The rationale behind the NBA’s Most Improved Player award has been difficult to pinpoint over the years, as the league has struggled to define what “improvement” really means. Hall of Famer Dwyane Wade recently resurfaced old wounds, suggesting he should’ve won the award in his second season. His argument points to flaws in the NBA’s voting process for the award.
Dwyane Wade Revisits ’04-05 NBA Most Improved Player Race
Wade enjoyed a legendary 16-year NBA career. His accolades include a Hall of Fame induction, three NBA championships, 13 All-Star selections, eight All-NBA selections, three All-Defensive Team selections, and a scoring title. However, one honor eluded him, and it still haunts him.
In a recent episode of his podcast, Time Out with Dwyane Wade, the Miami Heat legend revealed that he believes he should have won Most Improved Player over Bobby Simmons in the 2004-05 NBA season.
“I went up eight points a game,” said Wade. “That’s just points … The way I went up eight points, the improvement … I remember going through the year like, ‘Why am I not getting more consideration for Most Improved Player?'”
Wade continued to expand on his improvement from Year 1 to Year 2.
“I went from 16 points a game to 24 a night,” he added. “And assists, and rebounds, and everything went up. And our team record went up … Bobby, let me see my trophy.”
By Wade’s second season with the Heat, his statistical averages looked like those of a superstar in the making. He jumped from 16.2 points, 4.5 assists, and 4.0 rebounds as a rookie to 24.1 points, 6.8 assists, and 5.2 rebounds per game in 2004-05, while also increasing his steals and adding more rim protection with 1.1 blocks per night. His minutes went up by less than four minutes per game year-over-year.
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Simmons was in his second season with the Los Angeles Clippers that year. He averaged 16.4 points, 5.9 rebounds, and 2.7 assists, shooting 46.6% from the field, per Basketball Reference. That was a significant leap from the 2003-04 campaign, where he posted averages of 7.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, and 1.7 assists on 39.4% shooting.
Simmons doubled his scoring and became a focal point of the Clippers’ offense. That increased role fit the classic Most Improved Player template. However, Wade also had a strong case, as he saw a substantial across-the-board uptick for a second-year guard already carrying a major offensive load.
Wade’s argument rests on two pillars: the quality of his leap and its impact on winning basketball. Simmons checked the breakout surprise box that typically fuels narratives for the award, but Wade’s leap pushed him into the early stages of an MVP-caliber trajectory.
While it’s impossible to go back nearly two decades and retroactively vote on the award, Wade’s contention sparks a healthy debate around how the NBA determines the award and other major categories moving forward.
