Justin Verrier

I just think there's a difference there in terms of this thing doesn't happen all that often.

With Cooper, it's like, yeah, great rookie season, great player.

It's a little bit more typical to what we're used to.

He's going to be the better player, certainly.

I didn't either.

Want to do most improved?

I would love to.

I think it's the most interesting one left here, even though it is a pretty difficult one to unpack.

I found myself in a really weird place where I've always been against awarding

lottery picks or just highly drafted players who ultimately just reach their trajectory and for that reason i don't have jalen duran on my my list i think he's been better than what we expected but he's still in his third year he was the 13th overall pick like this is this is kind of typical i i think what we should be rewarding with this award is guys who fundamentally change who they are um even if they were highly drafted in the past which is a little bit of a nod there um

But then I got into this weird zone where, like, I think it's either Denny Obdia or Nikhil Alexander-Walker.

How much do I ding Denny because he hasn't been good down the stretch, whereas Nikhil has been fairly steady overall.

The jump from nine points per game to, like, in the 20s is just as significant as Denny's basically completely...

changing the face of his game, becoming one of the better creators and foul drawers in the league.

But then he hasn't been as good.

And how much does being good ultimately, like for the entire body of work, matter when we're trying to reward someone who's changed who they are?

Does that make sense?

Yeah, I had Kate as my last cut for all the reasons Kyle laid out there.

I wanted to get him on there, but ultimately I leaned Ryan Rollins for that last spot because this is a similar thing.

The zero to 60 guys, I think are just going to pop a little bit more than some of these other ones who are a little bit more subtle.