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Jazz’s Markkanen reportedly the runaway winner of this award

By Jared Koch

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - FEBRUARY 23: Lauri Markkanen #23 of the Utah Jazz in action during a game at Vivint Arena on February 28, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images)
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH - FEBRUARY 23: Lauri Markkanen #23 of the Utah Jazz in action during a game at Vivint Arena on February 28, 2023 in Salt Lake City, Utah. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Alex Goodlett/Getty Images) /
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All-Star Lauri Markkanen looks to be the first player in Utah Jazz team history to win this award.

The Utah Jazz’s 2022-23 season was filled with a ton of players stepping up across the board to exceed expectations. If anyone exemplified that the most, it was Lauri Markkanen. It now seems as if he will now be getting the recognition he deserves for making the jump.

As the regular season comes to a close, the NBA media with a vote for the regular season have begun to voice who they’ll be choosing for their major award winners. Such as for the MVP, media personalities like Kendrick Perkins and Stephen A. Smith have already gone on record to state who they’ll be picking when it’s time to choose a winner. In this case, Perk voted for Giannis; Stephen A. voted for Embiid.

While this helps put a name and face with a vote, with a projected 100 total votes within the media, it can become hard to track who all votes for which player for what award. This is where Twitter, and specifically Max Croes (or @CroesFire) becomes super helpful.

Croes has taken every vote collected for known to the public and put it into a spreadsheet. This makes it much easier to track where the votes are coming from, and how the award races are looking on a grand scheme.

As the award race for Most Improved Player goes, Lauri Markkanen looks to be the clear winner up to this point. According to the award tracker, the current vote tally is 13-2, with the majority leaning toward Markkanen; the other two toward Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

While the voting still has a ways to go to complete, if the pace continues to keep up this way, Lauri should have no trouble taking home the award. Markkanen this season posted career-high averages in points, rebounds, assists, and field goal percentage, coming only a couple of games short from giving the “rebuilding” Jazz a play-in spot.

While we don’t know when the award winners will officially be announced, we could assume that they may be announced around the same timeline as last year. If so, the previous Most Improved Player award winner was announced on April 25, 2022; meaning we could see the results possibly come in within the next two weeks.

We’ll look to see if Markkanen can continue the momentum to become the first Jazz player in history to win the award.

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