In his 3rd NBA season, Dyson Daniels averaged career highs of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.01 steals.
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Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels is the recipient of the George Mikan Trophy as the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player.
Presented annually since the 1985-86 season, the Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award is designed to honor an up-and-coming player who has made a dramatic improvement from the previous season or seasons. Daniels is the second player to earn the honor with the Hawks, joining Alan Henderson (1997-98).
Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels is the recipient of the George Mikan Trophy as the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player. pic.twitter.com/Toq8U9WPIl
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) April 30, 2025
In his third NBA season and first with Atlanta, Daniels averaged career highs of 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 3.01 steals while shooting career highs of 49.3% from the field and 34.0% from three-point range in 33.8 minutes in 76 games. He became the fifth player to average at least 14.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 3.0 steals in a season, joining Michael Ray Richardson (1979-80), Magic Johnson (1980-81), Alvin Robertson (three times – 1985-86, 1986-87 and 1988-89) and Michael Jordan (1987-88).
Daniels improved his scoring by +8.3 ppg, rebounds by +2.0 rpg, assists by +1.7 apg and steals by +1.62 spg from last season. He is the third player to have improvements of at least +8.0 ppg, +2.0 rpg, +1.5 apg and +1.5 spg from one season to the next (minimum 50 games played each season), joining Richardson (1978-79 to 1979-80) and Eric Murdock (1991-92 to 1992-93).
Daniels led the NBA in steals per game and total steals (229). He averaged the most steals per game in a season since Robertson in 1990-91 and recorded the most total steals in a season since Gary Payton in 1995-96. Daniels also paced the league in deflections per game (5.8) and total deflections (443).
A 22-year-old from Australia, Daniels finished in second place in the voting for the 2024-25 Kia NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award. He was named the Kia NBA Eastern Conference Defensive Player of the Month twice, for games played in October/November and March.
A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2024-25 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award. The complete voting results are below. The balloting was tabulated by the independent accounting firm Ernst & Young LLP.
Voting results
