Schmitz: Hedo Turkoglu to Win NBA's Most Improved Player Award

Hedo Turkoglu's most recent game-winning play for the Magic this season, a tough driving layup to beat the Raptors in Game Two.

Hedo Turkoglu is the NBA's Most Improved Player.

Brian Schmitz of the Orlando Sentinel reported the news earlier today. The Magic have called a news conference for tomorrow afternoon but haven't specified a reason. The award is indeed Hedo's, and deservedly so (no disrespect intended to Rudy Gay, Rajon Rondo, or Andrew Bynum).

We outlined how awesome Turk is in this post last week, but let's go over some stats: Turk set career highs in points per game (19.5), rebounds per game (5.7), assists per game (5.0), minutes per game (36.9), field goal percentage (.456), and games played (82, and he started all of them). Regarding advanced metrics, Turk had a career-best in Player Efficiency Rating (17.8) and effective field goal percentage (.524). Additionally, he was one of four players to average 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists this season, joining Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, and Vince Carter. Yeah, and we laughed at him when he told the Sentinel in November he thought he could be an All-Star.

We'd like to congratulate Hedo for winning this coveted award, and thank him for playing so well for us this season. Hopefully, he'll celebrate the achievement by helping us dispatch the Raptors. It'd be a fitting way for us to advance in the playoffs.