Josh Smith: The NBA’s Most Improved Player?

The NBA regular season is rapidly drawing to a close. That means, for Rockets fans, it’s time to talk about post-season awards! What? You thought I was going to write about the playoffs? Did you not read the headline?

Yes, Josh Smith rightfully deserves a strong look at Most Improved Player. Smith has perhaps even made a strong case to be granted the award. Smith has improved, by leaps and bounds, in every appreciable statistical category since he moved from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast.

If you consider a complete fundamental shift in philosophy, discipline, and efficiency, you can’t overlook Smith’s season as a winning case. In the span of one season, Smith has gone from cancerous reclamation project to integral cog in a top 2 team.

Back in Detroit, Smith was a primary option on a monumental salary on a floundering team. He departed the Pistons averaging 13 points and 7 rebounds a game on 24 percent shooting from deep and barely 40 percent shooting overall.

His true shooting percentage sat at a gross 42 percent (Composite stat factoring in free throws, weighing 3 pointers adequately, etc…).

The Detroit Pistons cut Smith and ultimately became the darling on the NBA by going on a run that absolutely vindicates Bill Simmons’ theory of the Ewing Effect. Happily, the theory was only fully proved correct with Detroit’s subsequent return to sub-mediocrity.

Detroit arrived in Houston the day after Christmas, much to the lament of many Houston fans. Would Smith demand a starting spot? Would Smith continue to play thoughtless basketball? How would a guy like Smith fit in with the finely tuned machine that is Moreyball? Well…

Six less minutes played per game, a 6^th man role, 12 points (rounded), 6 rebounds, 34 percent three-point shooting and 44 percent shooting from the field implies Smith quelled the doubters. Smith’s win shares per 48 minutes jumped from 0.012 a game to 0.070 and his true shooting skyrocketed from 42 percent to 50 percent.

Perhaps, even more persuasive, is Smith’s shot chart here (It’s a tweeted link, show your love for content creators by giving them retweets). Not only has Smith cleaned up his act in the mid-range game, he has paid particular attention to the corner-three, one of the best points per shot attempt plays in the game.

Smith has grown by leaps and bounds since he headed to Houston. Coach Kevin McHale (Deserving of consideration for post-season awards in his own right) allayed concerns of entitlement in Smith by telling NBA TV that “Nobody told me” about any promise to start given to Smith. From that point on, Smith’s game adapted to this new philosophy and saw a spike in everything that contributes to winning basketball.

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The Most Improved Player Award is generally granted to a player who shows improvement from his last year to a major contributor this year. Players like Klay Thompson took the expected next steps to become the lynchpin of their team’s success.

Guys like Hassan Whiteside came out of obscurity to be a featured player on a depleted roster. Even Donatas Motiejunas has shown increased competency this year — though his rebounding never saw an uptick, which is upsetting.

Instead, Smith rightfully can assert that in the course of one year, he improved across the board to be an even more critical component of success to his team than any others and, in the process, reclaim his position as a respected player in the NBA. Smith came to Houston a broken commodity with entitlement issues and a lack of mental focus.

In the course of one season, Smith has elevated his game to an intelligent one based on fighting for all of the little things you need to do to win and he’s done so by going from a number one option to a major bench contributor.

In less time than any other player in the conversation, Smith has overhauled the entirety of who he is as a person, let alone basketball player and that, in my estimation, is the makings of a most improved player.

Next: Trevor Ariza: HOH's Week 23 Silver Booster Award Winner