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New Orleans Pelicans F Brandon Ingram was named the NBA’s Most Improved Player for the 2019-20 season on Monday night. Ingram won the award over Miami Heat C Bam Adebayo and Dallas Mavericks All-Star Luka Doncic. Here’s the full breakdown of the voting.
Brandon Ingram is your Most Improved Player.
— Fred Katz (@FredKatz) August 31, 2020
Full voting: pic.twitter.com/bNpdOCnBA3
This award is based off the regular season, but it’s still surprising to see Doncic get so few first-place votes. Doncic had a much bigger jump in terms of points per game and averaged more assists and rebounds than his rookie season. Ingram was great for the Pelicans but didn’t seem to take as big a jump as the other two finalists. Adebayo went from a bench player most of last season to an All-Star in 2019-20. The voting is very perplexing to say the least.
Even players like Jayson Tatum and Devonte’ Graham seem just as deserving as a player like Ingram, right? Tatum took another big step and was a leader for the Celtics pretty much all season, putting them in great position heading into the postseason. Graham came out of virtually nowhere to lead the Hornets in scoring. Charlotte wasn’t very good, but Graham had plenty of moments during the regular season. I mean, Graham went from averaging 4.7 points to 18.2 points and 7.5 assists! He took major strides from his rookie season.