Detroit Pistons: Jerami Grant is a finalist for MIP. Will he win?

Yesterday it was announced that Jerami Grant of the Detroit Pistons was one of three finalists for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award.

It’s been a long time since a Piston was up for an award, so it’s nice to see Grant get some recognition for his breakout season with Detroit.

Unfortunately, I doubt Jerami Grant will actually win the award, as Julius Randle is the frontrunner and his New York Knicks are headed to the playoffs while the Detroit Pistons are headed for the lottery.

I am not a fan of using team success for individual rewards, but I do understand the logic behind it and Randle has had a fantastic season that has him in the MVP conversation. Even though Grant has predicted the Detroit Pistons will “do something big” next season, they haven’t yet, while Randle’s Knicks are headed to the Eastern Conference playoffs.

But is Randle really the most IMPROVED player?

If we are going strictly on the meaning of this word, then there is a strong argument for Jerami Grant to win.

Detroit Pistons: Jerami Grant improved more than Julius Randle

If we are looking solely at improvement, then Jerami Grant should win this award over Julius Randle.

Randle was already a very good player who has averaged 17.4 points per game for his career, and scored 19.5 per game last season to lead the Knicks.

He did jump all the way up to 24 points per game, grabbed 10.2 rebounds (tied for his career high) and notched six assists per game, which was a career high.

The only big jump game in assists, as Randle had never averaged more than 3.8 per game. He became the Knicks’ primary playmaker and his scoring and rebounding numbers put him in elite company.

Randle was already a very good player who went up a notch in every category.

Grant on the other hand, was a role player for the Denver Nuggets last season who averaged 12 points, 3.5 rebounds and 1.2 assists. This season he was the Pistons’ number one scoring option and jumped all the way up to 22.3 points per game, nearly doubling his scoring average, while adding 4.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists.

Randle is definitely the better offensive player, but Grant also stepped up on defense, becoming the Pistons’ best defender and guarding multiple positions, something that Randle does not do.

The only argument against Grant is that he only played 54 games (largely do to Pistons’ tanking) while Randle played 71, so if you want to give it to Randle because of that, I can’t argue.

But if we are going strictly on improvement, Grant nearly doubled all of his numbers while Randle basically went up a notch in scoring and nearly doubled his assists.

You can’t really go wrong either way, and I am sure Randle will ultimately win, but Grant has a strong argument if we are staying with the spirit of the award.