Nickeil Alexander-Walker has spent most of his NBA career as the connective piece on someone else's team — the defender, the spacer, the steadying veteran behind bigger names. This season the Atlanta Hawks guard finally became the story, and it is now official: Alexander-Walker is the 2025-26 Kia NBA Most Improved Player.
The numbers behind the award were stark. As presenter and 2011 winner Kevin Love noted, Alexander-Walker had been playing only a handful more minutes per game than the year before yet had pushed his scoring above 20 a night — a leap few saw coming. "Wasn't expected to do this type of output on the offensive end," Love said. "So it's amazing to see. Very well deserved."
For Alexander-Walker — a cousin of newly crowned MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and part of a deep well of Canadian basketball talent — the breakthrough was rooted in something less tangible than shot attempts. Asked how the freedom to be himself had shown up in the numbers, he pointed to the buy-in he felt in Atlanta. "I was getting a lot of love from the Hawks organization, and for me it was kind of nerve-racking, because I'm like, what are they really expecting?" he said. "But through the work that I put in, through the trust with the organization, my teammates giving me that clarity and peace of mind to really develop and grow as a player — [it] helped me produce."
What impressed observers most was that his defence never dipped, even as his offensive role expanded. Alexander-Walker framed that as the foundation of his identity, not an afterthought. "Defense for me has become the non-negotiable when trying to lead, trying to win," he said. "Coming from Minnesota where everyone played defense... that was never going to leave me. My uncle at a young age said we had to play on both sides of the ball, and that's what's been instilled in me and who I am."
The award arrived in the middle of a playoff run that has stretched him in new ways. Long accustomed to deferring to higher-usage stars — "usually I was [behind] Ant and guys like Julius," he said, referencing his former Minnesota teammates Anthony Edwards and Julius Randle — Alexander-Walker is now a focal point of opposing game plans for the first time. "This is my first time being a top-three guy on the scouting report," he said. "It's been that learning curve on settling in... that dance between being aggressive and really how to create for others."
He credited Atlanta's late-season surge to a group that learned to police itself. "We had a lot of team meetings, group sessions, dinners, and the bond slowly started to grow," he said. "In timeouts we're holding each other accountable... we're not waiting for [coach Quin Snyder] to do that. We're self-governing ourselves."
The tributes underlined how far he has come. Veteran Udonis Haslem called in with a reminder of the league's fragility. "Every player in this league is one trade, one injury, one coach away from being an All-Star, a role player, or out of the league," Haslem said. "You've been pushed to the limits and you stuck with it. Congratulations — well deserved."
