5 Early Contenders for the Most Improved Player Award 

#2 Aaron Gordon - Orlando Magic

Aaron Gordon

Next up is Evan Fournier’s more popular teammate, Aaron Gordon. Gordon first burst onto the NBA scene during the epic battle with Zach LaVine at the 2016 Dunk Contest. For the first 3 seasons of Gordon’s career he was known mainly as an average player but a highlight reel dunker, essentially a poor man’s Blake Griffin.

Through three seasons, Gordon boasted career averages of 10.1 ppg, 5.4 rebounds while shooting 31 percent from three and 46 from the field overall. In the offseason as all players do, Gordon was working on fining certain elements of his game, however, he was not involved in summer league, or publicizing his workouts on social media like Carmelo Anthony did.

Instead, Gordon stayed quiet and put in the work on his three-point shooting and ability to create his own shot. Through his first 12 games, a definitive improvement can be seen with Gordon averaging 18.3 ppg, 7.9 rebounds shooting an astonishing 51.9 percent from 3 and 53.7 percent from the field. Gordon’s position on this list is not only based on his statistical output but because of team success and his imperative role in the Orlando Magic.

If you watch the Magic play you can see that Gordon is becoming a player that can get you a basket when the shot clock is winding down, making him an indispensable player to their offense. If Gordon can keep up these mindboggling shooting percentage while getting wins for the Magic, expect him to be a top 2 candidate for MIP.