Frank Gaines

Frank Gaines - Gaines won the D-League Most Improved Player award last season, which unlike the NBA MIP documents improving within one season, not from season to season. He spent the year with the Maine Red Claws and started from the bench, but quickly showed he was too good to stay there, and was soon in a starting role getting as many minutes as he could handle. Gaines ultimately finished the season averaging 22.4 points in only 35.4 minutes per game, with some huge scoring nights along the way, including a 47 pointer. The pace of the D-League helped him there, especially the frenetic pace the Red Claws played at in the second half of the year, but it's not as though everyone else was doing this. The lefty 6'3 or 6'4 off guard is a bit undersized, but his scoring instincts are impeccable, his skills well developed, his aggression unrelenting. Gaines also does it while playing little isolation ball, and scores without the ball in his hands much - running the court unstoppably, cutting off the ball, spotting up and using some screen action to absolutely make the most of his touches. He wrong foots defenders on closeouts rather than breaking them off the dribble, drives both ways, hits tough ones, and has the athleticism to get where he wants go to. Hitherto overlooked, Gaines made himself unmissable last year, and although he has already signed for next year with JuveCaserta in Italy, this won't be his last rodeo.