2 weeks Ago By Dan Favale
Is it too early to revisit our Week 1 predictions for the most improved NBA players of the 2024-25 regular season? As it turns out, not at all. Especially when some of those projections are already aging like milk. This latest installment will follow similar criteria with just a couple of alterations.
Tiers are staying. Feel free to clap. We will also be adding two more tiers for a total of five.
The breakdown is as follows: Only one player will be selected per bucket, an adjustment that makes life harder on yours truly while leaving more wiggle room for you, dear scroller, to get angry. (*Looking inwardly.* Why am I making this adjustment again?) Finally, anyone who logged under 1,000 minutes last season will be excluded from consideration.
This is an (inexact) attempt to weed out anyone who may be working off an incredibly low baseline of action. Tre Mann has my apologies. Selections are bound to change, because, well, they've already shifted from the initial exercise.
This is my best guess at which players have done enough and will continue to do enough to place atop each of these tiers by season's end. Despite the New Orleans Pelicans' longstanding need for three-point volume, Jordan Hawkins did not enter his sophomore campaign with a clear runway to more playing time. Then, well, the Pelicans happened.
This is to say: Injuries happened. Extended absences from Dejounte Murray and Trey Murphy—and now Herb Jones and CJ McCollum—have given Hawkins an unforeseen opportunity. He's seizing it.
The 22-year-old is averaging 17.6 points while banging in 37.5 percent of his nearly seven three-point attempts per game—numbers that cannot possibly hold if and when the Pelicans get fully healthy, but production that validates his value all the same.
Defenses are panicking before he ever catches the ball, because he moves away from it so damn much. And while the functional shooting is impressive, his bag of on-ball counters stands out even more. Hawkins has the handle to attack closeouts or knife past over-aggressive chasers.
His shot selection and takeoff points inside the arc can be all over the place. But he has showcased the handle necessary to inject variance into his shot profile and is currently hitting a rock-solid 46.7 percent of his pull-up twos.
Hawkins' spot in this tier is ripe for dethronement as the Pelicans get healthier. And yet, New Orleans' need for offensive versatility isn't going anywhere. Defensive warts and all, Hawkins is presently showing enough remain part of the full-strength rotation.
Honorable Mention: Gradey Dick, Toronto Raptors RJ Barrett looked like a completely different player after getting traded to the Toronto Raptors last season. That version of him endures. Yes, Barrett is less efficient inside the arc amid injuries to Scottie Barnes and Immanuel Quickley, but the relentless driving , chaos creation in the paint , perpetual pressure in transition and better finishing around the rim (compared to his time in New York) all remain.
And he's now leveled up another part of his game to boot: playmaking. Nobody should expect his nearly eight assists per game to hold. Both Barnes and Quickley will eat into his touch time upon return.
But the improvements he has made are far-reaching and can translate to a full-strength rotation as someone who spearheads second units without one or both of Scottie and IQ on the court. Nearly every aspect of Barrett's decision-making looks better. Defensive pressure isn't fazing him nearly as much, if at all.
He is throwing slicker pocket passes. And his patience as well as awareness in transition are at an all-time high. This is all neatly packaged alongside a shot profile that feels more scalable than ever.
We have already seen what Barrett can do when he's afforded ample opportunities to move away from the ball, and he's now nailed over 38 percent of his threes since joining the Raptors—a sample that's getting large enough to take seriously. Just to drive this home, here is every player currently averaging at least 25 points and seven assists on the season: Barrett, Luka Dončić and Nikola Jokić. Honorable Mention: Ivica Zubac, Los Angeles Clippers If asked before this season whether the best player on the next really good iteration of the Washington Wizards was already on the team or yet to be acquired, most of us almost certainly would have tilted toward the latter.
Bilal Coulibaly apparently takes offense to that hypothetical. The season-over-season improvement from the 20-year-old sophomore is bonkers. His ascension is most notable on offense.
Just look at the numbers: Expanded roles tend to come with downticks in efficiency. Coulibaly is currently disproving this assumption, and he has room to continue upending it if and when he hits a rougher patch. Washington has yet to give him a defined role on offense.
That's part of his charm. He provides extended glimpses into on-ball bandwidth and certainly looks more comfortable handling the ball while navigating half-court traffic. But he doesn't actually need the ball.
