End of Season Thunder Awards: Most Improved Player
Though no member of the Oklahoma City Thunder is likely to take home any of the NBA awards this season, the SI Thunder staff is going to hand out each award.
Up first? The Most Improved Player.
The Most Improved Player award is handed out to the player in the NBA who shows the most progress across the regular season, and the same criteria will be used for the Thunder Most Improved Player.
Nick Crain's Pick: Lu Dort
How could it not be Lu Dort? After making a tremendous jump throughout his rookie season that resulted in a contract conversion, Dort got even better this season.
While he proved himself as a lockdown defender as a rookie, his offensive game was extremely limited. As a focus for him in the offseason, he improved his 3-point shooting in a big way.
Dort more than tripled the 30 threes he made as a rookie, knocking down 113 of them in the 2020-21 season. Furthermore, he increased his 3-point percentage by 4.6 percent, bringing him to nearly 35.0 percent on the season.
A real NBA All-Defense type guy, Dort went from undrafted to a franchise cornerstone.
Derek Parker's Pick: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took massive strides towards stardom, and maybe even superstardom, in year three.
The guard added 4.7 points and 2.3 assists to his game this season, a hefty amount for a guard already averaging close to 20 points a game.
Dort made major improvements from beyond the 3-point line this season, but as far as overall efficiency goes, he stayed put.
Gilgeous-Alexander, remarkably, improved his overall field goal percentage and 3-point percentage taking more shots in both categories this season. That is ludicrous.
After hitting 3’s at 34 percent clip last season, he incredibly shot 42 percent in in 2020-21, on 1.3 more attempts per game. He raised his overall field goal percentage from 47 to 50 percent despite taking nearly two more shots a game.
Dort improved, but Gilgeous-Alexander is emerging into an entirely separate category.
Ryan Chapman's Pick: Lu Dort
At the end of last year, Thunder fans were wondering what they had in Lu Dort.
Had Oklahoma City found an Andre Roberson who could shoot? Had they found their own Patrick Beverly or Marcus Smart?
It turns out, Sam Presti found himself a Lu Dort.
Asked to play a bigger role in the offense, Dort excelled while still maintaining All-NBA levels of defense on the other end of the floor.
Doubling the field goals per game he was asked to take, Dort's shooting percentage remained the same while he shot nearly five percent better from 3-point range.
When he played without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and was asked to create, Dort was able to do that too, averaging one more assist per game than he did in his rookie season.
He even thrived as a primary scorer, logging seven straight games when he scored 15 points or more.
As Oklahoma City continues to add more talent through the draft, the sky is the limit on what Dort could be for the Thunder.
