Most of the time, the “NBA’s most improved player” is a guy that A. found the right situation due to coaching or personnel changes or B. is simply more experienced than the year before. Ex. KLove may be the same player this year that he was at the end of last year but he won’t be sharing minutes/points/rebounds with Al Jefferson.

That being said, during the high-school-to-the-pros era, “most improved” was pretty much the same as “guy that sucked last year”. I hope we never go back to the dark days of airball chucking 18 year-olds taking up roster spots ’cause they might get good one day.