No NBA Most Improved Player odds are posted on ESPN’s futures board now. Read on October 27, 2026 at 00:57 UTC, it lists 17 NBA markets, and the Most Improved Player market it carried before the season is no longer one of them. On October 13, the last read in which ESPN listed it, DraftKings had Dylan Harper of the San Antonio Spurs as the favorite at +900, ahead of Brandon Miller at +1200 and Payton Pritchard at +1400.
The 2026-27 regular season opened on October 20, so every figure for this season below rests on two or three games.
The pre-season favorites after the first week
These are the ten shortest prices of ESPN’s October 13 read, each with his 2025-26 regular-season line and his 2026-27 line so far, both from ESPN, the new one read on October 27, 2026.
| Player | Team | Odds on Oct. 13 | 2025-26 points | 2025-26 minutes | 2026-27 games | 2026-27 starts | 2026-27 minutes | 2026-27 points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dylan Harper | San Antonio Spurs | +900 | 11.8 | 22.6 | 3 | 3 | 32.0 | 20.0 |
| Brandon Miller | Charlotte Hornets | +1200 | 20.2 | 30.3 | 3 | 3 | 31.3 | 19.3 |
| Payton Pritchard | Boston Celtics | +1400 | 17.0 | 32.4 | 2 | 0 | 29.0 | 10.5 |
| Kel’el Ware | Milwaukee Bucks | +1600 | 11.1 | 22.1 | 3 | 0 | 19.3 | 12.3 |
| Ty Jerome | Memphis Grizzlies | +2000 | 19.7 | 22.6 | 3 | 3 | 31.7 | 34.7 |
| Walker Kessler | Los Angeles Lakers | +2200 | 14.4 | 30.8 | 3 | 3 | 31.0 | 16.7 |
| Ausar Thompson | Detroit Pistons | +2500 | 9.9 | 26.0 | 2 | 2 | 26.5 | 7.5 |
| Zach Edey | Memphis Grizzlies | +2500 | 13.6 | 25.8 | 2 | 2 | 22.0 | 7.0 |
| Peyton Watson | Cleveland Cavaliers | +2500 | 14.6 | 29.6 | 2 | 2 | 30.5 | 9.5 |
| Collin Murray-Boyles | Toronto Raptors | +2800 | 8.5 | 21.9 | 3 | 0 | 18.7 | 5.7 |
Ty Jerome has the loudest start: 34.7 points a game in three starts for the Memphis Grizzlies, after 19.7 in the 15 games he played last season. Harper has started all three of San Antonio’s games and is scoring 20.0 in 32.0 minutes, after four starts in 69 games as a rookie.
Walker Kessler, who played five games in 2025-26, has started all three for the Los Angeles Lakers. Pritchard has come off the bench in both of his games and is at 10.5 points, against 17.0 last season; Kel’el Ware and Collin Murray-Boyles have not started yet either. Three games of minutes is a small sample, and the award is judged on the whole regular season.
How the NBA Most Improved Player award works
Most Improved Player is one of the NBA’s regular-season awards, and the winner receives the George Mikan Trophy. For 2025-26 a global panel of 100 media members voted, the ballots were tabulated by the accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP, and the league named the winner on April 24, 2026. It later published the voting totals and every voter’s ballot.
Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Atlanta Hawks won the 2025-26 vote, with Jalen Duren of the Detroit Pistons second and Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers third. The league noted that his rise from 9.4 to 20.8 points a game made him the fifth player in the last 35 seasons to add 11.0 points or more from one season to the next, qualified in both.
Past Most Improved Player winners
Nickeil Alexander-Walker of the Atlanta Hawks won for 2025-26. He averaged 20.8 points in 78 games, 71 of them starts, after 9.4 points and 10 starts in 82 games the season before with Minnesota. That is a jump of 11.4 points and 8.1 minutes a game.
| Season | Winner | Team |
|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | Nickeil Alexander-Walker | Atlanta Hawks |
| 2024-25 | Dyson Daniels | Atlanta Hawks |
| 2023-24 | Tyrese Maxey | Philadelphia 76ers |
| 2022-23 | Lauri Markkanen | Utah Jazz |
| 2021-22 | Ja Morant | Memphis Grizzlies |
| 2020-21 | Julius Randle | New York Knicks |
| 2019-20 | Brandon Ingram | New Orleans Pelicans |
| 2018-19 | Pascal Siakam | Toronto Raptors |
| 2017-18 | Victor Oladipo | Indiana Pacers |
| 2016-17 | Giannis Antetokounmpo | Milwaukee Bucks |
| 2015-16 | CJ McCollum | Portland Trail Blazers |
The table covers 11 seasons and has 11 different winners, and none of them was among the 105 names on ESPN’s October 13 board. Atlanta is the first team with back-to-back winners: Dyson Daniels for 2024-25, then Alexander-Walker.
Why we make no pick
We make no Most Improved Player pick. ESPN lists no price to set one against, and two or three games of minutes and starts say little about a race decided over the full regular season.
Each of the other awards has its own page: MVP, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year and Coach of the Year. Game calls from opening night on are on our NBA predictions hub, and our guide to futures bets explains when a board like this one settles. Paid picks are a separate product: see PicksToday pricing.