Numbers to Know – Sixth Man of the Year award
With two weeks left in the season, it’s time to consider the candidates for each of the league’s regular season awards. After looking at the Kia Most Improved Award, we tackle the Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award.
This isn’t an argument supporting or opposing any specific player. It’s merely an exploration of some pertinent statistics for contemplation.
* * *
More articles from this series:
- Numbers to Know – Kia Rookie of the Year
- Numbers to Know – Kia Most Improved Player
- Numbers to Know – Kia Defensive Player of the Year
- Numbers to Know – Kia MVP
THE BASICS
Here are the players who, from the bench, topped the league in certain boxscore categories up until Wednesday…
- Minutes: Jordan Clarkson (2,025)
- Points: Lou Williams (1,403)
- Rebounds: Ed Davis (635)
- Assists: Lou Williams (369)
- Plus-minus: Davis Bertans (+311)
The numbers mentioned do not account for any games that these players might have started. However, neither Clarkson nor Williams have started a single game, while Davis has only started one. All games played by Sixth Man candidates are included in the following data.
These are the players who have the highest average of points, rebounds, and assists per game. This is among those who have played a minimum of 1,000 minutes but started in less than half of their games.
EFFICIENCY
Candidates (and winners) for the Sixth Man can be high-volume scorers. The following is a list of players with the highest true shooting percentage (a measure of scoring efficiency) who have attempted at least 400 field goals and have started in less than half of the games they’ve participated in.
Williams has a true shooting percentage of 55.6 percent, which is slightly below league average (55.9 percent), but better than the average true shooting percentage for guards (54.3 percent).
Here are the leaders in assist/turnover ratio, showcasing playmaking efficiency, among players who have played a minimum of 1,000 minutes and started in less than half of their games.
TEAM SUCCESS
The most effective reserves contribute by assisting their team in outscoring the opposition. The following are candidates for the sixth man who have played a minimum of 1,000 minutes and started in less than 50% of their games. They have the highest differential in NetRtg (team point differential per 100 possessions) when comparing on-court and off-court performance.
Domantas Sabonis ranks 20th here, with the Pacers having been 3.6 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor (plus-5.7) than they’ve been with him off the floor (plus-2.1). Montrezl Harrell ranks 27th, with the Clippers having been 2.9 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor (plus-3.0) than they’ve been with him off the floor (plus-0.1).
CLUTCH
How important a sixth man is to his team could be determined by whether or not he’s on the floor down the stretch of close games. Here are the sixth man candidates who have played the most with the score within five points in the last five minutes of the fourth quarter or overtime.
This is the one knock on Sabonis’ resume. As important as Sabonis has been to the Pacers (and though he’s shot 8-for-9 with the score within five points in the last five minutes), Nate McMillan has generally gone back to Myles Turner with the game on the line. Sometimes, it’s an offense-defense platoon, but Turner (79) has played more than twice as many clutch minutes as Sabonis (38).
* * *
John Schuhmann is a senior stats analyst for NBA.com. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
