Brandon Knight was drafted by the Detroit Pistons number 8 overall out of the University of Kentucky then Knight was traded from Detroit to the Milwaukee Bucks for Brandon Jennings and it is currently Knight’s 4th year in the NBA. Brandon Knight is most famously known as the guy who DeAndre Jordan dunked on last year for the dunk of the year. But did you know Brandon Knight is having a career year with the Bucks and mostly responsible for Milwaukee’s 11-10 record? Brandon Knight is in a contract year making around $3.5 million this year for the Bucks. Brandon might be the most underpaid player in the NBA as I compare his stats this year to his career stats.
Brandon Knight is having a career high in field goal percentage averaging 45% (his career FG% is 42%). Knight is also having a career high in 3 point field goal percentage averaging an impressive 41% (his career 3 point FG% is 36%). Brandon’s career free throw percentage is average, but this year it’s 11 points higher then his career free throw averages at 90% good for 7th in the NBA (his career FT% is 79%). Not impressed yet? Knight is also having a career year in assists per game averaging 5.8 good for 20th in the NBA (his career APG is 3.5). Knight is grabbing every rebound that comes his way averaging a career year in rebounds per game with 4.8 (his career RPG is 3.5). Steals per game is also up this year averaging 1.5 steals per game for 19th in the NBA (his career SPG is 0.9).
Win shares is another stat Knight has improved in this year averaging .148 (his career win shares is .046). Points per game is 3 points higher then his career average at 18 points per game (his career PPG is 15). Still not sold on Brandon Knight as the most improved player? Well Brandon Knight is also having a career year in PER (player efficiency rating) with an impressive 19.7 PER (his career PER is 14.0). To put Knights PER into perspective Anthony Davis leads the NBA in that category with a 33.50 player efficiency rating.
There is a lot of great candidates for the most improved player award this year, most notably Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, & Tobias Harris. It’s way to early in the NBA season to have a clear cut favorite for most improved player, but Knight has to be favorite so far right? Who do you have as your most improved player so far?
