Charlotte Hornets: 5 players who will challenge Devonte’ Graham for Most Improved

Bam Adebayo

My pick for the Most Improved Player of the Year going into the season was Miami’s Bam Adebayo, and he’s showing why with his incredible play this season for a very good and very real Miami Heat team. I’d say he and Graham are the two top candidates as of today.

After (finally) trading Hassan Whiteside over the summer, Adebayo has finally been able to claim the starting spot that he has deserved for some time now. He’s been one of the two best players on a Heat team that is fighting for the first seed in the Eastern Conference with a 20-8 record.

He’s also coming off winning Player of the Week honors in the Eastern Conference, securing two triple-doubles in the process. I mean, this guy is a monster, and it’s so cool to see Miami fully unleash him and use him in a Draymond Green like role.

Adebayo is averaging 15.5 points, 11.1 rebounds 4.6 assists, 1.5 steals and 1.3 blocks while shooting 57 percent from the floor. He’s stuffing the stat sheet on a daily basis and will be in heavy consideration when it comes to picking All-Star reserves later on during the season.

For comparison, Adebayo averaged 8.9 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.2 assists for the Heat last season. The thing with Adebayo is that most people expected a leap like this from him, whereas Graham came out of nowhere to surprise the world.