Russell was pretty much allowed to run the show, which made it a little easier on him to show improvements. I think Russell would be very deserving if he won as well though.
Corn: Pascal Siakam
No offense to D’Angelo Russell, but Pascal Siakam definitely grew and improved the most as a player this season. He went from being a guy who could “contribute” scoring 7.3 points along with 4.5 rebounds and 2 assists to a bonafide problem some nights, as his averages this year jumped up to 16.9 points per game, 6.9 rebounds, and 3.1 assists.