MOST IMPROVED PLAYER

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:45 pm

VOTE OR DIEEEEEE.

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Wed Apr 14, 2010 11:45 pm

PEACE TO ROY HIBBERT.

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:08 am

Voted Durant because he's god now.

But really, any one of those guys can be justified. Deep list.

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:14 am

I FORGOT BOGUT (IN CASE YOU WANNA RECONSIDER POSITIVE...DURANT IS A GREAT CHOICE THOUGH)

rooski · Post by **rooski** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:30 am

Reason wrote:PEACE TO ROY HIBBERT.

Favorite Pacer.

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:51 am

ughhh, this is tough. I changed my mind 3 times since yesterday.

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:54 am

I'll say this....

Brooks isn't in the discussion for me. He just got more playing time...hence his numbers got a uptick. We all saw this coming if we saw the Rockets playoff run from last year.

Randolph and Josh Smith improved......but we all knew they had the tools and were good. They didn't really add anything to their games. They just decided to play smarter. So to me, that means they always could've had this improvement but they didn't choose to until now. I'm a huge Josh Smith fanboy too so it hurts me to say this. So i'm taking them out as well.

Everyone else has a legit claim to this award.

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:02 am

Gilbert Subpoenas wrote:I'll say this....

Brooks isn't in the discussion for me. He just got more playing time...hence his numbers got a uptick. We all saw this coming if we saw the Rockets playoff run from last year.

Randolph and Josh Smith improved......but we all knew they had the tools and were good. They didn't really add anything to their games. They just decided to play smarter. So to me, that means they always could've had this improvement but they didn't choose to until now. I'm a huge Josh Smith fanboy too so it hurts me to say this. So i'm taking them out as well.

Everyone else has a legit claim to this award.

I was considering voting for Josh before I settled on the reincarnation of Christ, Kevin Durant.

Turn the clock back to last years' playoffs. Josh was an ABOMINATION in the playoffs last season. Essentially, he stayed out of the paint on offense, jacked up 3's on the reg and was a black hole for that offense. He was a fraction of the defensive monster he turned in to this season. Josh Smith improved DRAMATICALLY from last year to this. Talent wise? No, probably not. He has been on that cusp of breaking out for a few years. But this season he took massive GIANT leaps mentally and iq wise. And I don't think that can/should be overlooked.

A lot of writers and talking heads credit Jamal Crawford for turning this team into an East contender. I won't dicredit Jamal becuase he's electric, but Josh Smith is the real reason the ATL is as good as they were this year.

Just perusing his basketball-ref page:

in last years 11 playoff games he took 15 3's.
This season, he took 7.

Obviously something clicked. Whether it was Woodson or Joe Johnson telling him to settle down on the offensive side or if he watched tape and threw up a little bit watching himself.

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:26 am

Well, you can ask RZN to verify but I told him before the season these things because like i said, i'm a Josh Smith fanboy:

before the season started, Josh said he was going to make a concious effort not to shoot as many jump shots and to try to win defensive player of the year. When he told Mike Woodson this, Woodson's reaction was like "It's about time."

Look, I love Josh Smith. But I'm not going to reward someone for finally realizing that he should play the right way.....especially when he was on a good team and probably should've realized that a while ago.

Everyone else other then brooks and randolph added something to their games to take them to the next level:

-Hill and Lee added a jumper.

-Bogut decided to be more aggressive on offense along with being coached to go for blocks instead of drawing charges.

-Brewer added a jump shot to his game and improved his ball handling.

-Noah gained weight and got stronger.

-Marc Gasol lost weight (20-30 pounds) and worked on his post game in the offseason.

-Durant became a better leader, became a better defender and rebounder, and is taking it to the rack more this year then in the previous season.

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:27 am

BTW, Rzn. I think we forgot Reddick and Andray Blatche.....but I think the list is fine the way it is.

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:40 am

Gilbert Subpoenas wrote:BTW, Rzn. I think we forgot Reddick and Andray Blatche.....but I think the list is fine the way it is.

no doubt

i'll justify their omissions by saying reddick is a white dukeian and blatche decides when he feels like playing defense

Gregg Popabitch · Post by **Gregg Popabitch** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:46 am

reddick legitimately improved though. I think it's without a doubt.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:26 pm

Carl Landry??!!!!

Positive A · Post by **Positive A** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 12:30 pm

Gilbert Subpoenas wrote:reddick legitimately improved though. I think it's without a doubt.

I've said this before on here, but I can't believe that JJ turned into very good, very serviceable pro.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 1:33 pm

Voted Joakim. I thought that Durant was already an obvious superstar coming into the season.

the dead poet · Post by **the dead poet** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 5:49 pm

torn between durant, gasol, and brooks.

VideoKilledThe · Post by **VideoKilledThe** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 7:57 pm

Voted Gasol. Of the players listed he was the one who surprised me the most. His play this year made the Pau trade look more respectable. He lost 80 pounds, and became the defensive anchor for a Memphis team that looked for stretches like a tough first round match up. Bumping your rebs average up from 7.4 to 9.3 is no joke, he could have easily, with more shots, been a 20 10 guy.

