Why does this award even exist? Many internet sites claim it was a cunning strategy invented in the middle of last century by Red Aurebach. By keeping a starter player on the bench, he could maintain pressure throughout the game for more wins. Or perhaps it was to soothe egos. Frank Ramsey was a good player, he was a starter-level player. The whole “6th man” concept kept him satisfied with coming off the bench.
Either way, it was an idea built around that particular Celtics team’s lineup and how it related to the rest of the league. It doesn’t scale. It’s not the 1960s. Most teams today don’t happen to have the talent level fall off between positions six and seven. In todays NBA more stars take nights off or have reduced minutes, so player number six plays more and starts more games than in those days.
But mostly, the logic just doesn’t add up. If a team is so deep that a player who would start on most teams comes off their bench instead, that player is a good candidate for the 6th man.
Payton Pritchard is good enough to be starting for most teams in the NBA. But he happens to have Derrick White and Jrue Holiday starting in front of him. That’s great for the Celtics. It’s not so great for Payton Pritchard since he doesn’t get to start. But at least it makes him a leader for sixth man of the year award. Two years ago, Malcolm Brogdon was also coming off the bench behind White and Holiday. Brogdon became the sixth man of the year. That is not because Brogdon and Pritchard are particularly bad or particularly great players – they are both good players who just happened to be on a stacked team at that position so they had to come off the bench.
The 6th man award is actually the “best player not quite enough good to start because the team is loaded” award. That’s not so great an achievement. It’s an achievement of the front office who built the roster, not the individual player. If Jrue Holiday is traded/dumped next year for salary cap reasons, Pritchard will go from an NBA award winner to a non-award winning guard on an amazing team. Yay?
