Hawks’ Dyson Daniels named 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player

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Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels is the recipient of the George Mikan Trophy as the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player.

Presented annually since the 1985-86 season, the Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award is designed to honor an up-and-coming player who has made a dramatic improvement from the previous season or seasons.  Daniels is the second player to earn the honor with the Hawks, joining Alan Henderson (1997-98).

In his third NBA season and first with Atlanta, Daniels averaged career highs of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.01 steals while shooting career highs of 49.3% from the field and 34.0% from three-point range in 33.8 minutes in 76 games.  He became the fifth player to average at least 14.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals in a season, joining Michael Ray Richardson (1979-80), Magic Johnson (1980-81), Alvin Robertson (three times – 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1988-89) and Michael Jordan (1987-88).

Daniels improved his scoring by +8.3 ppg, rebounds by +2.0 rpg, assists by +1.7 apg and steals by +1.62 spg from last season.  He is the third player to have improvements of at least +8.0 ppg, +2.0 rpg, +1.5 apg and +1.5 spg from one season to the next (minimum 50 games played each season), joining Richardson (1978-79 to 1979-80) and Eric Murdock (1991-92 to 1992-93).

Daniels led the NBA in steals per game and total steals (229).  He averaged the most steals per game in a season since Robertson in 1990-91 and recorded the most total steals in a season since Gary Payton in 1995-96.  Daniels also paced the league in deflections per game (5.8) and total deflections (443).

A 22-year-old from Australia, Daniels finished in second place in the voting for the 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award.  He was named the Kia NBA Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month twice, for games played in October/November and March.

A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award.  The complete voting results are below.  The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.

Voting results