Are We Missing a Serious 6th Man of the Year Candidate from the Knicks?

Shoutout to the Lou Williams and Andre Iguodala fans in the world.

The 6th Man of the Year race is a fascinating discussion for me. Every year, influential NBA nerds complain that the award just goes to the top scorer who comes off the bench across the league while there are better, more complete candidates who never get considered. And yet, every year, nothing changes and one of the top scorers off the bench wins. Is this year any different?

Vegas would have you believe no. Per FanDuel, Malik Monk is the overwhelming favorite to take home the award, soundly beating out the other betting favorites in Bobby Portis, Norm Powell, Caris LeVert, and Naz Reid.

What do all of these players have in common? All of them are in the top 10 in scoring off the bench for players who have come off the bench more than 30 times this season. The other top 10 scorers include Tim Hardaway Jr. (currently 6th in betting odds), Jordan Clarkson (a distant 7th in betting odds), Bogdan Bogdanovic, Keldon Johnson, and Ben Mathurin.

(Bogdanovic and Johnson might be considered more heavily but they both play on awful teams. I discussed Mathurin in my last article; although his scoring is there, he just isn’t on the same level as these other players yet.)

Vegas isn’t crazy — their top contenders all deserve to be in consideration.

The Vegas Favorites

Monk leads the Kings bench unit providing scoring and passing at 15.6 points and 5.3 assists per game (second for all bench players behind only TJ McConnell). His offensive contributions are a huge boon for a Kings team that lacks playmaking outside of stars De’Aaron Fox and Domantos Sabonis. The case against him? The Kings are a net negative when he is on the floor and they even lose the minutes when he shares the floor with Fox and/or Sabonis. (They are a -20 for the season when all three are on the floor together.)

Bobby Portis has a similar story to Monk. After a sluggish start to the season, he has picked it up and is back to contributing at a similar level to previous seasons (13.3 points and 7.1 rebounds per game). His efficient shooting allows the Bucks to stay big at all times with two of Brook Lopez, Giannis, and Portis on the floor at all times. However, the Bucks are losing the minutes when he’s on the floor for the first time in his tenure with the team as well.

Powell’s scoring numbers are down from previous seasons (13.7 points per game compared to 17.0 last year) but his efficiency is higher than it’s ever been (60.1% EFG% compared to 55.4% for his career) playing next to James Harden. (Powell has played 889 minutes next to Harden — a little over half of his total minutes — and they are a staggering +245 together. Of all two-man lineup combinations to play less than 1000 minutes together, Powell and Harden rank 4th in plus/minus.) Powell’s on-court plus/minus is as high as it’s ever been at +5.5 and, unlike many bench players throughout the league, the Clippers are better with Powell on the floor than off.

LeVert was never known as a positive defensive player before joining the Cavaliers midway through the 2021-22 season. However, he has completely turned his reputation around since the start of his tenure. This has been his best defensive season to date — he has routinely guarded the best opposing perimeter players and has done a good job of that. Offensively, he provides scoring (14.0 points per game) and secondary playmaking when one of Darius Garland or Donovan Mitchell is on the bench — he is 4th in bench players in assists per game at 4.7. The knock against LeVert: he is still way below average in scoring efficiency while only shooting 33% from three. (Last year, he shot 39% from the three — it appears that was a fluke season; instead, his career 34% three-point percentage seems to reflect his shooting skill more accurately.)

Naz Reid has improved year after year on both offense and defense getting up to 12.6 points and 4.9 rebounds per game this year. Every advanced stat likes Reid, consistently pointing to him as a very good player. His ability to play on the perimeter allows the Timberwolves to stay big at all times with two of Rudy Gobert, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Reid on the floor at all times (though they occasionally will play Kyle Anderson at the 4 as well for short stretches).

All of these candidates are completely worthy contenders for 6th Man of the Year.

But are there any non-traditional candidates that deserve consideration outside of these five?

