Wizards Guard Named Early Candidate for Most Improved
Washington Wizards guard Bilal Coulibaly has been on a tear to begin his second season in the NBA.
The No. 7 overall pick from the 2023 NBA Draft has been stellar so far this season, emerging as a potential option for the Wizards to build around in the long run.
HoopsHype writer Mike Shearer believes that Coulibaly could be an early contender for the league's Most Improved Player award.
"Second-year players should not be eligible for the Most Improved Player award, but Coulibaly deserves at least a look," Shearer writes. "The young Frenchman has upped his scoring from 8.4 to 19.4 points per game and his eFG% from 50.9 percent to a blinding 69.6 percent. He’s Washington’s best defender, to boot. Even those of us who were high on Coulibaly’s potential before this season (and I was, very, very high) never saw this coming in our wildest dreams. Yes, he’ll miss some shots eventually, but the fact that he’s even capable of extended stretches like this is very encouraging for a Washington team just beginning its rebuild in earnest."
It's clear that having a full offseason under his belt has helped Coulibaly. It's also possible that his experience in the Olympics could have also led to his early-season emergence.
With Coulibaly enjoying a lot of success early in the year, the Wizards will continue to give him the green light all season long. This year is about developing the young core of the Wizards, including Coulibaly, and the team couldn't be happier with the young Frenchman's progress so far.
Perhaps the most promising fact about Coulibaly is that he is only 20 years old, and if he has had this kind of jump from Year 1 to Year 2, he should have a high ceiling when he gets to his prime.