Boston Celtics

What Tyler Zeller's Most Improved Player vote says about award ballots

Published May. 8, 2015 12:22 p.m. ET

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Tyler Zeller is an afterthought to most people whose last names aren't Zeller.

Sure, it feels like half the NBA is made up of Zellers, Plumlees, Morrises and Hansbroughs, but those aren't the guys winning awards. Unless you're talking about Most Improved Player. And unless you're talking about random, homer votes.

And why do we bring this up? Because Zeller finished 11th in the recently announced Most Improved Player award voting after receiving a first-place vote from none other than the eccentric and always hilarious Celtics color commentator, Tommy Heinsohn.

Most Improved is very possibly the silliest of the NBA awards. No one has an actual definition of what constitutes the best improvement: Is it making a leap from good to great? Is it going from unplayable to playable? Should second-year players be eligible since you're supposed to get better during your sophomore season? And is it fair to give someone an award because he (possibly) played way under his capabilities the previous year?

Knowing all those factors, it's difficult to pronounce an MIP vote outlandish. But that said, maybe the NBA ought to take a hard look at team broadcasters' rights to vote. Many of them are, after all, either tangentially employed by the teams they broadcast for or deeply involved with the squad's daily doings. It's almost impossible to ignore bias under those conditions.

Of course, this isn't true for all team announcers. Some are remarkably independent in their voting processes. But these are normal, natural human traits, ones that are difficult to change without pristine self-awareness.

In the end, one of the right men (Jimmy Butler) won. And Butler was followed by a contingent of others who had a legitimate case to win the MIP. The Zeller vote didn't matter. But it could have, and if the NBA wants to add just a dash more integrity to its awards, it might want to consider making changes in that area.

You can see the MIP voting in its entirety here.