The Non-Traditional Candidates

Isaiah Joe is first for all bench players in total plus/minus at +300. His shooting (41.6% from three on 4.5 attempts per game) and chemistry with MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander have been a massive propellant for the Thunder this season — Joe may find himself in closing lineups for the Thunder during the playoffs because of it. However, he’s only played about 1,100 minutes this season — at least 400-500 less than any other serious candidate.

Sam Hauser is second in total plus/minus off the bench at +274 with a shooting gravity equivalent to Joe. However, he probably isn’t even the best candidate in Boston — that likely belongs to longtime veteran, Al Horford. Horford’s scoring has dipped but his shooting efficiency is as good as ever coupled with very good defense and connectivity on offense. Unfortunately, his defense and offensive punch have probably dipped just enough to favor some of these next candidates over him from the non-traditional group.

Josh Hart is 5th in plus/minus in games off the bench this season while the Knicks are +3.2 points per 100 possessions better when Hart is on the floor vs off. He has stepped up in the absence of OG Anunoby and Julius Randle for the Knicks. Since the start of February, Hart has averaged a double-double with 13.8 points per game and 10.5 rebounds per game while also recording 5.5 assists per game. (This has helped keep the Knicks somewhat close to .500 in a stretch that could’ve been much worse for them.) For the season, he ranks in the top 40 in rebounds per game — right up there with players such as Chet Holmgren and Draymond Green — which is remarkable given his size at only 6’4”. (It’s not talked about enough how much of a skill rebounding as a wing or guard is. Having someone from the perimeter crash the glass as well as Hart does is one of the reasons the Knicks are one of the best rebounding teams in the league despite the loss of Mitchell Robinson for much of this season.) He does more than rebound though: he also records over 3.5 assists per game — an outstanding number for a player who spends most of his time OFF the ball.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker is a better shooter than Hart, hovering around league-average shooting efficiency for the season (1.4 threes per game at 36.7%), and is 10th in plus/minus off the bench. His value shines most on the defensive end where he is a LARGE contributor to the Wolves league-best defense. Walker hounds opposing guards, getting through every screen as if it wasn’t there in the first place. He makes Rudy Gobert’s job easy down low by staying in front of his man at all times. On the other end, Alexander-Walker can run the offense on occasion with solid playmaking skills (2.5 assists per game). His diverse skillset was especially important for the Timberwolves at the beginning of the season while Jaden McDaniels was out on injury and before they got a true backup point guard in Monte Morris.

Walker Kessler is also a great candidate for the non-traditional list as one of the best defensive centers in the league — the Jazz’s defense is 5.2 points per 100 possessions better with him on the floor. Unfortunately, he has missed a lot of time and is likely too many minutes behind the other contenders to warrant serious consideration.

The Shortlist

There is still plenty of time for this to change (we still have almost a quarter of the season to go!); however, I think my shortlist is down to Hart, Powell, and LeVert. (With the injury to Karl Anthony-Towns — sorry to Towns and Wolves fans, you didn’t deserve this — Naz Reid has a chance to blow into this conversation as well given additional opportunities in Towns’s absence.)

All three of these players have their reasons why they should or should not win it.

Hart is the worst scorer of the three but the best defender and rebounder while also providing a playmaking punch for the Knicks. He has played 500 (!) more minutes than either Levert or Powell — the difference of about half of a quarter of basketball per game over 60 games or about 20 (!) games of playing 25 minutes (for context, Powell averages 25 minutes per game).

LeVert lacks the scoring efficiency compared to Powell but is a better playmaker and defender.

Powell is the best scorer of the three — which is a deeply valuable skill in a game where the goal is to score the most points — but provides less value in other areas of the game.

If you value scoring more than Hart’s rebounding or defense, I won’t quibble with favoring LeVert or Powell. That said, 500 minutes is a lot of minutes. For that reason, I’m currently favoring Hart as my 6th Man of the Year.

There is still time for this to change with about a quarter of the season to go for most teams. But, for now, let’s give Hart his due as a real contender in this race.