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Most Improved Player: Jrue Holiday 5th, Nikola Vucevic 4th, Paul George Wins

The people who finished 2nd and 3rd are not important enough to make the title. Sorry guys.

And they're friends!
And they're friends!
Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports

NBA Awards season is a ridiculous thing (LOL Luke Babbitt). The Most-Improved Player Award is the most ridiculous thing among all NBA Awards. So what I'm about to tell you is essentially of no import. Feel free to stop reading and floss or something.

Paul George has won the award for most improved player in the NBA. I love Paul George. Paul George is great. I sometimes say Paul George's name over and over while rocking in a chair in the corner of my sitting room. But here's the thing about Paul George (Paul George), he didn't statistically improve offensively from last year. His role just got a lot bigger because Danny Granger went down. Played more minutes, took more shots, and was generally less efficient.

But he's a hell of a defender and plays within the team concept and I'm also madly in love with him so I don't mind him winning. Just that the award basically goes to players who now take a lot more shots.

Jrue Holiday was 5th in voting. If this was for the first half of the season, I'd be fully on board with it. But it's not, so I'm again not sure why he's here. Love Jrue, rocking chair, Jrue Jrue Jrue, etc, but he was pretty bad the second half of the season. Because Andre Iguodala and Louis Williams left, Jrue was the focal point of the offense and his counting stats went up. The only real aspect I think Jrue improved upon this year is his passing ability. And while that's quite encouraging, I wouldn't have given him a vote for this.

Oh hey look! It's Nikola Vucevic! We haven't talked about him in a while so let's unsheathe our pitchforks and get to stabbin' some bitches. Vuce finished 4th -- one spot up from Jrue means his better than him, obviously -- after he became a Rebounding Savant with Orlando. I actually have no issue giving him a spot here. He was much, much better than his rookie year on Doug Collins' bench, and he stayed relatively consistent throughout the season. Good for Vuce, now please shove your weapons through my heart.

Here's the full Top 10:

  1. Paul George, 311 votes, 52 first-place
  2. Greivis Vasquez, 146 votes, 13 first-place
  3. Larry Sanders, 141 votes, 10 first-place
  4. Nikola Vucevic, 109 votes, 10 first-place
  5. Jrue Holiday, 102 votes, 10 first-place
  6. Omer Asik, 86 votes, nine first-place
  7. James Harden, 53 votes, eight first-place
  8. Stephen Curry, 18 votes, one first-place
  9. Serge Ibaka, 15 votes, one first-place
  10. Chandler Parsons, 14 votes

None of those are awful choices, the award is just so vague and misguided that it doesn't do what it intends to do, which should be to award the player who has gotten markedly better between seasons. For me, that's James Harden.

But whatever, it doesn't matter. Congrats to Jrue for his 5th place finish. Hope they give Bynum an MVP vote.

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