PORTLAND, OREGON – FEBRUARY 03: Collin Gillespie #12 of the Phoenix Suns looks on after the game against the Portland Trail Blazers at Moda Center on February 03, 2026 in Portland, Oregon. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
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Earlier this season, I expressed my concerns about the way the Most Improved Player of the Year (MIP) award is determined. For those who missed that discussion, my thesis is that the award is usually handed out to players who are following their natural development curve, rather than to the individual who took the most surprising leap.
I still hold this opinion. But the one thing I got wrong was the player I was arguing for at the time (Neemias Queta). Yes, the Boston Celtics’ center has improved a great deal. But the guy who has taken the most unexpected step forward this year is Collin Gillespie.
Why Collin Gillespie Should Win The MIP Award
The Phoenix Suns have been one of the best stories in the NBA this year – on pace to win 46 games (and potentially win the Pacific Division) after many folks predicted them to be a bottom-feeder in the historically unforgiving Western Conference.
Numerous entities deserve credit for the Suns’ success this year. Head coach Jordan Ott has done a wonderful job transforming them into a defense-first team. Dillon Brooks has given them an edge that they sorely lacked last season. Devin Booker has evolved into a steadying leader of men.
Still, you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who played a larger part in making this minor miracle a reality than Gillespie. He’s appeared in 59 of their 60 games (only Royce O’Neale and Oso Ighodaro) and, in the process, he’s gone from an undrafted misfit on the fringes of the league to a true starting-caliber player seemingly overnight.
The box score improvements are jarring. He’s averaging 7.6 more points per game, 1.7 more rebounds, and his steal (1.3 SPG) and assist (4.7 APG) numbers are nearly double (0.6 and 2.4, respectively) what they were last season, all while boosting his efficiency (Gillespie’s true shooting percentage is up 2.1% from last year).
However, box score numbers only tell a fraction of the story. Gillespie leads the entire team (a team that rosters Booker, Brooks, and Grayson Allen) in Estimated Plus-Minus (EPM, per Dunks & Threes). If you really like one-number metrics, a great one for assessing who has improved the most in a given season (arguably the best one) is The Analyst’s DELTA stat. DELTA tells you how much a player’s DRIP score (their version of EPM) has increased/decreased from the beginning of the season to the present day. According to DELTA, Gillespie has the highest increase in DRIP of any player in the entire league.
2025-26 Top 10 Players In DELTA.
The Analyst.
Why His Case Is Better Than The Other Candidates
When you look at FanDuel’s betting lines for the MIP award, Jalen Johnson, Jalen Duren, Deni Avdija, Ryan Rollins, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Keyonte George, Anthony Black, and Jaylon Tyson are all considered to have greater odds at taking home the award than Gillespie.
2025-26 NBA Most Improved Player Odds.
FanDuel.
Johnson, Duren, Avdija, George, Black, and George are all former top 20 picks in the early stages of their career. Nothing is forsure in this league, but they are the exact type of players that you expect to ascend at some point in time.
Rollins and Alexander-Walker have more of that surprise factor. Like Gillespie, Rollins has become a legit starting guard after not being heavily coveted as a prospect. Meanwhile, Alexander-Walker spent the first half dozen years of his career as a reliable role player before emerging into a near 20 PPG scorer (19.8, to be exact) this season. But neither of them has the advanced stats or the team success to truly hold a candle to Gillespie’s candidacy.
The MIP shouldn’t be about great young players realizing the potential we all believed they had. It should be about rewarding an underdog for defying the labels we tried to restrain them with. In that sense, Gillespie’s rise this season exemplifies everything the award should represent.