NBA 6th Man

I gotta start by saying I have no idea what the rules and regulations for the official 6th Man Award are. I started by looking at guys that played at least 1500 minutes (roughly) while starting fewer than half of their games played. There a few notable names not eligible by my way of thinking that may actually be eligible for some votes: Hassan Whiteside (41 starts), Bradley Beal (35 starts in 55 games), Michael Carter-Williams (37 starts in 54 games), Clint Capela (less than 1500 minutes played).  

These are the only 59 players that I considered for 6th Man: CJ Miles, Jordan Hill, Shaun Livingston, Jerryd Bayless, Darrell Arthur, Gerald Green, Lavoy Allen, TJ McConnell, Nikola Mirotic, Wayne Ellington, Trevor Booker, Dennis Schroder, Ramon Sessions, Marcus Smart, Wesley Johnson, Randy Foye, Mirza Teletovic, Patrick Mills, Alonzo Gee, Shabazz Muhammad, Corey Brewer, JJ Barea, Stanley Johnson, Ed Davis, Enes Kanter, Frank Kaminsky, Marco Belinelli, Shane Larkin, Terrence Ross, Andre Iguodala, Thabo Sefolosha, Nik Stauskas, Bismack Biyombo, Doug McDermott, Jrue Holiday, Aaron Gordon, Matthew Dellavadova, Omri Casspi, Lou Williams, Isiah Canaan, Jeremy Lin, Langston Galloway, Patrick Patterson, Ryan Anderson, Cory Joseph, Jared Dudley, Bojan Bogdanovic, Allen Crabbe, Hollis Thompson, Dion Waiters, Jamal Crawford, Raymond Felton, Gorgui Dieng, Justise Winslow, Evan Turner, Darren Collison, Tristan Thompson, Zach LaVine, Will Barton

Next I looked at the following 5 stats: FGA, FTA, Rebounds, Assists, Steals. Only 1 player listed above finished in the top 150 in the league in all 5 categories: Gorgui Dieng. 12 other players were in 4 of the categories: Will Barton, Zach LaVine, Darren Collison, Dennis Schroder, Evan Turner, Isiah Canaan, Jeremy Lin, Lou Williams, Omri Casspi, Cory Joseph, Nikola Mirotic, Jamal Crawford. My gut is that these are the guys giving you more bang for your buck.  

Out of this group of 13 the biggest upside surprise is Darren Collison, no idea that guy had such a good year: best asst:to and an eye-popping 48.6% FG%. Evan Turner actually leads this list in assists despite the appearance of number of PGs. Lou Williams is a distant 1st place in FTA, shooting at a solid 83%. Will Barton piled on a lot of points at a good (not great) FG%. But of these players, I gotta go with Gorgui Dieng: 1st in Steals, Blocks, Rebounds (off & def), VORP (2.3) and 2nd in FG% with a solid FTA and FT%. He contributes all across the stat sheet and does so at a reasonable rate--dude's grinding!

I went back and included Enes Kanter and Andre Iguodala because I think they'll get some consideration and I just wanted to see how they compared. Kanter dominates Rebounds (especially ORB) and 2FGs (shooting at 58%!) even though he's next to last in minutes played; yes, his defensive stats are not good (and he sure doesn't pass the eyeball test on D) but his offensive stats seem to fit precisely the role his team needs him to play. As does Iguodala, whose numbers are fine though nothing superlative, but his role off the bench is more specific than the numbers suggest. Hey, man, I like numbers as much as the next guy but there are intangibles in the game that the best team in the league requires that don't get captured by the stats. 

I'll take Gorgui Dieng as 6th Man of the Year. Enes Kanter, Andre Iguodala, Evan Turner, Will Barton and Darren Collison just to round out the top 6.