As far as NBA awards go, none are less exact or more backhanded than Most Improved Player. While all NBA awards have an inexact set of criteria, the MIP is particularly confusing, its winners existing in some fuzzy halfspace between mediocrity and greatness. Here's an award that's been won by future Hall of Fame caliber stars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Tracy McGrady, Paul George and Ja Morant, but also by oddities like Gheorge Muresan, Alan Henderson and Aaron Brooks.
Despite the award's vagaries, this year's field is fairly solidified—Lauri Markkanen is the favorite to win Most Improved, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is in second per FanDuel odds. As such, with NBA awards season upon us, here are our rankings for the 2023 Most Improved Player of the year.
3. Mikal Bridges, Brooklyn Nets
For the first 56 games of the season, Mikal Bridges was Mikal Bridges—he was a best-in-class role player, gamely taking on the toughest defensive assignments while chipping in 17-ish points around the margins of the offense. For the next 25, though, Mikal Bridges has become a superstar. Since getting shipped to Brooklyn as part of the massive Kevin Durant trade, Bridges has essentially morphed into Kevin Durant, scoring over 27 points per game while maintaining ludicrous efficiency on a mid-range heavy shot diet.
Over his five year career, Bridges has scored at least 30 points in 13 games; 11 of them have been with the Nets. Although the Nets are no longer the contender they once were, Bridges has kept them afloat in the playoff race with his explosive scoring—at 44-36, the Nets still remain a game up on the Miami Heat for the sixth seed in the East. In this sense, Bridges' star turn hasn't lasted long enough for him to truly rise up the rankings as the Most Improved Player, but it's certainly qualified him as the most rapidly improved one.
2. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder
If Markkanen made the leap from an average player to a very good one, Gilgeous-Alexander made the elusive leap from good to great. In prior seasons, Gilgeous-Alexander was the NBA's best kept secret, an idiosyncratic genius shunted out to the tanking hinterlands of Oklahoma City. Now, he might just be the best guard in the entire NBA.
In his fifth season, Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.2 points per game on ludicrous 51 percent shooting and has the Thunder positioned for a shocking play-in berth. This season, Gilgeous-Alexander has turned the game's biggest laughingstock into a legitimately kinda good team—the Thunder may just be 39-42, but their +0.9 net rating is still in the top half of the league.
With Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor, the Thunder's oddball supporting cast begins to make sense. Oklahoma City may have more collective ball-handling on their roster than any other team, but it's Gilgeous-Alexander's peerless driving that makes the whole enterprise click—Gilgeous-Alexander gets into the paint at will, triggering rotations that throw defenses off-kilter and allow Josh Giddey and Jalen Williams (and even Jayline Williams) to get in on the fun.
Still, in the hallowed ground of the Most Improved Player rankings, Gilgeous-Alexander gets dinged for already being great. Even if he's made a more meaningful jump than Markkanen, his season has ultimately been more of a refinement than an improvement. Still, don't feel too bad that Gilgeous-Alexander won't win Most Improved. He's a mortal lock to grab an even loftier set of NBA awards: First-Team All-NBA.
1. Lauri Markkanen, Utah Jazz
In terms of raw production, Lauri Markkanen clearly tops year's Most Improved Player rankings—in fact, it's hard to think of anybody in recent history who has made a similar leap this late in their career. In his first year with the Jazz, Markkanen scores 25.6 points (up from 14.8 points per game last year) and grabs 8.6 boards per game (up from 5.7 last year). Most impressive, he's amped up his volume while simultaneously improving his efficiency; his 64 percent True Shooting is by far the highest of his career. Dumped on Utah as a vestigial part of the Donovan Mitchell trade, Markkanen has blossomed into one of the NBA's best and most unique offensive weapons.
Markkanen is the rare seven-footer who curls around screens like a shooting guard. Draining 39.1 percent of his 7.7 threes per game, Markkanen more closely resembles Klay Thompson than he does any traditional big man.
These stats somehow still underscore how great Markkanen is—name just about any element of basketball and odds are that Lauri Markkanen is one of the most improved. He's drawing fouls more than ever (his 34.8 percent free throw rate blows his other five years out of the water), rebounding at a career-best level (6.3 percent offensive rebounding rate, after never previously even cracking five percent) and even dishing out more assists (8.6 percent assist rate, which admittedly still isn't great but is way better than he's ever had before). In all, Markkanen might just be the most dangerous scorer in the entire world, leading the league with .497 points per touch.
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