(PHOTO CREDIT: Andrew D. Bernstein/Getty Images.)
For the third time in his career, Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers won the Sixth Man of the Year award. He is the only three-time winner in NBA history.
Not the most popular pick amongst the basketball analytics community. I don’t agree with the pick, either (I thought Will Barton should have won), but it’s not my hill to die on. Crawford is instant offense off the pine, averaging 14.2 points per game and definitely helped the Clippers win 50+ games once again. He didn’t shoot very well (.404, although I’ll concede, sometimes, that volume shooting puts some pressure on the defenders) but I didn’t have a vote in the matter.
Crawford’s averages were definitely fudged up with his five starts for the team. He had phenomenal numbers; as a starter, he averaged 29.2 points and 5.2 assists while shooting .461 from the field and .452 from three.
Here is the voting breakdown from NBA.Com:
I can make a case for Andre Iguodala, who affects the game so much just for his presence on both ends of the floor. Enes Kanter was very productive off the bench as well. But the award is usually given to a volume scorer on a winning team. Barton had a slightly (VERY slightly) higher average than Crawford but Denver wasn’t even a playoff team so…
Congrats to Crawford. Also, my respect for Jamal is very high because of this.
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