Is Jordan Clarkson a lock for Sixth Man of the Year Award? | NBA
The Sixth Man of the Year is awarded to the best player coming off the bench i.e. the best substitute player. The media casts the vote for the award and there is no doubt that scoring plays the biggest role here. The average sixth man plays around 25–30 minutes a game and all winners from the past 20 years have scored at least 13 PPG. They are the energizers of team who are generally responsible for leading the second unit coming off the bench. Bench scoring will always play a pivotal role especially in the playoffs if the starters struggle to perform.
Jordan Clarkson has been putting the league on notice averaging 17.4 PPG and 4 RPG. The 6' 5", 190 pound 28-year old is shooting 41% from the field, 34% from 3-point range and a fine 92% from the free throw line. The Utah Jazz have the best record in the NBA right now, just half a game ahead of the Suns.
Entering the season, Lou Williams for the Clippers and Montrezl Harrell for the Lakers were the favourites to win the award this year, but Clarkson has been balling out all year especially in the absence of Utah’s two star guards in Donovan Mitchel and Mike Conley. The Filipino-American guard is averaging 20 and 5 this season in the absence of Spida Mitchel and has shown off his offensive prowess in spurts. Earlier in the season, on February 16th, Jordan scored 40 points in the win against Philadelphia, hitting 8 3-pointers in an efficient (65%) scoring night helping them survive Ben Simmons’ career game. Yes, that same game Ben referred to in an interview with ESPN’s Rachel Nichols while taking a dig at DPOY leading candidate Rudy Gobert (despite losing the game)-Probably a story for another day.
Harrell, Jalen Brunson and even Utah’s Joe Ingles are in the mix for winning the award. However, even though each of them have had a promising season for their team, most of them are favored to get more second-place votes worth 3 points as opposed to first-place votes worth 5 points. Notably, the third place vote accounts for 1 point. Based on the sheer amount of first place votes, Clarkson will edge his competition out with the final 10 games remaining. He is also getting more minutes with Mitchel being sidelined due to a right ankle sprain which may lead to increase in scoring.
Furthermore, the fact that Utah have the best record in the NBA and might finish in the top 2 in the West will influence the voters positively towards voting for JC.
