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Nickeil Alexander-Walker was voted the NBA’s most improved player on Friday, beating out finalists Deni Avdija and Jalen Duren to become the second Hawks player to win the award in two years.
It was, by far, the best statistical season of Alexander-Walker’s career after Dyson Daniels won the trophy last season.
“I’m glad I love this game so much,” Alexander-Walker, a Toronto native, said. “I don’t know where I’d be without it. Glad that I had people who believed in me when I didn’t, and when they say it takes a village, I used every single person in mine.”
He scored a career-best 20.8 points per game, more than doubling his average from his first six pro seasons. He shot a career-best 46 per cent and averaged more assists (3.7), rebounds (3.4) and steals (1.3) than ever before.
Part of the rise in numbers was in part to a rise in minutes; he logged 2,603 this season, 530 more than his previous career best. That said, he earned those minutes — the 251 3-pointers, 277 free throws made, 40 per cent clip from 3-point range and 90 per cent clip from the foul line all were his best.
In the first year of a four-year, $62-million US contract with Atlanta, Alexander-Walker started the season as a sixth man and moved into the starting lineup early with Trae Young dealing with a knee injury. His status as a full-time starter was solidified after a January trade sent Young to Washington for CJ McCollum and Corey Kispert.
Alexander-Walker’s win adds to the award haul for his family; his cousin is Oklahoma City star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the reigning MVP and a finalist for MVP honours again this season.
“When you’re Shai’s cousin, a lot of times you get referred to as Shai’s cousin,” Alexander-Walker said. “Being recognized for being Nickeil Alexander-Walker feels great.”
Playing free
Daniels, one year removed from winning the award after leading the league in steals, said it’s more proof that the Hawks are elite in player development.
“I think Atlanta has a really good development pathway,” Daniels said Friday. “Guys come in here, get their work in, and [Atlanta head coach Quin Snyder is] really good at giving guys opportunities to play free and be themselves. That’s what Nickeil’s come in and done this year, and our offence has taken a huge jump.”
This was the fifth award to be announced by the NBA since the end of the regular season. The others:
- San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama became the youngest defensive player of the year, and the first to win the award in a unanimous vote.
- Gilgeous-Alexander nearly became the first unanimous winner of the clutch player of the year award. He got 96 of a possible 100 first-place votes.
- San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson topped Miami’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. for Sixth Man of the Year, getting 63 first-place votes.
Boston’s Derrick White won the Sportsmanship Award, edging Indiana’s TJ McConnell. That award, unlike most others, is selected solely by active NBA players.
Other award announcements still to come include:
- MVP (either Gilgeous-Alexander, Wembanyama or Denver’s Nikola Jokic)
- Coach of the year (either Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla)
- Rookie of the year (either Philadelphia’s VJ Edgecombe, Dallas’ Cooper Flagg or Charlotte’s Kon Knueppel).
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