New Orleans Pelicans: Jrue Holiday should be the favorite to win the NBA’s MIP

The combination of the New Orleans Pelicans competing for a playoff spot and Jrue Holiday being a primary ball handler should make him the favorite to win the MIP award

There is a misconception within the NBA community that the Most Improved Player award is given to the player with the most significant statistical improvement from year to year. ESPN wrote an article suggesting that C.J. McCollum was awarded the trophy over Kemba Walker (2016) because he had the greater statistical improvement from one season to the next.

McCollum averaged 20.8 points with 4.3 assists and 3.2 rebounds on 69.5 touches. This was an increase of 14 points, 3.3 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 46.7 touches from the previous season.

Conversely, Walker averaged 20.9 points with 5.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds on 88.5 touches. This was an increase of 3.6 points, 0.1 assists, 0.9 rebounds and a decrease of 1.1 touches from the previous season.

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Unfortunately, the narrative was only temporary as Giannis Antetokounmpo beat Nikola Jokic to win the award in 2017. Giannis averaged 22.9 points with 5.4 assists and 8.8 rebounds on 82.1 touches. This was an increase of 6 points, 1.1 assists, 1.1 rebounds and 13.3 touches from the previous season.

On the other hand, Jokic averaged 16.7 points with 4.9 assists and 9.8 rebounds on 67.8 touches. This was an increase of 6.7 points, 2.5 assists, 2.8 rebounds and 20.9 touches from the previous season.

However, one can argue that the criteria to determine the most improved player award is a combination of team success and statistical improvement. Antetokounmpo and Jokic’s statistical improvement was within range of each other, but the deciding factor was Milwaukee making the playoffs. The Bucks captured the 6th seed with 42 wins while Denver missed the playoffs as a 9th seed with 40 wins.

As a result of this, one can argue that Jrue Holiday should be the favorite to win the most improved player award. Holiday’s current team the New Orleans Pelicans are projected to compete for a playoff spot in the west as Las Vegas Westgate has them winning 45.5 games.

Furthermore, head coach Alvin Gentry expressed a continued desire to play with pace stating that:

"“The big thing is we have to try to push it all of the possessions. And when we can get to that point, I think everything else is very correctable. We have to get to the point where our mentality is that side out of bounds, baseline out of bounds, really anything, we have to push it hard.We have to get it into the frontcourt, and then we can slow down and execute stuff. But we want to always try to keep the defense on their heels.”"

Gentry’s commitment to playing with pace indicates that Jrue should run a significant amount of pick and roll. This is because the New Orleans Pelicans led all playoffs in speed at 104.61. A substantial contribution to the team’s pace was Jrue Holiday being 8th in pick and roll possessions with 8.4 per game.

Due to this, Holiday is projected to have the ball in his hands for a significant portion of games which will help him amass points and assists. For example, the pick and roll will allow Jrue to study the opposing defense to determine what is the right play on a specific possession.

In that offensive system, Holiday can bring the ball up to the 3-point line and call for a screen. Once the pick is set, Jrue can pay attention to his defender to determine the course of action. If the defender stays under the screen, he can either shoot the ball immediately or go over the screen to shoot a mid-range jumper.

If the defender fights over the screen, he can go over it as well and drive towards the basket to score or pass the basketball depending on whether a double team comes.

In conclusion, it should help Jrue raise his season averages to what they were in the playoffs. He averaged 23.7 points with 6.3 assists and 5.7 rebounds which was an increase of 4.7 points, 0.3 assists and 1.2 rebounds from the regular season.