Ken's Criteria for Way-Too-Early NBA Most Improved Bets

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Ken discusses NBA Most Improved Play and what to look for af the NBA Off Season rolls on

Transcript

00:00Good. Let's say John Morant didn't have any gun charges.

00:03Could he win it?

00:03Like, is it is it something as silly about that?

00:06But like, I know.

00:07But you're talking about like injuries.

00:09You can win it from coming off of an injury, too, right?

00:11That's something that you can kind of look at and say, oh, yeah,

00:14he's better this year was hurt last year.

00:16So the this this award doesn't quite work like that.

00:20Whereas NFL Comeback Player of the Year, that was what I was saying.

00:23You're absolutely right.

00:24NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

00:25It's it's the hurt guy that was a really good player,

00:30like Tom Brady, one comeback player of the year.

00:32I think like Drew Brees, one comeback player, like just like big player

00:36gets hurt, comes back, plays awesome.

00:38That's the kind of player that wins NFL Comeback Player of the Year.

00:40That's that's like who the NFL wants to win.

00:42Comeback player there.

00:43Unless someone's coming back from like a really like a sensitive bout

00:46with an illness or like a disease or something, Alex Smith with his leg,

00:49which they made documentaries about and his return to the field,

00:52like unless it's one of those kind of heartwarming stories

00:55that the NFL would love for it to be a superstar player that that,

00:57you know, had a significant injury, comes back and plays really well.

01:00So you're if for that award, you're absolutely right that that's what it is.

01:03The way I would describe this award for people who have never handicapped it

01:06before, it's pretty straightforward what you're looking for.

01:09Even if it's tough to find, you know what you're looking for,

01:12which is you're essentially trying to find a player

01:14who has never made an all star team before,

01:17who could conceivably make the all star team this year,

01:21like doesn't have to make it.

01:22It's not like you have to make it.

01:24It would be good to make it.

01:25It helps. Maxi made it.

01:26Larry Markin had made it.

01:27He won the year before.

01:28Like you ideally would want to make the all star team.

01:31But you you have to have not made it before, because the idea is

01:34if you have already made the all star team, you can no longer improve.

01:38Like that's the top. Yeah.

01:40Like you're the all star. Got you.

01:41You could. So even though you could improve to be like MVP,

01:44you would just win MVP.

01:46You wouldn't win most improved player.

01:47There's there's not enough ceiling there to kind of you're you're already

01:50the ceiling is the roof, whatever the Jordan quote, you're already there.

01:53And and so what you're looking for is basically like a good player.

01:57Like some past winners of the award for people that haven't followed this

02:00recently. So Maxi won.

02:02Yep. So Maxi won this past year

02:05and kind of a unique circumstance, like a B star who had to be an A star

02:08because the A star got hurt for so often.

02:10So that kind of his opportunity opened up really, I think, as a result of that.

02:14Larry Markin and won the year before.

02:16That's the perfect example of like a guy who was never an all star,

02:18never even an A guy goes to a tanky situation, becomes an A guy.

02:23That's I mean, that's perfect. Makes the all star.

02:24I mean, that's a carbon copy.

02:25That's exactly what you're looking for in terms of this award.

02:29Ja won the year before.

02:31And the interesting thing about his win was that he is kind of like the best player

02:35who's ever won this in terms of what he was going into the year where he won.

02:39Like he was already awesome.

02:41And then he just got awesomer.

02:43And it actually led LeBron, among other people, to complain

02:46that Josh should be like, like this is beneath him.

02:49Like he shouldn't even get the like he was already too good.

02:52And, you know, like that was two years ago.

02:54We haven't really seen it factor into the voting.

02:56Just interesting that like he reflects that he almost averaged

02:5820 points a game already in a season was clearly a great player already.

03:03Julius Randle won the year before that, when he got when he went to the Knicks

03:06and kind of ended up being their A guy that year.

03:08Brandon Ingram won the year before that.

03:10Giannis has won.

03:11Jimmy Butler has won this before.

03:13Paul George has won this before.

03:15Kevin Love has won this award before.

03:17So like so big time players, to be honest, like this isn't

03:21this is one of the things that made Kobe White such a frustrating handicap last year.

03:24Is it kind of made sense?

03:27But it kind of didn't because it wasn't this.

03:29It wasn't this list.

03:30Maxi makes a lot more sense on a list like this.

03:32But Maxi, it felt like for three years he was winning most improved player.

03:36Like it was just a little weird.

03:38And that's one of the things that made last year a little tougher to figure out.

03:41Honestly, I think a lot of people were torn between those two players

03:44in trying to make a good decision.

03:45It doesn't always have to be a great player.

03:46Ryan Anderson won this award.

03:48Aaron Brooks won this award.

03:50Siakam won this award.

03:51Siakam's a good player, but you get the idea.

03:53Like it doesn't have to be Giannis.

03:54It could be somebody who's at least like a B-level star.

03:57But I would be thinking in terms of so player who hasn't

04:01cannot have made an All-Star team.

04:03If you made an All-Star team already, you're out.

04:05And if you have not made it, is it reasonable

04:08that you could at least be in a conversation this year?

04:11Hey, should that player make the All-Star team?

04:14Maybe you don't have to make it, but like, could you make the All-Star team?

04:17Siakam didn't make the All-Star team the year that he won.

04:19You don't have to make it.

04:20McCollum didn't make it when he won.

04:22Goran Dragic didn't make it when he won.

04:23But you're at least in the in the discussion to make it.

04:26So it's kind of it's I think that's the kind of the that's the layout here

04:29for how I'd be thinking about.

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