Improvement in the NBA is tricky to categorize — and even harder to compare when three players have improved in three different ways. Cade Cunningham, Norman Powell and Tyler Hero are currently the leaders for the NBA’s Most Improved Player… and each has taken a drastically different path to get here.

Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham has is averaging career-highs in points (25.0) assists (9.4) rebounds (6.4) shooting percentage, 3-point percentage (and attempts) and his team is far more competitive than it was during his first three seasons in the league.

That’s obvious improvement; but it’s also expected improvement. Cade Cunningham was the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, and his improvement in the NBA has been about what you’d expect from a top pick on a struggling team. He showed plenty of greatness during his first three seasons, but efficiency and consistency questions followed him. Now, in year four, his answering any questions that doubters still have about his game. He’ll almost certainly be an All-Star, and might even battle for an All-NBA spot.

Again, impressive… but expected. Simultaneously, it’s not Cunningham’s fault that expectations were so high for him coming into the NBA, and he has improved.

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Cade’s biggest opponent in the MIP discussion is Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell, who is averaging a career-high 24.0 points per game, shooting 43.5 percent from 3-point and has become the top scoring option for LA.

Powell has long been a good NBA player but his ascension to “team’s top scoring option” is close to unprecedented. A second-round pick in 2015, Powell had already overachieved relative to his draft position prior to this year. Now, he’s putting his name on the shortlist of best second-round draft picks ever. Is that improvement more impressive than Cade’s improvement? That’s subjective. It’s less common, that’s for sure.

Then there’s Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro, who’s been unfairly judged as a player for… pretty much his entire career, and has now blossomed into a player so good on the offensive end that Miami can likely stay competitive by building around him and Bam Adebayo.

Here’s where I stand on the MIP race as we enter February.

I am a Cade Cunningham enjoyer. Watching him play with NBA-level talent around him has been a joyful experience all year, and with another lottery pick, this team could really be cooking.

But he was still the top pick in the draft, and it doesn’t feel right to give him the Most Improved Player award when he’s progressing at a pretty normal pace for a top pick. Is that a product of high expectations coming into the league? Maybe. Probably. But I still can’t bring myself to do it. Pistons fans, I promise this is not a slight on your guy; he’s phenomenal.

Jimmy Butler trade drama has engulfed the Heat all season, and that’s taken a little attention away from Tyler Herro, who’s playing like an All-Star in his own right. Herro has become Miami’s offensive hub, averaging 24 points and 5.4 assists per game.

In year six, thrust into a new role, Herro is flourishing. He’ll likely get some new teammates in the coming days, too, which could open up even more for his distribution, assuming the Heat don’t ship Jimmy out for just draft capital and salary filler.

In the end, I have to side with Powell. Any player having their best NBA season a decade-plus into their career is massively impressive, and Powell doing so by such a wide margin sells me. Compared to last year, Powell is averaging 11.1 more points per game. Even compared to his best NBA season before this year, he’s made a massive leap as a scorer.

I’m not sure what Powell’s late-stage development says about player growth in the NBA; should teams be even more patient? Are players’ primes coming later than we’re used to seeing? I don’t have the answers to those questions, but I do know that Norm has a real case to be an All-Star, something that’s never been true before this year. That’s improvement.