De’Aaron Fox has been one of the biggest parts of the early success from the young Sacramento Kings. But can he do enough to earn the title of “Most Improved Player” in the NBA?
One of the biggest storylines of this young NBA season has been the surprisingly good start for the Sacramento Kings. There are many reasons why the Kings have been better than anybody expected, including much of their own fanbase. But one of the biggest reasons has been De’Aaron Fox who has taken a leap in his sophomore year.
Fox has been so impressive this season that there is some early talk of him being a contender for the Most Improved Player award, an award no Sacramento player has ever won since 1986 when the award was first created. This would certainly make for an exciting stamp on an unexpected season. But can Fox win it?
There is no question that De’Aaron Fox has improved. The question is by how much? I thought it would be interesting to dig into what kind of a leap previous winners of the MIP award had taken and compare them to the leap Fox has currently made. Let us see what our young future All-Star needs to do and maintain to earn some hardware in June.
(To keep things simple, we are just going to look at the last ten years, mostly to keep the analysis in line with what modern voters look for in an improved player.)