NEWSLETTER
Coby White will not be taking home any hardware after his breakout season.
The Chicago Bulls guard was in the running for the NBA’s Most Improved Player award this season, finishing as one of three finalists for the honor. However, he didn’t do enough apparently to sway voters, as Philadelphia 76ers’ Tyrese Maxey was announced as the winner on Tuesday night.
Coby White Snubbed
Look, I don’t want to turn this into hating on Maxey. He put together a great season for Philly and cracked his first All-Star Game. I’m truly excited to watch his ascent over the next handful of years. But he shouldn’t have been the NBA’s Most Improved Player.
Maxey has been really good for multiple seasons now. He averaged 20.9 points per game last season and shot nearly 43.0 percent from downtown. Sure, he averaged an even better 25.9 points with 6.2 assists this year, but was anybody surprised by that? He proved the year prior that he was on an upward trajectory, and he also had the benefit of adding a lot more minutes and shot attempts to his workload with the departure of James Harden.
Meanwhile, Coby White went from averaging just 9.7 points per game with only two starts in 2022-23 to averaging 19.1 points with 5.1 assists with 78 starts. He also did this during his fifth season after signing just a three-year, $36 million deal in the offseason. In other words, most had started to write off the former No. 7 pick as an impact starter in this league. But he completely transformed the narrative this season.
White finished 29th in total points scored, 26th in total assists, and third in total minutes played. Again, all one year after playing just 23.4 minutes per game and recording career lows across the board! He made improvements in every aspect of his game, particularly as a ball-handler and decision-maker. The guy who once looked like not much more than an off-the-bench sparkplug showed he could be among the most reliable backcourt players in the NBA. Maxey never had to overcome that hurdle. The Philly guard has looked like a potential franchise cornerstone from the moment he joined the league.
For what it’s worth, the voting was certainly close. White finished with 305 total points compared to Maxey’s 319. Alas, the 51 first-place votes that were handed to Maxey compared to the 32 that went White’s way decided the results.
The good news is that I’m pretty confident White will use this as motivation moving forward. The 24-year-old undoubtedly has a bright future ahead. Still, I would’ve loved to see him get the recognition he deserves.
You view the complete voting results below:
