After making the All-Star team for the first time in his four-year career, New Orleans Pelicans forward Brandon Ingram has been named the 2019-2020 Kia Most Improved Player in the NBA.
The honor is given to players who have shown a dramatic improvement in play from one season to another.
It wasn’t exactly a runaway victory, but Ingram did end up receiving 42 first-place votes from a panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters, earning him a total of 326 points. Finishing in second place was Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo. Emerging Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic finished in third place, though his performance this year makes him more of a front-runner for MVP honors than the most improved player.
Ingram averaged 24.3 points, 6.3 rebounds, 4.3 assists, and 1 steal in 34.3 minutes over the course of 56 games before the league went on hiatus because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Only six other players averaged at least 24 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal over that period of play, and all of them were big-name All-Stars (the aforementioned Doncic, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo, Rockets top scorers James Harden and Russell Westbrook, Lakers superstar LeBron James, and reigning NBA Most Valuable Player Kawhi Leonard of the Los Angeles Clippers).
