6th Man of the Year - NBA's Participation Ribbon
What is 6th man? At a high level it's the best guy to not be named a started with the assumption that the best player at each position is a starter. I understand that in recent years (starting with McHale & Boston with further with Ginobli with San Antonio) this isn't always the case with teams putting their 3rd best player overall as the 6th man for strategic purposes. Either way I do not understand the award.
A 6th man is either....
A) truly rewarding the 151st best player in the league (30 teams x 5 starters = 150 players, and +1 for the best of the 1st man in), or
B) you have a rigged system where most teams have their best 5 starting, and the SAS put their 3rd best player (Ginobli) gets a leg up on the 90% of other 6th Men who are not meant to be starters.
Its basically an award for best of the not good enoughs. It's the only award that nobody grows up wishing to win.
Of the 34 6MOY award winners, only 1 was an all star the year he won the award (Kevin McHale) and only 1 (Ginobli) made an All NBA 3rd team in the same year he won the award. So with that said, maybe McHale and Ginobli were a top 20 players that year, but the majority of the 6MOY award winners fall somewhere between 20 and 150 (likely around 50-75). 34 seasons the award has been given, only 6x has a 6MOY been in the top 10 in the NBA in Win Share / 48 (WS/48) (and remember they are going up against lesser talent so these numbers are inflated compared to starters)
According to basketball-reference.com the NBA average WS/48min is ~0.100. This year, Jamal Crawford's WS/48 is 0.076 (under an NBA average player). To expand this further, he ranks 8th in WS/48 on his own team (of 13 players who played 20+ games), only 0.017 WS/48 better than the worst Clipper (Mbah a Moute).
I realize WS48 isn't a perfect stat to use to establish how good a player is, but its a good proxy. In the below chart, I have the rankings of the top 10 WS/48 each year (and have included the name of the #1 in the league each season to prove that it is a good proxy).
No disrespect to Crawford (3x winner), McHale (HOFer), Harden (Perennial All Star), Ginobli (Champion), and all the other winners. If someone gives you an award, take it. Congrats! But that is not the award they wish they could win.
Below is the list of 6th Man of the Year Ribbon Winners and their WS/48 min compared to their own teams 1st place and last place WS/48. Unfortunately this does not account for the fact that the "6th Man" by definition plays against inferior talent as he comes in vs the other teams 2nd unit.
