NBA Awards: Most Improved

This might be the toughest award to pick this year because of the emergence of so many young players. Monta Ellis, David Lee, Al Jefferson, Kevin Martin, Josh Smith, Andres Biedrins, and Deron Williams are just a few of the players that made huge strides this year. The other thing that makes this award tough is since it is measuring improvement, it isn't clear whether a full season is mandatory (Lee), or how important team success is. I liked what Kenny Smith said on TNT the other night, that teams in contention provided better candidates because every game had something on the line. That said, I think you can also look to the first half of the season, when everyone had something to play for, to kind of get at the same thing. Al Jefferson was my choice initially, but he fits neither of these methods of analysis, since he only started becoming a low post monster after the Celtics were already toast. I'm ruling out Lee, Ellis, and Biedrins because their improvement was really about opportunity. Kevin Martin gets the boot because he was a stud in last year's playoffs. And Josh Smith had already shown flashes as well. That leaves Williams, who I think is being overlooked because he was nearly an All-Star. But since when do we cap the Most Improved award? Last year Williams was a step slow on defense and looked confused on offense as Utah got crushed for taking him over Chris Paul. Now he's #2 in the NBA in assists and looking every bit like a franchise point guard. In my opinion, nobody improved more than Deron Williams.