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Following his best performance since returning from a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to a thumb injury, Brooklyn Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie was quick to deflect all the praise, and instead, decided that this would be the perfect time to launch his campaign for teammate D'Angelo Russell as this season's Most Improved Player.
Dinwiddie took to Twitter to thoroughly explain his case, with the 25-year-old Nets guard starting off by reminding everyone that he still feels a bit bitter about losing the MIP award last season to Indiana Pacers star Victor Oladipo:
At #8 it’s… #8 🤣 see what I did there lol that’s good tho after losing MIP last year.
Which btw is the exact reason why DLo should win it this year. If Oladipo is the standard then siakam shouldn’t win 🤷🏾♂️ https://t.co/JlWuKwqY7L
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) March 6, 2019
The 6-foot-6 point guard would then elaborate on his argument with several valid points:
Siakam is a great player who plays his role. He is not more talented than DLo nor would you start your team with him over DLo. Let’s be logical
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) March 6, 2019
Welp, let’s try to be abundantly clear one more time since y’all want to nitpick. Technically speaking everybody plays a role. Common knowledge/slang terminology suggests if you’re not the ball dominant primary shot creator/superstar then you’re a role player… https://t.co/IaQm13Wj4b
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) March 6, 2019
Most teams only have 1. In special situations teams have 2. But even if we compared him to draymond green who is an all star and champion he would still technically be a role player. This is not slander, it is fact. Raptors fans chill out.
— Spencer Dinwiddie (@SDinwiddie_25) March 6, 2019
That's a pretty lengthy narrative from Dinwiddie there, who seems abundantly convinced that Russell should be ahead of Toronto Raptors forward Pascal Siakam in the race for the MIP title.
One thing he fails to include in his argument, however, is the fact that in terms solely of each player's improvement from the previous season, Siakam appears to have quite an advantage over Russell.
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Here's a look at the statistical variances of the two players in question over the past two seasons:
Siakam in 2017-18: 7.3 points on 50.8 percent shooting, 0.4 3-pointers, 4.5 rebounds, 2.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.5 blocks in 20.7 minutes per ballgame.
Siakam in 2018-19: 16.4 points on 55.0 percent shooting, 0.9 3-pointers, 7.1 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.7 blocks in 32.0 minutes per ballgame.
Russell in 2017-18: 15.5 points on 41.4 percent shooting, 1.9 3-pointers, 3.9 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.4 blocks in 25.7 minutes per ballgame.
Russell in 2018-19: 20.5 points on 43.6 percent shooting, 2.7 3-pointers, 3.7 rebounds, 6.8 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.3 blocks in 30.0 minutes per ballgame.
While both players have shown vast improvements this year, it does seem that, statistically speaking, Siakam's impact is able to edge out that of Russell's. Then again, there are a lot more factors that will come into play, so until the title is officially handed out to the eventual winner, it's still an open race.
