Can you even win Most Improved Player if your minutes double from one year to the next? It’s not CJ’s fault that some losers named Wes Matthews and Arron Afflalo were hogging all the shooting guard minutes, and we all know that CJ could have been doing this last year if he was given the chance. In that sense, he hasn’t improved as much as his stats seem to indicate, he’s just being allowed to do the things that he has always been able to do.
There should be a new award in the NBA: the “Unshackled Player of the Year” award for players who are finally given the minutes they deserve thanks to a trade, a coaching shakeup, or other changes in circumstances. Tobias Harris would have probably won this award after he got traded away from Milwaukee. James Harden might have won it too. Such an award would be doubly awesome because there would also be a secret subtle component of shame for the organization that failed to tap into a player’s potential sooner. It’s like, if you had the UPotY on your roster at any point during his career, you made a major screw-up and you’re obviously ruining the development of all your young players all the time and basically, you’re frickin’ stupid.
I must ask once again: how come people don’t pay me for my sweet ideas?