Greg Monroe finishes fourth in Most Improved Player voting; Magic's Anderson wins award

Detroit Pistons standout center Greg Monroe placed fourth in the voting for the NBA's Most Improved Player award.Ryan Anderson, the stretch four for the Orlando Magic, finished first.

Monroe garnered 10 first-place votes, nine second-place votes and 19 third-place votes to finish with 96 points, tying him for fourth with Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum.

Anderson (260 points), Ersan Ilosoyva (159), and Nikola Pekovic (104) finished ahead of Moose.

Monroe averaged 15.4 points and 9.7 rebounds in 31.5 minutes per game this season. I can't say that I'm terribly shocked to see him falling so far behind Anderson. Monroe is a beast but playing on a poor team means he gets little notice and he also seemed to fall back slightly as the year wore on. On another note, I contend that young players on bad team's get criticized for their poor defense more than bad defenders on winning teams. So there is that.

Other notable players to receive votes include former Piston Arron Afflalo received a second-place vote (3 points). Jeremy Lin bringing the Linsanity with 91 points. Monroe's draftmate DeMarcus Cousins received 11 points. And I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that Ty Lawson, who in the alternate reality where all Pistons fans have evil-looking goatees and Joe Dumars weighs 160 pounds is manning the point in Detroit while Austin Daye reads inspirational books to young children at his local library, finished with 16 points.

Just had to get a little dig in there in case Pistons fans actually found a reason to be happy.