NBA Awards: 2015 Sixth Man Of the Year

When we look for a Sixth Man candidate shouldn’t we be also looking at the best benches in the league?

Analyzing the 3 key areas of bench production the top 5 in each of those categories are:

Points Differential:

1) Indiana: +11.8

2) San Antonio: +11.4

3) Boston: +9.1

4) Milwaukee: +8.6

5) Toronto: +7.4

Efficiency:

1) San Antonio: 46.3

2) Indiana: 46.1

3) Boston:: 45.9

4) Los Angeles Lakers: 44.3

5) Golden State: 43.7

Points Per Game:

1) Boston: 41.6

2)  San Antonio: 41.0

3) Indiana: 40.8

4) Los Angeles Lakers: 39.4

5) Toronto:38.7

Full bench stats available at hoopsstats.com

There are some common teams appearing which highlights there are some players who should be recognized. Specifically Indiana made a charge late in the season with Rodney Stuckey finding his game and improving  his production. Boston’s second unit has played as well (sometimes better) than their first unit), but the addition of Isaiah Thomas at the deadline resulted in them surging into the top ranks of bench production.

Toronto utilized almost a wholesale hockey line-up change in games. They began the season with Lou Williams leading the charge and stayed in the upper echelon of bench production all season. Young athletic teams like Milwaukee and the Lakers also fared well in bench production. Notably if Minnesota had not been decimated by injury we may have seen them much higher in the ranking.

The other factor in determining top benches and players tends to come from top offensive teams. The interesting part of this equation is some teams fit this analysis like San Antonio, Toronto and Golden State yet Los Angeles Clippers can only point to one player who is a consistent contributor: Jamal Crawford

Next: Contenders and the Rocket Reservist