Brooklyn Nets: The case for D’Angelo Russell to win Most Improved Player

After a slow start to his career, Brooklyn Nets point guard D’Angelo Russell has found his groove and should be in the talks for the Most Improved Player Award.

In 2016, before having D’Angelo Russell, the Brooklyn Nets were dead last in the Eastern Conference with a record of 20 wins and 62 losses. It was a pattern for previous seasons to be at the bottom of the conference and the team was very limited in options they had to get better.

Their division rivals, the Boston Celtics were benefiting off the team’s poor performance with their hasty decisions to trade away first round draft picks in 2014, 2016, 2018 and the ability to swap first round picks in 2017.

The only way the Nets were going to get notable young players was in a trade, and that was not going to come without adding on some cap space in the process. On June 23rd, 2017, the Nets took the risk of trading for the Los Angeles Lakers young point guard in D’Angelo Russell, who was rushed off the team to go after UCLA point guard Lonzo Ball and Timofey Mozgov who the Lakers sent off for salary cap relief.

In return, Los Angeles would receive the 27th overall pick in the 2017 NBA draft and Brook Lopez. Looking now, this trade would help D’Angelo Russell change the whole dynamic of the Brooklyn Nets.

In 2017, Russell still had a respectable year but was plagued with injuries, only playing 48 games. He averaged 15.5 points a game, 5.2 assists, and 3.9 rebounds. Going into this season, Russell has been injury free, only missing one game and stepping up into that leader role the Nets desperately need especially when Caris LeVert went down with a scary ankle injury for three months and Spencer Dinwiddie was out for about a month with a thumb injury.

With that, Russell has carried the weight of this team and only getting better by improving on his previous years. This season, Russell is averaging 20.8 points a game with 7.0 assists and 3.6 rebounds. Russell has improved in points per game (20.8), assists (7.0), steals (1.2), Free Throw Percentage (77.2%), Three-Point Percentage (36.1%) and Field Goal Percentage (43.1%) which he leads in most categories in the team alongside games played and minutes played.

With the 2019 All-Star improving all around in each category, he is becoming a more complete player on the court with showing his playmaking ability more and creating more opportunities for other players on the court and there is no doubt he is thriving with the various pieces he has. With the veteran presence of Jared Dudley, Ed Davis, and DeMarre Carroll, Russell is in the right system to slowly take the leading position of this team.

All season, Russell has stepped up when the team needed him too, and we’ve seen that in games where he has scored 40 points against conference rival Orlando Magic and had two rebounds and seven assists to go along in the win.

The biggest win of the Nets season came from Russell against the Sacramento Kings where the Nets came back from a 25 point deficit where he scored 27 points in the fourth quarter to total out to 44 points overall.

When Russell is not on the court making a difference, we see him leading the charge on the bench as well, hyping up his players and setting an encouraging atmosphere on the team.

The Nets have put their trust into their budding star by letting him play an average of 30.2 minutes a game and it is paying off in a big way as he has led the Nets in a position they have not seen in a while and that is a playoff push. If the Nets can make the playoffs in this very competitive Eastern Conference, D’Angelo Russell should receive the NBA’s Most Improved Player Award.

Other names that have come into the conversation is De’Aaron Fox of the Sacramento Kings and Pascal Siakam of the Toronto Raptors. Although we have seen a statistical jump from both of these players with Fox averaging 17.6 points, 7.3 assists, 3.8 rebounds and Siakam averaging 17 points, 3.1 assists, 6.9 rebounds. Fox and the Kings have seen a successful season, but they will most likely be on the outside looking in as they look like they will finish in ninth in the Western Conference.

When it comes to Siakam, he has also seen a jump in stats, but he is not seen as the leader on the Raptors and the impact Russell has done for the Nets has been more notable. Although some of these players might have bigger improvements numbers wise, Russell’s journey to Brooklyn and what he has done so far should speak for itself.

D’Angelo Russell was exiled out of Los Angeles and was forced to start all over again in a different environment where he has been embraced fully. He has pushed the Brooklyn Nets from a laughingstock of the league to a team that should be feared if they make the playoffs.

His impact on this team and his improvement in all categories should not be overlooked in the Most Improved Player race.