Atlanta Hawks: End of Season Awards
Most Improved Player: Dennis Schroder
In his 1st year as a starter, the German point guard has been the motor under the Hawks’ hood. Head coach Mike Budenholzer beams with pride whenever he talks about Dennis Schroder.
A developmental project of his original regime, the 17th pick of the 2014 draft has been groomed into a compelling young star. Contributing 17.9 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 6.3 assists in 31.5 minutes per game, he has stepped up in his 4th season.
The 78 starts in his 79 appearances were what the Hawks needed from him. With such paper thin depth at point guard for much of the season, it was paramount to get everything that Schroder gave.
Schroder improved over six points per game from the 11.0 that he averaged last year. That is very good when you consider that his usage rate was actually higher last year. He had a 27.8 usage rate compared to the 28.8 rate of last season.
He also managed to shoot career-highs in every category. He connected on 45.1 percent of his field goals, 34.0 percent of his threes and 85.8 percent of his free throws. Last year, those splits were 42.1, 32.2 and 79.8 respectively.
Schroder also set career highs in PER (Player Efficiency Rating) with 16.1. That is a statistic created by ESPN columnist John Hollinger, that sums up all of a player’s positive accomplishments, subtracts the negative ones and comes up with a number on a per minute basis.
The quick and agile guard also set his best mark in terms of his true shooting percentage with 53.3 percent. He attempted about the same percentage of his total shots in the form of layups this year compared to last. What he did change about his shot selection was to take fewer 3-pointers and more attempts between 3-10 feet. Last season 30.1 percent of his attempts were 3 pointers compared to 24.4 percent this year.
Tim Hardaway Jr. does deserve an honorable mention for this award with his continued development. The success of Schroder, for this most recent campaign at least, was absolutely critical for Atlanta to prosper. It’s for that reason, although not entirely, why he gets the nod here.
I think Schroder deserves far more credit than he will ultimately get credit for in this category, and will be overlooked. It’s a shame because he has proven to be on a greater career trajectory than some of his more celebrated peers were at 23 years old.
There isn’t even a grand total of potential candidates for this award, but the few players in consideration are of lofty status in contrast to Schroder. Close together at the top are the Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas.
Antetokounmpo has evolved into a generational athlete and talent that ranked in the top 20 in total points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks. Thomas was 3rd in scoring with 28.9 per game and led an underwhelming group of players to the number one seed. Both of which solid improvements on their statistics from last year and what they have been known for.
Then there is the case of Bradley Beal of the Washington Wizards. He improved from just over 17 points per game, to near the top of the scoring list with 23.3 points per game. All of the above will prove to be too much for Dennis Schroder to overcome.