Utah Jazz: End of season awards if the season is over

Most Improved Player

There’s been some good improvements across the board for lots of Jazzmen this season, including slight upticks in volume and efficiency for Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, who are making the most of their increased playing time.

But Mudiay gets the honors this time. The funny thing is you would have no idea based off of his stats from last year to this year that he’s become a much more well-rounded player.

He was drafted as a raw, lanky point guard with lots of room for growth. Similar to when Dante Exum was drafted by the Jazz, the Nuggets’ best plan of interest was to let him play with no leash or playing time restrictions.

Jazz play-by-play announcer David Locke has compared this idea before to an oreo cookie and a glass of milk. To develop a young prospect into a player, you need to expose him to making mistakes when the game counts.

To moisten that chocolate crust of the cookie, you need to dip it in the milk. If you dip it for too long though, the texture becomes mushy and it doesn’t live up to the potential it had as a brand new cookie from the sleeve.

Mudiay was on the verge of becoming mush at the bottom of this milk cup, after being yanked from top prospect on the Denver Nuggets, to a bench player, then back to full starters’ minutes on the Knicks who had poor coaching and little structure to their team EM was trying to run as point guard.

He recognized that he needed to get out and learn how to play the right way, and he’s done exactly that with the Utah Jazz under Quin Snyder’s tutelage. He’s decision making is better on when to attack in transition, or when to slow it down and run a halfcourt set.

And his favorite move, posting up in the high post, has worked against second unit defenses this year. Yes, there’s a chance this is just him playing well in a good system full of shooters. Yes, there’s a chance he can’t do this against starting unit defenses.

But I’m more bullish on EM, and I can see him being a steal on the 2020 free agency market for a team looking for a point guard.

He can play real minutes, as in 25-30 per game, and not be a negative on the court, which is something he couldn’t say before this season. Most Improve goes to EM.

Honorable Mention: Tony Bradley

The growth by Bradley this year was awesome to see, and much needed for the Jazz to remain a dangerous playoff team. Check out his stats from before and after the turn of the calendar on January 1st:

• Before: 4.0 points, 3.3 rebounds, 61.3 FG%, -0.9
• After: 5.2 points, 5.1 rebounds, 69.9 FG%, +1.4

Just the fact that he is no longer a negative on the court is a great bonus for the Jazz this season. Add in his high field goal percentage, and the Jazz should be pleased that they picked up his option last fall.