Atlanta Hawks guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker has won the Most Improved Player Award, the league announced Friday. He won the award over first-time All-Stars Jalen Duren and Deni Avdija.
Alexander-Walker winning the award is a small piece of history. For the first time in NBA history, a team has had players win it two years in a row, as Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels won the award last year.
He made a major scoring jump, going from 9.4 points per game to a whopping 20.8. The 11.4-point increase is the third-highest per-game jump in the past 25 years. Those 20.8 points went along with 3.7 rebounds. 3.4 assists and 1.3 steals.
“It really validates my feelings,” Alexander-Walker told reporters on Friday, according to ESPN’s Ohm Youngmisuk. “Sometimes I think everyone’s been through that where they feel something and other people might not, and they might not see it yet. And it’s kind of like that told you moment to not make you feel crazy.
“And a lot of times this game has made me feel delusional and just the beliefs that I had … Honestly, it [hasn’t] set in. I go from moments of where I’m ready to break down in tears and then I’m just ready to just scream and just be happy.”
How we got here
Alexander-Walker had an interesting path to the award. He was the No. 17 pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, but New Orleans dealt him to Portland in the CJ McCollum trade after two and a half years. The Pelicans instantly sent him to Utah, who kept him for roughly a year before sending him to Minnesota.
In Minnesota, he transformed into a very good 3-and-D player, shootign 38.4% from deep. However, the Timberwolves ultimately elected to re-sign Naz Reid and Julius Randle over Alexander-Walker in the summer of 2025.
Alexander-Walker was originally supposed to be a 3-and-D backup behind Trae Young, but an early injury to Young allowed Alexander-Walker to become a core piece for the Hawks. After the Hawks dealt away Young, Alexander-Walker became a mainstay in the starting lineup and helped them avoid the Play-In tournament.
The Hawks are currently tied with the New York Knicks at 2-2 in the series, in part thanks to Alexander-Walker’s performance. He’ll have to continue to perform if the Hawks want to upset their rivals and make it out of the first round.
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