The NBA Most Improved Player award has become somewhat synonymous with the recognition of players who are about to become stars. It often goes to the right player, but voters are prone to fixating on stardom as a factor when it isn't necessarily the only measurement worth considering.
In the case of Nickeil Alexander-Walker, it's unclear if he's going to shift into a higher gear than the one he's in at 27 years of age, but he's been the most improved player in the NBA this season.
Alexander-Walker is on pace to set career-best marks in points, rebounds, assists, blocks, steals, and three-point field goals made per game. He's also currently tying his best career field goal percentage, is just 0.5 percent off the mark of his best three-point field goal percentage, and is 9.6 percent clear of his previous career-best mark at the free throw line.
Despite those facts, Bet MGM recently gave Alexander-Walker the fifth-best odds of winning Most Improved Player behind Jalen Duren, Jalen Johnson, Ryan Rollins, and Keyonte George.
Each of the four players ahead of Alexander-Walker deserve their acclaim and have valid cases for the honor. That includes his teammate, Johnson, who's up 4.1 points and 3.1 assists per game from an already excellent 2024-25 campaign.
What Alexander-Walker has achieved, however, is unlike anything that his fellow candidates can compare to as a seventh-year player making the most improbable of leaps.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker given fifth-best odds for Most Improved Player
Alexander-Walker is currently averaging 20.3 points in 33.3 minutes per game. That's up dramatically from the 9.4 points he tallied in 25.3 minutes per contest in 2024-25. In fact, he's more than doubling his output in that regard.
That translates just as impressively to a per-36 basis, as Alexander-Walker is averaging 22.0 points per 36 minutes compared to the 13.4 he tallied in 2024-25 and the 12.3 he managed in 2023-24.
Furthermore, Alexander-Walker has started more games in 2025-26 at 58 than he had in his previous four seasons combined at 54. In fact, he'd started 68 career games through seven seasons and 381 appearances before the current campaign.
That alone would be significant, but what makes said feat so remarkable is the fact that Alexander-Walker is doing so on a team that's six games above .500.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker: Dramatic stat increases, massive role change
Alexander-Walker hasn't just experienced an increase in playing time or even simply improved his per-36 production. He's completely transformed himself from a career reserve into a full-time starter on a team that's 37-31 and on pace to secure its first above-.500 season in four years.
Alexander-Walker has done all of this while helping the Hawks play 29 of its first 39 games without franchise player Trae Young—and then replaced Young when he was traded to the Washington Wizards.
Other candidates have a powerful case for Most Improved Player, but each of the four players ahead of Alexander-Walker are 24 or younger. Johnson is the only player on that list who has played more than four seasons. To some degree, their respective improvements are a product of gaining experience.
If the focus is on the Most Improved Player, then no one has made more dramatic and improbable improvements than Alexander-Walker—a 27-year-old guard in his seventh season who's finally starting and turning in a campaign marked by drastic increases no one could've seen coming.
Unfortunately, Alexander-Walker is on pace to be snubbed and not even finish as a finalist for the award if the odds prove accurate.