NBA Most Improved Player Odds

NBA Finals and Conference futures get most of the attention, but many of the best sportsbooks have player prop futures as well, including NBA Most Improved Player odds 2023-24.

Throughout this article, we will provide the current NBA Most Improved Player odds, explain the process in which the award is determined, and look at historical winners of the award. We will even have a section that breaks down the NBA Most Improved Player candidates and has an analysis of the chances of many different players. If you have an interest in betting on the NBA Most Improved Player odds, keep reading this guide.

Current NBA Most Improved Player 2023-24 Odds

The table below shows the current NBA Most Improved Player odds for the upcoming season, courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. There are several NBA Most Improved Player candidates listed at BetMGM, but we have just the top ten for the sake of this section.

Betting on NBA Most Improved Player futures

In the last section, we used NBA Most Improved Player odds 2023-24 from BetMGM Sportsbook. However, there are several other fantastic sportsbooks that offer odds to win NBA Most Improved Player. In fact, it’s wise to have access to multiple sportsbooks so that you can lock in the best price for NBA Most Improved Player betting odds. By comparing the odds at different sportsbooks, you’ll likely find that the NBA Most Improved Player favorites will differ. 

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NBA Most Improved Player candidates for 2023-24: Who are the favorites?

In an upcoming section, we will explain how the NBA Most Improved Player Award is determined but for now, it’s just important to know that the award is subjective. It is not like other futures where there is a game that determines the winner. It’s very likely that many NBA players will improve from last season, but picking who improved the most can be difficult.

In this section, we will provide some thoughts on a few of the NBA Most Improved candidates. As you can see from the list of NBA Most Improved Player odds 2023-24 from BetMGM, there is not a single player with odds of less than 10/1 to win the award. However, we will consider the NBA Most Improved Player favorites to be Mikal Bridges and Cade Cunningham.

Mikal Bridges NBA Most Improved Player Odds

At BetMGM, Mikal Bridges is the NBA Most Improved Player favorite with odds of +1000. As alluded to in the above paragraph, Bridges is hardly an overwhelming favorite for the award. However, there are some good reasons why he is listed at the top of the NBA Most Improved Player candidates 2023-24. Mikal Bridges spent his first five seasons in Phoenix but was traded to the Brooklyn Nets near the end of the 2022-23 NBA season. Bridges saw his scoring average increase from 17.6 points per game with the Suns to 26.1 points per game in his 27 games for the Nets. If Bridges comes near that scoring average during the 2023-24 season, he’ll have a great chance to win the award.

Cade Cunningham NBA Most Improved Player Odds

Cade Cunningham has odds of +1200 at BetMGM Sportsbook. Cunningham was the first overall pick of the 2021 NBA Draft and had a very good rookie season. He averaged 17.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 5.5 assists per game for the Detroit Pistons and looked to be in store for an even better year in 2022-23. Unfortunately, Cunningham missed the majority of the season due to a leg injury. If Cade Cunningham is fully healthy for this season, he should be in store for an incredible season.

NBA Most Improved Player Predictions: Who Will Win in 2023-24?

We have mentioned a few times now that the NBA Most Improved Player favorites are certainly not locks to win the award. At BetMGM no players have NBA Most Improved Player Odds 2023-24 of less than +1000, which means there are many NBA Most Improved Player candidates capable of winning the award. In this section, we will have our NBA Most Improved Player predictions for this season.

After analyzing the NBA Most Improved Player odds 2023-24, we see Jordan Poole at +1400 as a worthy choice for a bet. Poole averaged 20.4 points per game for the Golden State Warriors last season, despite starting just 43 games. In the games he started, Poole’s scoring average jumped to 24.6 points per game. In the offseason, Jordan Poole was traded to the Washington Wizards and will potentially be the team’s leading scorer. Even if the Wizards are bad this season, Jordan Poole has all the makings of a winner of the NBA Most Improved Player Award.

NBA Most Improved Player 2023-24: Long-shot candidates to watch

The NBA Most Improved Player futures market is a great opportunity to bet on a few long-shot candidates to win the award. There are no clear-cut favorites, which means there are several good choices for long shots. 

Among the NBA Most Improved Player candidates, Orlando’s Paolo Banchero and Houston’s Jabari Smith, Jr. are intriguing. Both players were drafted in the top three of the 2022 NBA Draft and have odds of +3300 at BetMGM Sportsbook. Banchero won the NBA Rookie of the Year Award last season, but there is still room for him to improve. Jabari Smith, Jr. had an okay rookie season, but his talent is undeniable.

Another player whose odds to win NBA Most Improved Player are interesting is Tyrese Haliburton at +4000 odds. The 2023-24 season will be Halliburton’s fourth NBA season and he has improved in each one of them. Last season, Tyrese Halliburton averaged 20.7 points and 10.4 assists for the Indiana Pacers, both of which are higher than the 2021-22 season. He was limited to just 56 games last season, but Halliburton will have a great opportunity to win the award if he can stay healthy this season.

How we make our NBA Most Improved Player 2023-24 predictions

As mentioned a few times now, predicting the NBA Most Improved Player winner is very challenging. Many players will improve from year to year, but projecting which player will improve the most is hard to do. For our analysis of the NBA Most Improved Player odds, we used a few components to make our 2023-24 NBA Most Improved Player predictions. First, we want to consider the age of the player. It’s unlikely that a player with many NBA games played already will improve enough to win the award. 

It’s also important to consider how much room there is for the player to improve. For example, a player who already averaged 25 points per game seems unlikely to win the Most Improved Player Award. Lastly, we like to look at potential increases in usage that could allow the stats of the player to improve significantly. For example, Jordan Poole is going from a situation in which he was a part-time starter to one in which he is one of the primary offensive players. Steph Curry averaged close to 30 points per game last season, which means Poole should have a larger role this year in Washington.

How the NBA Most Improved Player is decided

By definition, the NBA Most Improved Player award is given to the player who has shown the most progress during the regular season compared to previous seasons. The award has been given out in every season since 1985-86. A panel of sportswriters from the US and Canada cast votes for first, second, and third place to help determine the winner of the award. Each first-place vote is worth five points, a second-place vote is worth three points, and the third-place vote is worth one point. The player that receives the highest total number of points is the winner of the NBA Most Improved Player award.

Trends & Statistics for the NBA Most Improved Player

As mentioned several times now, picking a winner from the NBA Most Improved Player odds 2023-24 is very difficult because of the subjectivity of the award. The award is determined not by a specific formula, but simply by a group of sportswriters voting on which player they believe improved the most.

However, there may be a trend that is emerging when making NBA Most Improved Player predictions. In each of the last four seasons, the winner of the Most Improved Player was named to the All-Star team. This means that in order to select the winner among the NBA Most Improved Player candidates, you’ll likely need to find a player that improves to an All-Star caliber player, not just one that increases their points per game by a certain mark.

Teams with most NBA Most Improved Player winners

Teams with no NBA Most Improved Player winner

• Brooklyn Nets
• Los Angeles Lakers
• Boston Celtics
• Dallas Mavericks
• Charlotte Hornets
• Cleveland Cavaliers
• Oklahoma City Thunder
• Detroit Pistons
• Sacramento Kings

Past 10 winners of NBA Most Improved Player

Typically the Most Improved Player award goes to a member of a team with a winning record, but that is not a requirement. Just last season, the award went to Lauri Markkanen, whose Utah Jazz team finished with a 37-45 record.