According to the latest betting odds (link via Kevin Rogers of VegasInsider), there are two clear frontrunners to be named 2024/25’s Most Improved Player: Pistons guard Cade Cunningham and Clippers wing Norman Powell.
Cunningham is the current favorite for the award, but Powell is a close second. Tyler Herro, Amen Thompson, Trey Murphy, Christian Braun, Evan Mobley, Jalen Williams, Dyson Daniels, Victor Wembanyama and Max Christie are among the other players in consideration, but it would be genuinely shocking if anyone from that group wins, given the current odds.
Griffin Wong of DraftKings recently weighed in on what is seemingly a two-man race, making the case both for and against Powell and Cunningham. While Wong believes that Powell has “clearly” shown more individual improvement, he thinks voters — 100 members of the media — will ultimately choose Cunningham, given the recent history of selecting rising young players and Detroit’s dramatic turnaround from a season ago.
A 10-year veteran, Powell is posting career-best numbers in virtually every major statistic in 2024/25, including points (24.2), rebounds (3.6), assists (2.2), steals (1.3) and minutes (33.6) per game. In 45 appearances, he has posted an extremely efficient shooting slash line of .496/.428/.819, good for a career-high true shooting percentage of .633. He is the leading scorer on the West’s No. 6 seed (the Clippers are 31-23).
At 31, Powell would be the oldest player to ever win MIP. That distinction currently belongs to former Magic guard Darrell Armstrong, who was 30 when he won the award in ’98/99.
Cunningham, 23, is also posting career-best numbers in several statistics in ’24/25, averaging 25.4 PPG, 6.3 RPG and 9.3 APG on .455/.351/.850 shooting (.551 TS) in 50 games (35.5 MPG). After finishing with the NBA’s worst record (14-68) last season, the Pistons have already more than doubled that meager win total and currently hold a 29-26 record, good for the No. 6 seed in the East.
Obviously, Cunningham has far more impressive rebounding and assist totals, and he’s Detroit’s best player. But as Wong writes, the first-time All-Star has been a far less efficient scorer than Powell, who also has better on/off numbers. According to Wong, Cunningham’s improvement was more or less expected — he was the No. 1 overall pick in 2021 — whereas Powell’s has been much more surprising and arguably more impactful to winning. Neither player is great defensively, so Wong views that as essentially a wash.
We want to know what you think. Should Cunningham, Powell or another player be selected as this season’s Most Improved Player? Head to the comments section to share your thoughts.
Powell nearly doubled his ppg
I dont think Cade should win at all, he already had a really good season last year. Jalen Johnson and Jaden Ivey would be my picks but they got hurt, so I think this should unanimously go to Norman Powell.
An older player going from role player to all star level is the essence of this award, not a number 1 pick going from 21ppg to 25ppg
Thompson, Wemby and Mobley were super high picks. Are they most improved or fulfilling their promise?
Jalen Williams is clearly the MIP.
Williams career PPG 17.7
Williams current PPG 21.0
Powell career PPG: 13.2
Powell current PPG: 24.2
Look, I’m all in favor of having Powell voted as MIP, but why is everyone citing PPG, as if that’s the be-all end-all statistic?
By that logic, Bradley Beal and Zach Lavine must be winning basketball players
Because it is easy to look at scoring…
…In a similar vane. People look at Draymond Green and think he is only a role player. He was a good 3-point shooter coming out of college. He then looked at Klay and Curry. He has the 2nd most assists of any Power Forward in NBA history and plays stellar defense.
Well if you wanna move the goalposts you can make anything true. Nope, PPG isnt the be-all end-all but you cannot deny that is an impressive jump from a guy who has been in the league a long time and never been like this. Almost like he improved his game, or something. Williams was already good. Stop giving this award to good players who play good, and leave it to mids who suddenly play great, like Powell.
Well, genius, if you hadn’t noticed, I’m not the original commentator, so I’m not moving any goalposts
I gave you a reason why Powell deserves MIP more than Williams, you say “well if you dont use PPG” – thats moving goalposts.
