Raptors’ Most Improved Player of 15-16 might surprise you

A number of Raptors enjoyed excellent years in 2015-16. Who improved the most?

The Toronto Raptors could not have improved their record from 49 to 56 regular season wins (and zero to ten in the post-season) without demonstrable improvement from many players. Is there an objective way to figure out who took the biggest step forward?

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Life is too short to compare season over season PER ratings (and PER is shaky anyway), so I’ve taken a look at a slideshow from Hoopshype. They have borrowed the rankings from NBA2K16, which lists players according to a synthetic stat called OVR, or OVerall Ranking.

Moving from 83 to 89 is none other than DeMar DeRozan. He’s the only Raptor of the 27 players listed.

I’m always interested in improving players, as improving teams often result. From that perspective, the future is bright for teams like Golden State (there’s a surprise!) and the Nuggets, each with 3 players on the MIP list. The biggest jump in OVR belongs to Portland’s C.J. McCollom, who leapt from 72 to 84 on the strength of a breakout season which brought him the NBA’s Most Improved Player award. The previous three winners were, respectively, Jimmy Butler, Goran Dragic, and Paul George, so I pay attention.

I don’t pretend to understand or agree with the rankings. If I read the website properly (which isn’t easy given the number of spelling and grammar mistakes, e.g. “Three cover athelets [sic] Stephen Curry is the highest rated point guards player, James Harden of shooting guards and Anthony Davis of power forwards in NBA 2K16.”  Who edits their stuff?)  Russell Westbrook also earns an 89. I think highly of DeRozan, but Westbrook is a beast.

Back to the Raptors. Who might next year’s MIP turn out to be? Given the relative youth of many of our players, the possibilities are quite extensive. Norman Powell might make a huge leap, assuming he gets the playing time he needs. He’s already defied the odds by making the team as a rookie, an unheralded second-round selection to boot. He may only be getting started.

We’ve been waiting for Terrence Ross – could next season be the one we’ve all thought him capable of?

I’m going to go out on a limb…well, not really…and suggest Jonas Valanciunas is the most likely candidate to crank up his performance. He was bidding fair to be the Raptors’ main man of the playoffs until he landed badly on his ankle against Miami. To date, his career has been hampered by injuries. He missed a bunch of games in his rookie season due to a broken ring finger, then managed to have a different finger broken by Kobe Bryant in November 2015.

There’s no reason to believe JV is injury-prone. He started 161 of 164 games in the two seasons prior to this one, and you can’t be Andrea Bargnani-soft while racking up that kind of record.

Jonas has shown he can dominate on the low blocks while unveiling a number of interesting moves, many of them probably learned from the Master, Hakeem Olajuwon. His shot is accurate out to about 15 feet, and he has been encouraged by coaches and teammates to take “good” jumpers as often as he likes.

Defensively he’s incomplete, but I like what he’s doing more and more. JV is staying grounded, yet his blocked shots are up and his personal fouls are down.

Next: Raptors best draft picks ever - slideshow

I look forward to writing a version of this post a year from now, in which we celebrate at least two Raptors who have cracked the NBA2K17 list of Most Improved. JV and TRoss – make it so!