Every year, the NLL awards one player with the Most Improved Player Award. This award is about who has exceeded our expectations in all areas of the game, scoring, rebounding, assists, etc. We are at the halfway point of the season, and it’s about that time to start thinking of who may be in contention for awards like this. This article will explore the early candidates, along with every teams MIP.

In order to start looking into this, I first had to gather data for each player. I couldn’t use advanced stats because I had to compare this season with last season, so I decided to focus in on the big three; points, rebounds, and assists. I went through every player on every team and compared this season with last and looked for players that had improvement. Not every team had a player that necessarily met these requirements, but I still tried my best to pick one for every team. On the same hand, some team had multiple guys that are much better this year, which made it difficult to pick one player.

After I selected each teams player, I had to find a way to quantify this data. I decided to weight each stat, and came up with 50% weight to points, 25% to rebounds, 25% to assists. This is mainly because we all value scoring much more than rebounding and assists, and there was no good way to compare a guard to a big when one rebounds and one passes. The downside to this is that it will obviously make frontcourt players less valuable in our system due to the fact that the engine favors guards heavily, but that can’t be helped right now.

Here is the formula used to calculate these rankings:

Multiplying by 10 is there to differentiate the rankings a little more, just a multiplier

After this, I was left with some interesting names, but a few confused me, and I realized I wasn’t taking into account minutes played. This is difficult because if a guy came off the bench last season, but starts this season, he’s obviously going to get better just on minutes played. On the same hand, he is obviously getting the start because he is a better player, so how do you account for this. I decided to adjust for the minutes differential between each year, and it gave me some more obvious answers. This method makes sense to me, as it shows that some players played better than just increased minutes would necessarily point to. Without much further ado, here is the top 5 MIP at the midway point!

  1)   Oklahoma City Small Forward Robert Covington

         MIP index: 15.3

This guy has improved in every area, but most importantly, his scoring is what made him clearly the cream of the crop. He’s averaging 22.5 points per contest, which puts him at #21 on the list in scoring. Not only that, but the guy has made more threes than anyone else in the league, that’s including guys like Steph Curry, James Harden, and Klay Thompson. Keep in mind he has literally tripled his minutes going from almost 14 to 37 minutes per contest. Even taking this into account, he STILL had the highest index rating. He clearly has improved a lot, and will factor into their future a lot. He has filled in great for injured forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist. The Thunder will be in an interesting dilemma when both guys are healthy as to who starts. The last great thing about Covington, 3 year deal at 1 Mil per….Oh yeah that’s ridiculous!

  2)  Sacramento Small Forward Corey Brewer

       MIP index 14.1

Brewer is definitely an older guy, but has had a great season thus far for the Kings. He’s increases his field goal percentage, three point percentage, and free throw percentage by a lot this season. This on top of getting the starting nod for most of the season has lead to a great season. On top of this, he has the 4^th highest +/- on the team. He’s actually number 11 in the league in 3 point percentage, which is amazing for a guy who’s not known as a sharpshooter. The last thing he brings is his defense. He is great at on ball D, and is one of the best guys in the league at fast breaks. For some reason, the Kings decided to bench him lately, which to me makes no sense because he is clearly one of the reasons they were at the top of the West for a good portion of the beginning of the season. Brewer has shined on a team with multiple all-stars. He would normally be seen as the odd man out, but has made himself incredibly valuable for the Kings. Hi stats will likely fall as he loses more minutes on the bench, but if he keeps shooting at the same clip, he has a good chance to get a big contract in the offseason.

  3)  Golden State Small Forward Harrison Barnes

       MIP index 13.8

Barnes has been injured for a lot of the season, but he has played in half of the Warriors games. The Warriors GM has been smart and held onto the most valuable asset the team has in Barnes. He’s rewarded them by increasing his points per game from 13.4 to 17.5 while only averaging about 2 minutes more per game this season. He’s also increased his rebounds by about 3 per game and assists by 1 per game. These aren’t out of this world improvements, but when you consider he did it while averaging about the same minutes, it’s pretty good. He’s on the last year of his rookie deal, and is sure to negotiate a big deal in the offseason, but luckily he is a restricted free agent, so he will likely be in Golden State next season. Golden State has some nice young players, but will have it’s work cut out for it as both members of the frontcourt will likely be gone at the end of the year. Will we be seeing Barnes play PF next season?

  4)  Milwaukee Bucks SF Giannis Antetokounmpo

       MIP index 13.4

This was actually one of the hardest decisions, deciding between the Greek Freak and his teammate Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Both guys have vastly improved this season, which has resulted in the Bucks being one of the best teams in the league. The thing that ended up helping Giannis the most is that he nearly doubled his points per game this season to 13.8 along with adding a rebound and an assist, while only putting 7 more minutes in per game. KCP increases his scoring output, but has been about the same on rebounds and assists. It looks like the patience of GM Badwolf has paid off for both of these guys though. Another thing that Giannis brings to the game is his defense, he averages 2.3 blocks + steals per game, which is amazing. He’s signed for 2 more seasons on his rookie deal, making him one of the best values in the league right now. You can bet the Bucks are going to have some decisions to make in 2 summers when Giannis, KCP, and Russell Westbrook are all up for new contracts. Will Badwolf keep his young guns, or will he trade one or two for even younger guns by then? Needless to say, Giannis has bright things in his future, and will continue to improve next season too.

  5)  San Antonio Small Forward Will Barton

       MIP index 13.2

This guy is not only one of the MIP in the NBA, he’s also a MIP candidate for the NLL. He’s over doubled his points, tripled his rebounds, and done this by getting some starting minutes for San Antonio. He was doing great off the bench in Orlando, but he’s shining as a starter in Texas. He’s doing all this while on one of the best contracts in the league at 3.5 per for 3 years. The other thing that is great is that he is only going to get better as his NLL ratings catch up with his NBA stats. Ever since he came to San Antonio, the Spurs have been shooting up the standings from one of the last place teams to now in playoff contention. When he gets more time starting for the Spurs, he will likely move up this list, and may be the finalist at the end of the year. Good find by Leeroy, and hopefully Barton just gets better!

For a full list of every team’s Most Improved Player, refer to the following figure: