Improvement List

[MexicanMamba]

MOST IMPROVED
Season 46

This has probably been done before because there are only but so many article ideas to really dive into, but let's do it for Season 46 since no one has done THAT. First off, I started pulling the statistics for this article a sim or two (or 3 or 4, depending on how long it takes me to finish this article) ago so the numbers probably won't be exact. Hell, my choices could be different by the time I post too, but tough shit, deal with it. Though I wanted to do something more creative or clever, I am not feeling particularly creative nor clever so this is what you guys get.

Still, I do find diving into the most improved list to be fairly compelling. I did focus more on young players making various leaps in production, I did find some very worthy veteran players of being on this list even if they may not have made my finalized list. It also made me realize that maybe a bump in raw numbers does not always equate to someone making a full leap in their talent/skill. So, I had to tinker with the order of this list more than I initially thought that I would when I began to write it.

CLOSE, BUT NO CIGAR
Let's start with the guys who I feel just missed the cut, for one reason or another

CRISTIANO FELICIO
Felicio began the season as the starting Center for the league leading Chicago Bulls and has career numbers in points, rebounds, blocks. Easy to do when the guy did not play at all early in his career and last season finally got onto the floor but was not counted on for key minutes. Perhaps the biggest thing that keeps him off the main list is that many of his deeper numbers such as his shooting percentages, PER, usage all dropped as he has been counted on to do more. He also has recently been put back on the bench in a super-sub role, which is not a bad thing for the team but a negative for this particular list.

DANIEL YANDELL
First-time All-Star, Yandell is quickly becoming one of the best Point Guards in the game. After the team lost Grayson Allen, Yandell (and another guy you will see later) had to sink or swim in bigger roles. Yandell is definitely swimming. Two things keep him from the main list: His numbers in general did not jump as much as I was looking for and there already is a teammate of his that I chose over him and I wanted to keep it fresh.

JORDAN JOHNSON
A bump in minutes has led to career highs in numbers while also keeping or slightly improving on shooting percentages as well. The 25-year-old star seems to be growing into a guy with the potential to lead a major playoff push. Really, the Suns have been full of these types of players for a few years now but haven't been capable of keeping it all together to really make a run.

MAMADI DIAKITE
A 5 point per game bump in scoring and a significant jump in rebounding was incredibly close to helping Diakite leaping into the top 5 of this Most Improved list. I feel though that his efficiency has stayed level from his rookie season, but he is at least showing consistency in his production as he is given a bigger workload. Diakite is on the right trajectory though and could help to lead the 76ers on their playoff push the back part of the season.

MOST IMPROVED PLAYER(S)

5. WILLIAM JACKSON, PISTONS

28.3 points, 6.7 REBS, 3.6 ASTS
.500% .681 FT% .373 3P% .582 TS%
PER: 22.6 USG: 31.4 36.9 MIN

Previous:
25 points, 5.8 REBS, 3.1 ASTS
.486% .711 FT% .365 3P% .567 TS%
PER: 19.9 USG: 29.2

Bringing up the rear in the #5 spot is also the oldest player on this list at 28 years old. Jackson's strongest two seasons have been the two seasons compared in this articleand have both been rewarded with All-Star appearances. He has thrived since his move to Detroit, which has really just continued to show his natural progression from his Oklahoma City Thunder days. What I find most impressive about his performance this season is that he has continued to play dominant basketball even with injuries to seemingly every good player around him. He has been asked to carry Detroit on his back with the absences of Cobb (twice) and Irvine. He has also had to begin sharing more touches with Luka Doncic, and yet still is the backbone of the team's winning. It will be interesting to see if his great production and efficiency can improve even greater through the rest of this season with the addition of traditional point guard Gregory Haddock, who should be able to provide Jackson even easier looks off the ball.

4. RONALD HAILE, BUCKS

Current Season:
18.8 points, 4.9 REBS, 2.7 ASTS.
.452% .648 FT% .336 3P%. 581 TS%
PER: 14.2 USG: 22.1 33.9 MIN

Previous:
11.4 points, 3.5 REBS, 2.5 ASTS
.471% . 627 FT% . 267 3P% .525 TS%
PER: 11.6 USG: 21

Milwaukee taking the plunge in Restricted Free Agency on the young man from Cleveland is paying off this season. Prior to this year with the Bucks, Haile had been merely a contributor but had not been asked to start since his rookie season with the now defunct Golden State Warriors. With the increased responsibility and minutes, Haile is rewarding his new team with career highs in almost every category. While this may seem obvious that more minutes mean more raw numbers, with the exception of his free throw shooting, Haile is also hitting career highs in all efficiency areas as well, including having his offensive and defensive efficiency scores skyrocketing. The team as a whole is also beginning to gel and put wins together and Ronald Haile no doubt has a big hand in that team success.

3. TERRY STERNER, CLIPPERS

Current Season:
17.9 points, 4.4 REBS, 6.2 ASTS
.452% .687 FT% .359 3P% .526 TS%
PER: 13 USG: 22.1 37.8 MIN

Previous:
10.5 points, 2.9 REBS, 3.3 ASTS
.432% .686 FT% .265 3P% .491 TS%
PER: 10.5 USG: 22

Like Ronald Haile, Sterner had not been a starter the previous seasons. Unlike Haile, Sterner had never even gotten a season starting for an obviously bad squad that was going bankrupt. His rookie season consisted of playing 1 minute in 1 game for the Chicago Bulls. After being traded to Orlando, he immediately became a solid rotational piece and part-time starter (whenever he was healthy). 2033 and 2034 were remarkably similar for the young man. So similar in fact that his scoring averages were identical 10.5 per game marks and his PER was .1 point away from being the same along with 25'ish minutes a game. With the Clippers he has been trusted with starter's minutes on a full-time basis. More than that, he has been the player that has been given the starting Point Guard role since the trade of superstar Bryce Dejean-Jones. While the PG experiment is still in its infancy, Sterner is currently hitting career highs in every statistical category besides from the charity stripe. He is doing this while having his usage rate stay roughly the same as the previous two seasons, showing that he is growing as a player. He is on a much better team this season than he had been the previous two so this next part may be skewed a bit, however his offensive efficiency has jumped by over 5 points while his defensive efficiency is at a career best 100.6. While his turnovers are up that is a natural reaction to handling Point Guard duties and his AST:TO ratio is a career best 2.40.