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:59 pm

naturalborn103 wrote:Carl Landry??!!!!

Where is Landry??

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:25 pm

i dunno natty...it's kind of an omission but he was doing what he's doing this year late last season/playoffs last year in the sense that we saw this in him...he took advantage of more playing time

but yea we missed him b/c we focused on him in the MIP

ALSO LOFUCKINGL AT ITHIKKKLE'S JON SCHEYER QUOTE. YOU'RE A CLOWN, ITHE, PLEASE STICK TO CURB

Big Breeze · Post by **Big Breeze** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 10:35 pm

I voted Kevin Durant for the simple fact that he was on the outside of my top 10 list before the season, but elevated to no lower than 5 on most rational top 10 lists. That's serious improvement, because climbing your way to the top is not a small feat.

All of these players mentioned in the thread our worthy, but KD isn't going to win any other hardware this year, so lets start with one of these before he wins an MVP one day.

vermillion · Post by **vermillion** » Thu Apr 15, 2010 11:44 pm

This is without a doubt the toughest poll. It's between Brooks, Durant, Bogut, Noah and Gasol. Can't decide..

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:20 am

i chose noah

for someone who was already a good rebounder, he separated himself from the rest of the league not named dwight howard

08-09: DRB% 21.3, TRB% 17.9
09-10: DRB% 27.6, TRB% 20.4

and similar to why i don't have a problem with breeze's logic for picking durant (b/c elevating from outside top 10 to top 3 or 4 is much harder than from top 50 to top 15 for example), noah's improvement is that much more remarkable (because i already considered him a great rebounder...averaged 11.3 per 36 minutes last year). the only negative to these stats mentioned is that it might not fully consider the fact noah averaged about 6 more minutes a game this year than last...regardless noah averaged 13.2 per 36 minutes this year.

but the kicker that puts it over the top is his offensive improvement. name another center or big man period who increased their free throw percentage by .068 percentage points (.676 to .744). he also put up 3 more shots a game but kept his fg% at a respectable 50.8.

noah is the choice. if the bulls win a game against cleveland, he will have played a major role in his boxing out, tireless effort, and help defense/overall defense[/i]

Reason · Post by **Reason** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 12:24 am

noah averaged 13.2 per 36 mpg. howard averaged 13.7 per 36 mpg.

btw

naturalborn103 · Post by **naturalborn103** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 9:43 am

Reason wrote:i dunno natty...it's kind of an omission but he was doing what he's doing this year late last season/playoffs last year in the sense that we saw this in him...he took advantage of more playing time

but yea we missed him b/c we focused on him in the MIP

ALSO LOFUCKINGL AT ITHIKKKLE'S JON SCHEYER QUOTE. YOU'RE A CLOWN, ITHE, PLEASE STICK TO CURB

Yea, I didn't see him play our notice his numbers at all last year. I saw him play a couple games this year and watched his numbers and he impressed me a lot in both. I do think he deserved it over Brooks though, cause Brooks already showed what he could do in the playoffs.

Noah is getting my vote though, even if Landry was included.

Roy Johnson · Post by **Roy Johnson** » Fri Apr 16, 2010 1:00 pm

Reason wrote:i chose noah

for someone who was already a good rebounder, he separated himself from the rest of the league not named dwight howard

08-09: DRB% 21.3, TRB% 17.9
09-10: DRB% 27.6, TRB% 20.4

and similar to why i don't have a problem with breeze's logic for picking durant (b/c elevating from outside top 10 to top 3 or 4 is much harder than from top 50 to top 15 for example), noah's improvement is that much more remarkable (because i already considered him a great rebounder...averaged 11.3 per 36 minutes last year). the only negative to these stats mentioned is that it might not fully consider the fact noah averaged about 6 more minutes a game this year than last...regardless noah averaged 13.2 per 36 minutes this year.

but the kicker that puts it over the top is his offensive improvement. name another center or big man period who increased their free throw percentage by .068 percentage points (.676 to .744). he also put up 3 more shots a game but kept his fg% at a respectable 50.8.

noah is the choice. if the bulls win a game against cleveland, he will have played a major role in his boxing out, tireless effort, and help defense/overall defense[/i]

Great post. Noah might just be the hardest-working player in the game. For every offensive rebound that he snatches, he gets his hands on like five others that the opposition ends up retrieving. In that sense, the stats don't even do his offensive rebounding prowess justice, because it seems like he's a constant threat to give us second chance scoring opportunities, and that is beyond crucial on most teams, but especially on the Bulls. It doesn't surprise me that he finished so close to Dwight Howard in rebounds per 36 minutes. Like you said, it's just tireless effort.

Now, imagine a Bosh/Noah duo down low. How much better does Bosh make both Noah and Rose? Hell, Deng rarely ever gets any wide-open 15 footers these days - he'd become much more dangerous by default as well. I can't wait until July 1st.