Toronto Raptors: Best candidates for 2018-19 NBA awards

Sixth Man of the Year: Fred VanVleet

Fred VanVleet is being groomed to take the reins from starting point guard Kyle Lowry one day.

For now, he’s stuck behind him in the depth chart, giving him the opportunity to take Sixth Man of the Year honors.

Much has been made in the past couple of seasons about Toronto’s bench and their status as the best group of reserves in the entire league. With most of that core intact, there’s no reason to think that won’t be the case again in 2018-19.

VanVleet might be the crown jewel of them all, though. In a pure bench role — he’s never started a game in two NBA seasons — VanVleet averaged 8.6 points per game last season, in addition to 3.2 assists per game.

He also displayed a penchant for launching the long ball, knocking down 41.4% of his 3-point shots, averaging nearly one and a half makes per game from 3-point range.

Frankly, VanVleet’s biggest competition for the award should be internal, with Danny Green, OG Anunoby and Greg Monroe in contention, depending on how Nick Nurse chooses to deploy his star-studded bench.