Phoenix Suns MIP: Who Will It Be?
By Eric Saar
Most Improved Player. It is an interesting award every year in the NBA that celebrates a particular player breaking onto the scene, becoming a household name to some extent.
The winner of this award is for one, obviously a player whose overall career is trending upward, but typically someone who has shown significant improvement in a short amount of time. Generally it’s a significant uptick in that player’s scoring average per game that came out of nowhere.
It’s not usually a free agent pickup, but just an individual improvement across the board almost always combined with an increased role, usage, etc.
Making this list of most improved players bodes well for a player’s career. Just take a look at some of the names from the last decade. Goran Dragic last season, Paul George, Kevin Love, Ryan Anderson, and Danny Granger, among others. There are some players whose greatest accomplishment so far in their career was that award, including Aaron Brooks, Monta Ellis and Hedo Turkoglu.
This year the award will almost certainly go to the Bulls’ Jimmy Butler, who went from a decent role player to an All-Star and basically Chicago’s franchise player. We’re more interested however in which player would be the Phoenix Suns’ Most Improved Player.
With so much roster turnover and turmoil this season, there hasn’t been much continuity.
This award is somewhat difficult to nail down because it isn’t necessarily just the player who had the biggest points per game differential from last year. Taking into account all the games from this year and last, throwing in some stats, I’ll paint a picture of how much these players have improved in all areas of their game. This could include playmaking, shooting percentages, defense, leadership, and more.
I’ve narrowed it down to Eric Bledsoe, Markieff Morris, Alex Len, Archie Goodwin and P.J. Tucker.
Eric Bledsoe
With all the changes through the season, Bledsoe had to shoulder a lot of the load. The Suns shipped out three point guards, and with Brandon Knight sidelined, he is the only point guard on the floor.
While Bled isn’t necessarily a vocal leader, his leadership has improved as has his shooting efficiency. He leads by example, playing with intensity, while still keeping his emotions in check for the most part.
Turnovers are still his Achilles heel and the biggest barrier standing in front of an All-Star berth in the future. Bledsoe really has improved this season, and will be able to continue that as the undisputed “top dog” next season.
Markieff Morris
The “elder” Morris twin has just been plain clutch. When people are making flow charts telling the team to get you the ball in the fourth quarter, you know you can be relied upon when the team needs a bucket. Shoutout to the Suns’ Ben York for creating the flowchart.
Keef has certainly flourished this year. Last season, he was the stud off the bench, sparking Suns’ runs while all the stars were resting on the bench. He went from that to average, or above average, starting power forward in one offseason.
Alex Len
“The Kraine” has just improved by leaps and bounds this season. He was the second or third string center last season as he was oft-injured. Now he is the starting center and a good one at that.
In 2013-14 I saw glimpses of the greatness that we will see from Len, and it was just laughable. He was already so good and didn’t have the mature body to bang with the big boys yet.
His jumpshot is nearly there, his rebounding is skyrocketing and he seems to change an absurd number shots around the rim, to say nothing of the ones he blocks outright!
Archie Goodwin
Goodwin’s recent uptick is certainly due to getting consistent playing time within the rotation now that the Suns’ guard logjam turned into a guard scarcity. Still, he seems to be continuing to fix his three point shot and gain confidence in his shot.
Still his amazing ability to get to the rim is his greatest asset. His speed, change of direction and ability to finish through contact are amazing to behold. He just needs to continue improving his defense technique and focus, get rid of the little mistakes as well as fixing that jumpshot.
We’ll leave him out of the conversation for now as he is just starting to gain rotation minutes. He’ll be in the thick of this conversation for many years to come.
P.J. Tucker
Tucker has improved one aspect of his game every year he’s been in the league. First season with the Suns he learned the NBA game (defensive concepts, personnel, etc) while using hustle to secure his place on the roster. The next year he added a lethal three-point shot from either corner. This year his ball-handling and playmaking has gotten better and he’s trying to shoot from more than just the corners. This year the improvements haven’t been as evident. All this is while he continues to have the most heart, grit, intensity and hustle of any Suns player.
Tucker won’t win this award either because his improvements are too subtle and over a longer period of time. Plus his usage isn’t high enough to be recognized. In other words he isn’t the focal point on offense. With the full lineup, he’s the fifth and last option.
Comparisons
If we take a look at the three player’s points per game averages we see Eric Bledsoe’s has actually slightly gone down from 17.7 to 17.3 PPG. However, Markieff’s went up from 13.8 to 15.3 and Len’s went from 2.0 to 6.3 PPG. None of these are too drastic but interesting as from last year to this year, Bledsoe’s minutes per game went up by a couple minutes a night, Markieff adds a few more a game and Len nearly triples his minutes per game from eight to 21.
In terms of rebounds and assists per game, with Dragic gone, Bledsoe got a slight boost in both those categories. Keef’s rebounding suffered slightly, but his assists rose. Both Len’s rebounding numbers and block numbers skyrocketed in his second year in the league.
On defense there are some metrics starting to emerge that can help us quantify what we see, but with all three players playing different positions, and having different strengths it would be tough to compare with statistics. I’ll just tell you what I see.
Len just changes so many shots. He blocks a few and gobbles up the rest in the form of rebounds, turning it into energy on the other end and massive primitive screams and fist-pumps. He’s the defensive anchor and does so much to deter the opponent. Unfortunately, he fouls too much. Most of that is inexperience.
Bledsoe is a fantastic on-ball defender when he is engaged mentally. He is so strong and so quick laterally, he can stay with guys and not back down when they try and get physical. Unfortunately, he’s not always engaged and can get beat.
Markieff is just an average defender. He is in between an oversized power forward (his position) and an undersized center at 6’10”. He is fast enough to switch on pick and roll coverage, but physical enough to hold his ground on the block. But he can routinely get beat if his opponent is skilled.
Overall, we’ve seen each of these three guys from different perspectives, seeing how they’ve improved this last year and the answer has to be Alex Len. Due to his increased role, his numbers have really skyrocketed, making him an important piece going forward instead of just an injury-plagued rookie with some potential with a lot to prove.
That’s a really hard thing to do, keep your efficiency and effectiveness in a significantly increased role. But Len is doing it, and that’s why he earns the MIP award for this Suns team.