It was announced by the NBA Friday morning that third-year Blazers shooting guard C.J. McCollum has been named the NBA Most Improved Player for the 2015-16 season.
Congratulations @CJMcCollum the NBA's 2015-16 Kia Most Improved Player! #EXCELing pic.twitter.com/EiZ3FbgOQG
— excel sports (@excelsm) April 22, 2016
McCollum basically tripled his output from the previous season in 20 more minutes per game, averaging 20.8 points, 4.3 assists, 3.2 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 35 minutes per game.
He went from a forgotten young developmental player to one of the best young shooting guards in the NBA. He helped form a top three back court with Damian Lillard this season, as the Blazers were the surprise team in the NBA and earned the 5th seed in the western conference.
He increased his field goal and three point percentage by two percent and shot a very impressive 42% from the three-point range as well as increased his free throw percentage by 13 percent, shooting 82.7% on the season.
Here is a breakdown of how the most improved voting turned out:
Congrats @CJMcCollum on Most Improved Player!! pic.twitter.com/YS1sBLL9f0
— Joe Simile (@IsoJoeNYK) April 22, 2016
There were a number of qualified candidates for the award this season, including the soon to be MVP himself Steph Curry.
McCollum becomes the 3rd Portland Trail Blazers to receive this award joining Zach Randolph and Kevin Duckworth.
Winning this award could bode well for McCollum’s future as here are some of the players who have won the award since the year 2000: Tracy McGrady, Jermaine O’Neal, Zach Randolph, Gilbert Arenas, Kevin Love, Paul George, Goran Dragic and Jimmy Butler. All of which are or have been stars in the league.
The only NBA honors yet to be announced are league MVP, Rookie of the Year, Coach of the Year and the All-NBA teams.
