Dyson Daniels Named NBA Most Improved Player

Dyson Daniels is the recipient of the George Mikan Trophy as the 24-25 NBA Most Improved Player. Daniels received 44 First Place Votes and 332 Total Points to finish ahead of Ivica Zubac and Cade Cunningham.

Presented annually since the 1985-86 season, the Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award is designed to honor an up-and-coming player who has made a dramatic improvement from the previous season or seasons. Daniels is the second player to earn the honor with the Hawks, joining Alan Henderson (1997-98).

In his third NBA season and first with Atlanta, Daniels averaged career highs of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.01 steals while shooting career highs of 49.3% from the field and 34.0% from three-point range in 33.8 minutes in 76 games. He became the fifth player to average at least 14.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals in a season, joining Michael Ray Richardson (1979-80), Magic Johnson (1980-81), Alvin Robertson (three times – 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1988-89) and Michael Jordan (1987-88).

Daniels improved his scoring by +8.3 ppg, rebounds by +2.0 rpg, assists by +1.7 apg and steals by +1.62 spg from last season. He is the third player to have improvements of at least +8.0 ppg, +2.0 rpg, +1.5 apg and +1.5 spg from one season to the next (minimum 50 games played each season), joining Richardson (1978-79 to 1979-80) and Eric Murdock (1991-92 to 1992-93).