Atlanta Hawks guard and 22-year-old Australian player Dayshon Daniels has been named the 2025 NBA Most Improved Player (MIP), the league officially announced on Wednesday.

After posting the best performance of his career this season, Daniels' numbers put him in the league of NBA legends such as Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson.

Daniels became the second Hawks player to win the award since Alan Henderson in 1998. He received 44 first-place votes from a voting panel comprised of media from around the world. Ivica Zubac of the Los Angeles Clippers finished second and Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons finished third.

Daniels finished the season with an NBA-high 229 steals, the most in a single season since Gary Payton in 1995-96, and was the runner-up for this year's NBA Defensive Player of the Year award.

In terms of steals per game, Daniels leads the league with 3.01 per game, the highest record since Alvin Robertson in the 1990-91 season. He also ranks first in the league with 443 deflections per season, averaging 5.8 per game.

This is Daniels' third season in the NBA and his first season after being traded from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Hawks last July. In 76 games, he averaged a career-high 14.1 points, 5.9 rebounds and 4.4 assists per game, with a shooting percentage of 49.3% and a three-point shooting percentage of 34.0%.

Compared with the 2023-24 season, Daniels' average points per game increased by 8.3 points, rebounds increased by 2.0, assists increased by 1.7, and steals increased by 1.62.