Have to say its a very proud day.....as Slobby has renamed him "The Peanut Butter Man"
Go PBM!
From NBA.com:
NEW YORK -- Ryan Anderson of the Orlando Magic is the winner of the 2011-12 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award, the NBA announced today. The annual award is presented to a player who has made a significant improvement from the previous season.
Anderson received 260 of a possible 605 points, including 33 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Ersan Ilyasova of the Milwaukee Bucks (159 points, 21 first-place votes) and Nikola Pekovic of the Minnesota Timberwolves (104 points, 10 first-place votes) finished second and third, respectively. Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third place vote received.
Anderson established career highs in scoring (16.1 ppg), rebounds (7.7 rpg), field goal percentage (.439) and free throw percentage. He also paced the league and established personal bests in three-pointers made (166) and attempted (422). He increased his scoring from the previous season by 5.5 ppg and his rebounds by 2.2 rpg. Orlando averaged 107.5 points per 100 possessions with Anderson on the court, compared to 94.1 points with the 6-10 forward on the bench.
As part of its support of the Most Improved Player Award, Kia Motors America will donate a new Kia Sorento CUV on behalf of Anderson to the Boys and Girls Club of Central Florida. Kia Motors will present a brand new Sorento to the charity of choice of each of five 2011-12 year-end award winners as part of the "The Kia NBA Performance Awards." Following this season, Kia Motors will have donated a total of 21 new vehicles to charitable organizations since its support of the NBA's prestigious year-end honors began with the 2007-2008 season.
The 2011-12 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award is part of a series of on-court performance awards called "The Kia NBA Performance Awards." The series, currently in its fifth season, is a significant part of the multiyear marketing partnership between Kia Motors America and the NBA, and also includes the Defensive Player, Sixth Man, Most Valuable Player of the Year Awards, and this year for the first time, Rookie of the Year. It also includes the Kia NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month which are awarded during the regular season. For more information on the "The Kia NBA Performance Awards" visit www.NBA.com/performanceawards.
Earlier this morning, news broke that the Orlando Magic would be making a “major announcement†this afternoon. They’ve had such a weird season that us here in the TBJ offices legitimately considered the possibility that the Magic had fired Stan Van Gundy in the middle of a playoff series or found a way to move Dwight Howard after the trade deadline. It’s been a weird year.
However, as it turns out, the major announcement is just to tell everyone that Ryan Anderson is this season’s Most Improved Player. And really, I think that pretty well sums up this award. Ryan Anderson won Most Improved? Really?
To put things in perspective, not only did Ryan Anderson not make our final ballot for Most Improved Player, he didn’t even make our covert Google Documents short list. It’s not that wasn’t good this year — he definitely was, becoming an All-Star for the first time and one of just 37 players in the league with a PER greater than 20 — it’s just that he didn’t improve the most, which is literally the name of the award. A Wolf Among Wolves nailed it:
Ryan Anderson has won MIP because he played more minutes and took more shots this season on a playoff team. That’s it. [...] Ryan Anderson was exactly as good last year as he was this year, except this year he had a different role on the team.
That role? Shoot more threes because you’re really good at shooting. In three less games than last season, Anderson shot 81 more threes, knocking them in at the exact same 39.3 percent clip. Thanks to 10 extra minutes a game, his per game scoring average rose six points and his per game rebounds average rose by two boards. That looks like a huge improvement, but when you consider his per 36 minutes stats show an increase of 0.2 points and a 0.4 rebounds decrease, it’s pretty obvious that his bigger numbers this year are thanks to the extra playing time.
This is a Best Player Whose Numbers Went Up award, not a Most Improved Player award. Ryan Anderson had a wonderful season and his normal box score numbers definitely went up. This is why he won the trophy, even though Ersan Ilyasova and Nikola Pekovic would have been far better choices.
No one really cares about this award, which is exactly why Andrew Bogut got a first place vote even though he played 12 games this year. Ryan Anderson is this year’s 2011-12 Most Improved Player. Congratulations to him and at least Jeremy Lin didn’t win for playing 35 games. So it goes.