2. JONATHAN LEWIS, SPURS

Current Season:
26.1 points, 5.2 REBS, 5.3 ASTS
.537% .747 FT% .407 3P% .622 TS%
PER: 21.8 USG: 26.6 36.2 MINS

Previous:
20.9 points, 5.6 REBS, 4.8 ASTS
.492% .797 FT% .371 3P% .587 TS%
PER: 18.1 USG: 23.8

As mentioned above in the Yandell portion, the Spurs went through a bit of a re-tooling in the off-season which forced some young players to step-up if the team wanted to continue its fight to the top of the Alpha Conference. While I kept Yandell out of the top 5 of my list, it was only because I have Jonathan Lewis so high already. Free Throw shooting and a slight dip in rebounding is all that is keeping Lewis from career highs in all important categories. He is being used more, shooting at a higher volume and yet still is more efficient than ever. Currently sitting at the #3 seed in the conference (but with the 2nd best record), Lewis and Yandell have teams up to form a dynamite backcourt with Lewis leading the scoring charge. His .622% True Shooting is the one that pops out to me the most as it is the highest of anyone on this list. It speaks to his ability and savvy at such a young age. Though it may not seem possible, I would not be surprised if Lewis found his way back on a similar list for this award (and other more prestigious ones) in the future.

1. DELMAR LOPEZ, LAKERS

Current Season:
28.3 points, 6.3 REBS, 4.7 ASTS
.523% .830 FT% .387 3P% .618 TS%
PER: 26.0 USG: 32.1 33.8 MIN

Previous:
19.1 points, 5.3 REBS, 3.3 ASTS
.523% .826 FT% .333 3P% .604 TS%
PER: 21 USG: 26

Mr. Lopez was the easy choice for me. Unlike the rest of the candidates, Lopez is literally putting up career highs in every single statistical category,though not all efficiency categories. Of course he is benefiting from being able to finally be the #1 scoring option on the team now that Silva and West are gone, but what is coming from that massive uptick in responsibility is ridiculous scoring at an amazing efficiency. His 9.2 point-per-game jump in scoring is phenomenal but the fact that he is doing that on a .618 True Shooting percentage while also playing less than 34 minutes per night is what is kicking my ass. His usage is astronomically high but why wouldn't you give a guy like this the ball and just let him go to work? His defensive efficiency has taken a dive this season, but that is likely an indication of the drop off in defensive talent around him. Besides, no one is looking at Lopez to be a defensive stopper. Once the Lakers surround this young man with a couple more pieces, you may be looking at an MVP candidate as well.

CLOSING

There it is. My list for the most improved players in the league for season 46. I am sure that I missed people because I did not scour over the entirety of the league, if I am being honest. While I do enjoy writing these articles, I would lose my interest if I spent THAT much time figuring it all out. Sue me! I found my 10 names quickly then just moved them around from there without considering many other outside people. Still, I think that this is a pretty good representation of who is taking their game to a new level. It also may be an indicator of which players we may start seeing pop up more on All-Star teams and at awards season more as some of our current stars begin to age out. I'd say the future is bright around here based on these players alone ... unless we re-start from the 60's. Or your name is William Jackson since the game will only give him another 3 seasons at most before it starts to destroy his body from within and make him fast enough only to defend slow-footed Centers.

If you do end up reading this however, feel free to drop other worthy candidates some love down below. Or just tell me I'm dumb for forgetting someone major. I think I can handle either. If I cannot, well, I'll just take some of my newfound slime that the commish bestowed upon me and throw in your DAMN FACE!

Ahem.

Anyways.

Thanks for reading and go Clippers!

** Oh and this is 2,050 words **

[IamQuailman]

OI, may wanna recheck Haile's #s

19.5ppg, 5rpg, 2.6apg 53.4% FG%, 35% from 3, 59% TS%

I guess he had a good sim since the article numbers were run LOL

[TheSyndicate]

OI, may wanna recheck Haile's #s

19.5ppg, 5rpg, 2.6apg 53.4% FG%, 35% from 3, 59% TS%

I guess he had a good sim since the article numbers were run LOL

The trade block campaign begins...

[IamQuailman]

OI, may wanna recheck Haile's #s

19.5ppg, 5rpg, 2.6apg 53.4% FG%, 35% from 3, 59% TS%

I guess he had a good sim since the article numbers were run LOL

The trade block campaign begins...

Haile aint going anywhere (yet)

[garbageman]

OI, may wanna recheck Haile's #s

19.5ppg, 5rpg, 2.6apg 53.4% FG%, 35% from 3, 59% TS%

I guess he had a good sim since the article numbers were run LOL

The trade block campaign begins...

Haile aint going anywhere (yet)

Right...but how much of that is because he's not eligible for trade until after RFA next season?

[IamQuailman]

The trade block campaign begins...

Haile aint going anywhere (yet)

Right...but how much of that is because he's not eligible for trade until after RFA next season?

You know me so well

[NOLa.]

Right...but how much of that is because he's not eligible for trade until after RFA next season?

Ran 5 test TCs on this baby and didn't get hit once. *slaps car*

[false9]

+7