This year's leading candidates are mostly big men, and have been playing the majority of their minutes at the Center position (except Randle, who splits time between PF and C).
Montrezl Harrell: 15.8/7.4 with 1.8 bpg, 64% fg
Julius Randle: 17.9/8.8/2.9, 55% fg
Domantas Sabonis: 14.4/9.7, 68% fg
Jonas Valanciunas: 13/7.9, 56% fg & 82% ft
These four have been beating out perennial candidates Lou Williams (currently shooting 39% from the field after a rough start) and Eric Gordon (shooting even worse at 35%), both of whom have been begun heating up recently. There's still a lot of season to go, but this should be an interesting story-line. ***EDIT: I thought D-Rose had started more than half his games this season, but that is not in fact the case so he's certainly a candidate as well, and is challenging for the top spot.
*Note that two other Cs are listed as having won the 6MOTY award (Roy Tarpley in 1988 and Cliff Robinson in 1993), but both played the vast majority of their minutes at the forward spots during their winning years.
All stats via BasketballReference
Here's mine:
G: John Starks
G: Jamal Crawford
F: Tony Kukoc
F: Detlef Schrempf
C: Kevin McHale
With Load Managementβ’ being a thing and fairly prevalent in the modern NBA, I think it would be nice to acknowledge and give some incentive to those players with the least missed games in a season.
You could have a minimum amount of minutes played per game to be eligible, and if there are more than 1 player who has played all 82, then you could look back over the previous year as well.
My random musing of the day.
Lou Williams said he wanted to give his newborn son a unique name and went with Syx, since Lou is a 3-time Sixth Man of the Year.
"If I had a son I was going to give him a unique name. So I said you know what, I'm going to name him Syx and spell it a little different."
Also says heβll have a basketball in his hands soon - βIt wonβt be long. A couple weeks. Gonna give him time to eat and realize heβs in our world.β
He's averaging 23PPG and 6APG on 59% TS during that streak. He added 22 and 8 tonight.
Incredible stretch by Derrick Rose. I feel like he is not getting nearly enough attention for what he's doing in Detroit. Not enough people mention him as the Sixth Man of the Year over Shroder and Harrell.
Shroder - 18.6PPG, 3.9APG, 3.8RPG on 57% TS in 31.0MPG
Rose - 18.5PPG, 5.9APG, 2.5RPG on 56.4% TS in 26.2MPG
The two greatest players to ever wear a Raptors jersey (many people forget that Hakeem played for Toronto in the 2001-2002 season).
I've seen many people claim that Lou isn't a "real sixth man because he plays starter minutes." Last year, he ranked 6th in minutes per game (26.6, 4th when counting Clippers that were on the roster all season), while barely beating out rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
When he won the first time in 2015, he was 7th on the Raptors roster in minutes per game (25.2).
Has any other sixth man winner ever gotten this type of criticism for playing "starter minutes," or are people just making excuses for Lou especially?
Like in the NFL, this would be an award given to the player who has shown perseverance in overcoming adversity, in the form of not being in the League the previous year, a severe injury, or simply poor performance.
For Example, this year I think Carmelo Anthony would be an ideal candidate for this award. After missing most of the last year of basketball and struggling to find his way back to an NBA roster, he is balling out this season.
What are some other players over the years that would be likely recipients of this award?
I think that Spencer Dinwiddie will win the 6th man of the year award next year. Every year he keeps on improving, and whoβs to say he wonβt next year?
https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/nba-2019-20-awards-predictions-experts-split-on-mvp-unanimously-pick-zion-for-rookie-of-the-year/ via http://cbssportsapp.com
Just an interesting tidbit. Obviously Nurse is far from a lock for the award but it's a rare potential situation come season's end. Speaks a lot about Masai too that this is even possible. (then again what doesn't?)
Hubie Brown with the Grizzlies is the only coach/team to ever win the award back-to-back.
And Michael Jordan is the only player in history to win both awards in the same season, doing so in 1987-88. He also won MVP that year.
I have been thinking about this. I have been really conflicted about my choices. Who do you guys think could win it ?
With Load Managementβ’ being a thing and fairly prevalent in the modern NBA, I think it would be nice to acknowledge and give some incentive to those players with the least missed games in a season.
You could have a minimum amount of minutes played per game to be eligible, and if there are more than 1 player who has played all 82, then you could look back over the previous year as well.
My random musing of the day.
