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 for or against any specific player. It’s simply a deep dive into some pertinent statistics for consideration.
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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 leading players in specific boxscore categories off the bench, 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 figures provided do not account for any games potentially started by the players. However, it’s worth noting that neither Clarkson nor Williams have started a game, and Davis has only started one. The subsequent information considers all games played by candidates for the Sixth Man position.
These are the players who have had the highest average of points, rebounds, and assists per game. These players have played a minimum of 1,000 minutes but have started in less than half of the games they’ve participated in.
EFFICIENCY
Some contenders (and winners) for the Sixth Man award can be prolific scorers. Here are the players with the highest true shooting percentage (a measure of scoring efficiency) who have attempted at least 400 field shots and started in fewer than half of their games.
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 for playmaking efficiency, focusing on players who have logged at least 1,000 minutes of play time and started in less than half of the games they’ve participated in.
TEAM SUCCESS
The most effective substitutes significantly contribute to their team by outscoring the opposition. The following are the top contenders for the ‘sixth man’ award, who have played a minimum of 1,000 minutes but started in less than half of the games. Their ranking is based on the highest differential in NetRtg (the difference in team points per 100 possessions when they are on or off the court).
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).
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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.
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