He will set screens and cut and spot-up. This is the type of player who drops 15-plus entirely within the flow of the offense, often without you ever realizing he eclipsed that benchmark. Actualizing the cornerstone label may require a few more bumps in his playmaking and self-creation.
Or his defense might just bridge the gap entirely by itself. The Wizards roll out Coulibaly against the other team's best player regardless of whether they're a small advantage creator, power wing or burly forward. He continues to hold his own in virtually every matchup.
Blanketing slighter guards and wings is more his speed, but he's already given problems to bigger guys. Just imagine what he'll be able to do as he continues to get stronger. Honorable Mention: Jaden Ivey, Detroit Pistons Jalen Suggs' nutshell case is convincing without any elaboration.
He is a serial All-Defense candidate who has sacrificed little to nothing on the less glamorous end while gradually shouldering more and more offensive responsibility. This trend has not slowed in 2024-25. If anything, it is about to accelerate.
Paolo Banchero is out indefinitely with an oblique injury, leaving the Orlando Magic paper over the absence of their offense's lifeblood by committee. Suggs is not a picture-perfect candidate to run an offense. He is closer to his best when making decisions after being delivered the ball rather than as the from-scratch initiator.
Still, the more methodical part of his game is coming along. His surveillance of the defense both in the half-court and transition oozes additional patience, and he's getting better at throwing entry and cross-floor passes. The Magic are experimenting with more complex usage for him, and the initial returns are encouraging.
He continues to struggle working out of pick-and-rolls, but he has already received more post-ups than all of last season and is far more likely to get downhill from a dead stop and draw fouls. Whether the pull-up jumper will ever fall enough to be an operable weapon remains debatable. He makes up for the ambiguity with higher-IQ plays on drives and by nailing over 47 percent of his spot-up triples —on meaningful volume.
Orlando's offense will almost assuredly remain underwater without Banchero anyway. But Suggs may be the most likely candidate to help limit the damage. He has significantly upped his scoring (12.
6 points to 17.6) and self-creation, and the frequency with which he's looking to set up others is staggering even relative to last season's improvement. Never mind the actual assists, which are up.
He's averaging 11.3 potential dime s, a measurable uptick from the 4.8 he churned out in 2023-24.
Honorable Mention: Jalen Green, Houston Rockets Evan Mobley is building a dual-case for the actual Most Improved Player award as well as Defensive Player of the Year. Seriously. The latter part of his game needs no preamble.
He is equal parts perimeter-checker and rim-protector. That he handles some tough outside-in assignments while also leading the Cleveland Cavaliers in contests at the hoop is a brand of absurdity I'm not sure any of us fully appreciate. Opponents are also shooting just 49 percent at the rim when challenged by him—one of the five stingiest marks among everyone who has faced at least 40 point-blank looks.
Mobley's Most Improved Player argument really comes together on the offensive end. The scoring doesn't necessarily pop. His 17.
6 points per game are a personal best but not far off the 15.6 he averaged through his first three seasons. The revelations lie in his overall physicality, aggression and added layers of dynamism.
Attacking and finishing in the face of traffic and contact is no longer Kryptonite. Mobley looks stronger but is playing even stronger than that. The 1.
13 points per possession he's averaging as the roll man would be a career-high. And the volume features some real tough finishes that, in all likelihood, will remain essential during the minutes he spends next to Jarrett Allen. His face-up game, meanwhile, is truly popping.
He finished 5.6 drives per 36 minutes last year. That number has rocketed to 10.
7 this season . He has room to play-make more in those situations, but for now, the extra pressure he's putting on set defenses is a big deal. And while he could stand to nudge up his three-point volume, he is more willing to take them—and just so happens to be hitting 'em at a 40-percent clip.
Transitioning from star prospect to actual star is among the hardest leaps to make. It may have taken longer than many hoped or anticipated to get there, but rest assured, the more complete (yet still unfinished) version of Evan Mobley has arrived. Honorable Mention: Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City Thunder Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report.
Follow him on Twitter ( @danfavale ), and subscribe to the Hardwood Knocks podcast, co-hosted by Bleacher Report's Grant Hughes . Unless otherwise cited, stats courtesy of NBA.com , Basketball Reference , Stathead or Cleaning the Glass and accurate entering games on Nov.
6. Salary information via Spotrac . Draft-pick obligations via RealGM .
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