{"id":408,"date":"2018-02-27T09:15:07","date_gmt":"2018-02-27T14:15:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/?p=408"},"modified":"2018-02-27T02:52:46","modified_gmt":"2018-02-27T07:52:46","slug":"spencer-dinwiddie-headlines-candidates-for-most-improved-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/2018\/02\/27\/spencer-dinwiddie-headlines-candidates-for-most-improved-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Spencer Dinwiddie headlines candidates for Most Improved player"},"content":{"rendered":"

This season, the level of play\u00a0seen\u00a0on a nightly basis each night has been impressive and a pleasure to watch. We have seen guys like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving continue their dominance, but we have also watched players improve their game drastically and surprised many viewers from early October to late February. There are many candidates up for the most improved player award and all have nicely impressed with their performances this year.<\/span><\/p>\n

With that being said, let’s take a look who might take him the award this year.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Spencer Dinwiddie<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\"Image<\/span><\/p>\n

Photo via Newsday<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0A G-League signing a year ago, Dinwiddie earned a starting role for the Brooklyn Nets after taking over injuries to Jeremy Lin and D\u2019Angelo Russell forced him into an increased role. His journey as an NBA player has been a rollercoaster, as he has bounced around the league and had to earn his way back to the NBA from the G-League.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Dinwiddie has upped his scoring average from 7.3 ppg in 2016-2017 to 13.5ppg in 2017-2018. Another interesting stat is he is leading the league in assist to turnover ratio at 4.2 ahead of players like Chris Paul and Darren Collison. His stats don\u2019t jump off the page, but watching him play, you can see why his name is starting to pop up around the league. He has been huge in huge wins against the Timberwolves and Cavaliers and has played well, even in tough losses against teams like the Raptors where he scored 31 points and 8 assists. Overall he has been very clutch in Brooklyn’s 19 wins this season and has shown the ability to be a capable starting PG in the league. He isn\u2019t a strong candidate to win the award, but deserves to be nominated nonetheless.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Kris Dunn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

Photo via NBC Sports<\/span><\/p>\n

After a rough rookie year with Timberwolves, Dunn was part of the Jimmy Butler that got him sent to Chicago. Since the trade, he has upped his scoring averages from 3.8ppg to 13.3ppg and has averaged six assists a game while starting for the Bulls this year. Another big leap is he is averaging two steals a game, showing how solid of a defender he is. <\/span><\/p>\n

Dunn looks to be a promising guard who can be part of the Bulls core for years to come. He is quick, athletic, has improved his passing, and looks he can be an elite defender at the PG position. He has changed the perceptions of critics from last year and at 23, he still has plenty of time to progress.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Aaron Gordon<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Image<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0Photo via Indiana Sports Coverage<\/span><\/p>\n

The Magic have had it rough since trading Dwight Howard in 2012. They have gone through their fair share of setbacks and haven\u2019t had much luck landing impact players in the draft. Gordon has been their best pick in the last 5 years and has certainly proved to be someone the team can build around. His improvement from last year has been noteworthy. He has upped his scoring averages from 12.7ppg to 18.2ppg, he is shooting 35% from three and averaging a career-high 8.2 rebounds per game.<\/span><\/p>\n

He is the bright spot for a team struggling to find relevancy. His transformation this year has made it known that he has the potential to be an exciting star, like he was projected to be when he was drafted in the first round of the 2014 NBA draft. He is an exciting player who we know can dunk, like his showing in the 2016 dunk contest, and is the perfect versatile forward in the game who can play the three or\u00a0four. He is more than deserving of the award with his play this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0Victor Oladipo<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\"Image<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 Photo via Hoops Habit<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0The expectations on Victor Oladipo coming into the season weren’t much and many didn’t expect the former Magic and Thunder guard to transform from an average starting guard to an all-star in one season. He jumped his scoring average from 15.9 \u00a0to 24.2 and is shooting a career high in field goal percentage (.481%). In general, he has upped his stats in all categories from rebounding, 3 point percentage, and assists. Most importantly, he has actually contributed his improvement individually to team wins as the Pacers are now sitting 5th in the Eastern Conference standings. He has started to show why the Pacers acquired him in the Paul George trade and has basically replaced George that easy. He is a fun, high flying guard, who seems to have the all-around games, elite guards like DeRozan, Beal. He is a huge favorite for this award and rightfully so. His transformation is one of the best stories this year and he has earned all the respect he has been getting.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Ryan Beltran can be contacted at Ryan.Beltran@student.shu.edu<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This season, the level of play\u00a0seen\u00a0on a nightly basis each night has been impressive and a pleasure to watch. We have seen guys like Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving continue their dominance, but we have also watched players improve their game drastically and surprised many viewers from early October to late February. There are many…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4134,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,1],"tags":[112,113,111,104],"class_list":["post-408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nba","category-uncategorized","tag-aaron-gordon","tag-kris-dunn","tag-spencer-dinwiddie","tag-victor-oladipo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4134"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=408"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":427,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408\/revisions\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}