Sports Illustrated analyst Ben Pickman sees Boston Celtics All-Star forward Jayson Tatum as the rightful winner of the NBA’s Most Improved Player award if the season were to end today.
Pickman diverged from some of his fellow Sports Illustrated analysts who felt that as a highly-rated prospect, Tatum’s leap forward should have been at least partially expected.
But the award is not the “Player Who Improved More Than We Expected” award, and Pickman lays out his logic against such a view quite clearly.
“A number of players are deserving of Most Improved honors, including Luka Doncic, Pascal Siakam, Bam Adebayo and Brandon Ingram among others, but Tatum went from a 16 point per game scorer to 2018-19 to looking like one of the league’s elite players just before the stoppage.”
It’s hard to argue with Pickman’s take, given the Duke product was nearly doubling last season’s scoring in the month of February, and did so while becoming one of the league’s best defenders to boot.
While it’s very possible one of the other players listed by the Sports Illustrated analyst may well end up taking home the hardware, it’s gratifying for Celtics fans to see the third-year swingman get some recognition.
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