Heading into the 2016-17 NBA season, here’s a look at the top 10 candidates for the league’s Sixth Man of the Year Award.
The NBA is a league of superstars, but teams win championships. Depth becomes less important in the playoffs, but being able to afford rest for a team’s starters can often be the difference between advancing and going home in a closely contested playoff series.
As the league has evolved, having a quality sixth man has become more and more important. It’s almost become a designated position in and of itself on a roster, and there’s a now a more positive connotation to being a team’s primary scoring option off the bench.
For any NBA player who’s spent his whole life being the best player on his middle school, AAU, high school or even college team, coming into the pros and adjusting to a bench role can be difficult. Some guys are gracious about the responsibility, some are forced into it and eventually accept it, and some simply do what is asked, yearning for the chance to start again.
But with a Sixth Man of the Year Award being given out every year, there’s a little more incentive for talented players to sacrifice and embrace a role other than starter. Every player wants to hear his name called out during starting lineups, but there’s a special kind of glory in winning over a crowd with tough, high-scoring play off the bench.
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Bearing all that in mind, it’s time to take a look at 10 players more likely to come in off the bench than start in 2016-17 — players whose leadership with the second unit could snag them the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award.
Honorable Mentions: Terrence Jones, Brandon Jennings, Jahlil Okafor, Doug McDermott, Meyers Leonard, Lance Stephenson, Jeremy Lamb, Gerald Green, Allen Crabbe