Dude, I never said anything about Williams. Learn to match comments with commenters
exactly, you arent even reply guying correctly, stop doing that
You seem extremely confused
You are the one who thinks PPG is meaningless
I didn’t say that
Poor Wagner13 stuck in the cross hairs
Casual fans only look at offense. Specifically todays generation. There is so much to playing ball. Its why it takes time to get it. Even the best take yrs to reach their level. Personally I always enjoy and appreciate the journey. For a player and a team. Love Cade and he has leveled up. But my vote is for Powell. He embodies the award.
Some of these awards are baffling. It seems like objective titles for subjective criteria. What are we really trying to reward or emphasize here? If it’s just a popularity contest for someone who can’t sniff a real MVP give it to whomever you like. If it’s stats don’t factor in “narrative”.
If I had to pick — Powell. But the whole concept is very odd.
Very subjective indeed
I personally like Dyson Daniela and Max Christie for the award.
Non factors 24 who turned them self into 2 above avg rotation players
It’s always confusing to me whether we should award it to someone who improved from mediocre/replacement level status (a la Daniels or Coby White last year) versus a good player that broke out and became great (like Maxey or Morant)
Powell
Herro should win this
Speaking of Darrell Armstrong, he just got arrested for pistol winning a woman in Dallas.
Mavs Culture is important tho
It will swept under the rug
MIP should be replaced by a better, or at least a better named, award.
Seasonal awards by definition should be decided based upon the seasonal achievements of the candidates relative to each other. When, as here, the achievement itself is set forth in terms of the player’s “improvement” (broad enough to encompass skill/efficiency upgrades, and/or improved numbers based on a greater role) from his own baseline of prior season(s), each candidate’s achievement level is notionally a fraction, each with a subjectively selected numerator and a different denominator.
Good thing that Vegas has sorted this out. Because just based on the name of the award, I would have no idea if CC or NP were even good candidates. Although looking at past recipients, I might have guessed CC.
Actually, Draftkings was founded in Boston and is run by a bunch of Bulgarians. So, Sofia has it figured out. Humm…I guess it is “Sophie’s Choice”. Hopefully, one gets to live.
While we are here, almost no one agrees with what “valuable” means in terms of MVP. I agree though, if we have all these advanced stats that prove categorically that player A is the best, so why not use full season stats like VORP, OBPM, DBPM and WS to determine “player of the year” awards?
Awards month should promote both statistical leaders as hard as these flimsy notions of what “valuable” means, if it doesn’t necessarily mean “best”. For example, Steph Curry was the best player in the 2015 Finals by pretty much every stat, but the voters decided Igoudala was more “valuable” than Steph Curry. Both players needed to be rewarded, but we missed the Steph “Best Statistical Player” award he deserved at minimum there. And yeah, Curry played more mins than Iggy and drew more multi-player defenses by himself, Curry was more valuable than Iggy was.
Braun all day – his improvement has been massive. On track to become just the 4th guard in history to average 15+ ppg with a 65% true shooting percentage – after Curry, Harden and Nash.
Most Improved Player ——- you take it literally. Then that’s where you look at Cade, Wemby, Mobley. Players who are expected to become all stars at some point. Now I get them having a big jump from one yr to another. It deserves attention, acknowledgment. For me I look at players who you didn’t think would take that big jump. And are now having that big yr like Powell, Williams, Daniels. To me these are the more impressive and deserving.
I like Christie. He’s having a big impact in Dallas. I see a big future in him. Yet nobody talked about him as part of trade. His stats are better than Lukas right now. Perfect example of what regular fans look at. And why media and fans get caught up on big nanes.
Christie needs a month+ of this production, not 6 games, that’s too small a sample imo. But yes, if he carries this massive uptick in production, he should be in the mix, definitely considered. Odd how the Lakers lately always pass on star players when they are young…
I just think Powell has got it in the bag, despite his age, and 31 isn’t that old, it’s also around the same age Jrue Holiday’s second prime started, so it’s not even out of the ordinary. Powell becoming an elite scorer out of nowhere is an improvement no one saw coming.
This is a tough one this year…
Cade vs Norm vs Wemby…
Hard to split… Will probably go down to who has the most wins…