Quantifying a player’s improvement is tricky enough. Is a player’s increased statistical output just the product of expanded opportunity or is it due to genuine improvement?
However, qualifying improvement is even more difficult. What kind of improvement is most important? From fringe player to key rotational piece? From uneven reserve to a steady starter? Or, from possible star to burgeoning superstar?
Below, Eric Nemchock, Edwin Garcia and Cat Ariail make the Most Improved Player cases for three players, one who fits in each category: the Chicago Sky’s Alanna Smith, the Los Angeles Sparks’ Jordin Canada and the Dallas Wings’ Satou Sabally.
Alanna Smith (Chicago Sky)
When the Sky signed Smith to a one-year, $100,000 contract back in February, many assumed that it was a move made by then-head coach and general manager James Wade out of panic. Chicago had lost most of its frontcourt to free agency—Candace Parker and Azurá Stevens signed elsewhere and Emma Meesseman chose not to play in the WNBA in 2023—so Wade had lots of holes to plug in a short amount of time. In Smith’s…
