NBA: Top 10 candidates for 2018-19 Sixth Man of the Year award
1. J.J. Redick, Philadelphia 76ers
It appears as though J.J. Redick, who originally ranked 13th in our starting shooting guard rankings, will be coming off the bench for the Philadelphia 76ers this season based on the starting lineup Brett Brown has deployed in the preseason.
Opting to start Markelle Fultz not only jumpstarts the Sixers’ future and serves as a vote of confidence for the former No. 1 overall pick, but it also deploys Redick as a microwave scorer off the bench to fill the Marco Belinelli role from last season.
It’s a deft bit of strategy from Philly, especially if Fultz can be respectable enough from long range to keep defenses honest with another non-shooter like Ben Simmons on the floor. In any case, if Redick comes off the bench for the majority of the season, he’s going to light up opposing second units.
Redick is already hard enough to track off the ball for a team’s starting defense. Based on the way he’s been lighting it up off the pine in preseason, he could very well come close to matching the career-high 17.1 points per game on 42 percent shooting from 3 that he posted as a starter last year, only this time, in a race for Sixth Man of the Year.