Brooklyn Nets guard Shaun Livingston garnered two second-place votes and five third-place votes in the NBA’s voting for Most Improved Player, the league announced today. The voting tally gave him 11 points in the vote, which ranked him 12th overall.
No regular Nets beat writers or commentators gave Livingston one of their three votes, but Livingston caught the eye of some notable names: NBA commentators Marv Albert and Mike Breen each gave Livingston a third-place vote, as did NBA Hall of Famer and Hawks color commentator Dominique Wilkins. No other Nets player earned a vote.
Livingston averaged 8.3 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 3.2 assists in 26 minutes per game for the Nets this season, setting career-highs in games, games started, minutes played, points, rebounds, and steals. His insertion into the starting lineup at the turn of the new year helped change the complexity of Brooklyn’s starting lineup, turning them from a 10-21 laughingstock into the league’s best team at forcing turnovers.
Goran Dragic ran away with the vote, earning 65 of a possible 126 first-place votes from sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. He beat out Lance Stephenson, Anthony Davis, and Gerald Green.
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