Welcome to Layup Lines, For the Win’s basketball newsletter. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Have feedback for the Layup Lines Crew? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey. Now, here’s Mike Sykes
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome back to Layup Lines. Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you’ve had an awesome week so far and have an even better weekend ahead of you.
In doing some preseason research to gear up for the NBA season, I came across something that, surprisingly, got me pretty upset.
In looking at the NBA award favorites this year, I discovered that Victor Wembanyama is legitimately the betting favorite to win the NBA’s Most Improved Player award this season.
His +725 odds at BetMGM are slightly better than Jalen Williams’ at +1000. Everyone on the board besides Wembanyama has odds longer than 10-1. But, at +725, betting on Wemby here could net you a solid return. It’d be a much better bet than Wemby for DPOY.
I get the logic behind it. Wembanyama feels like he’s due for a big season this year. There’s a solid chance he’ll end up as a first-time All-Star and he might even make an All-NBA team. He finished as the runner-up for DPOY last season and will probably be first or second again in the award race this year. If all that happens, you can easily understand why someone would vote for him as the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
But, if you ask me, there’s no way it should.
I don’t mean that it can’t happen — it absolutely can. I just don’t think it should. Victor Wembanyama has no business even being considered for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.
Look. There’s no question that Wemby, if healthy, should be one of the NBA’s best players. The kid is fantastic. He’s already the league’s best defensive player, according to his peers. He’s also gone toe-to-toe with some of the best players in the league and bested a few of them. Some of the NBA’s biggest stars are in awe of him.
But he’s also only a second-year player. And here’s the thing about second-year players: They shouldn’t even be eligible for this award. Especially when they’re lottery picks.
Second-year players are expected to improve. Nobody expects a player to be as bad or worse than they were in their rookie season when they had no idea how the NBA works. If that does happen, it indicates a problem with that player’s development. If it doesn’t? Great. That’s par for the course. There shouldn’t be a reward for that unless the league starts giving out Sophomore of the Year awards.
Victor Wembanyama was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NBA draft and was one of the most hyped No. 1 overall picks ever. He better improve. That’s why he was drafted where he was and why he has the hype he does.
Those are the players for which the NBA’s Most Improved award was created — the guys who went from being the 10th man on the bench to a starter in a season. Or, maybe it’s the guy who was drafted in the mid-first round and steadily improved but finally took that huge leap to an All-Star level (like Tyrese Maxey!).
This award isn’t for Wemby. Wemby will be named an All-Star so many times we won’t be able to count it. He’ll be on a ton of All-NBA teams. We should probably expect him to win a few MVPs, too. That’s how good the kid is.
But Most Improved? Nah, man. Come on. Let’s leave that award for the players it’s actually meant for.
The Clipper Curse lives on
Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Kawhi Leonard is out indefinitely with a knee injury. We don’t know how long Leonard will be out with his injury or what he’ll look like when he gets back.
What we do know is this: LA’s misfortune here could lead to an absolute steal for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
The Clippers traded away their 2025 first-round pick to the Thunder in the Paul George-Shai Gilgeious-Alexander deal (Remember that!?). Because of that deal, if the Clippers’ completely collapse, there’s a chance the Thunder could walk away with Cooper Flagg, Ace Bailey, Dylan Harper or another talented prospect one of the best teams in the NBA has no business landing.
Here’s Bryan Kalbrosky with more:
“The worst case scenario for the Clippers is that the pick lands at No. 1 overall and they would have traded the rights away to Oklahoma City.
This comes after the organization already traded Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and various other tremendously valuable draft capital to the Thunder to land George, who is no longer on the roster.
If that total also now includes the next No. 1 pick, which is likely going to become Cooper Flagg in the 2025 NBA Draft, it would be unprecedentedly unfortunate for this franchise.”
If this happens? Man. Yeah, the Clippers truly are cursed.
You have to make the Paul George deal 10 times out of 10 because that’s the only way you land Kawhi Leonard. But you also lose out on a potential MVP candidate in Gilgeious-Alexander and now you might surrender a top pick to a team that’s already set to run the West for the next few years?
Tough luck.
THE MORNING WIN: Ace Bailey, Cooper Flagg and Dylan Harper are making college hoops fun again
Shootaround
— Lonzo Ball getting love from LaMelo for his return is so wholesome. Here’s Bryan again with more on that.
— Here’s more on the NBA’s second tax apron and how its breaking your favorite teams apart.
— And here’s a tracker of all the key players who changed teams this offseason.
— Speaking of Lonzo, what a debut he had, folks.
That’s a wrap, gang! Thanks so much for reading Layup Lines today. Have a fantastic weekend. We’re only a few days away from meaningful NBA basketball! Let’s get it.
Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
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