#sixth man

Most points scored off the bench in NBA History:

11,154 - Lou Williams

11,147 - Dell Curry

11,112 - Jamal Crawford

9,432 - Ricky Pierce

9,201 - Eddie Johnson

8,695 - Thurl Bailey

8,278 - Manu Ginobili

7,523 - Jason Terry

7,383 - Leandro Barbosa

This ranking feature evaluates the most effective bench units in the NBA, specifically focusing on scoring production. The summary discusses the importance of the "second unit" in maintaining momentum when the starters sit, analyzing how depth can swing regular season games. It profiles the leading candidates for Sixth Man of the Year and the teams that have successfully staggered their rotations to keep elite scoring on the floor for 48 minutes.

The analysis looks at metrics such as bench points per game, net rating of bench lineups, and field goal percentage of reserve units. It highlights teams that have built "platoons" of role players who can extend leads, contrasting them with top-heavy teams that collapse when the stars rest. The piece also touches on the strategy of staggering minutes.

The piece concludes by ranking the top ten bench units in the league. It asserts that in the attrition war of an 82-game season, having a reliable scoring punch off the pine is a luxury that separates the contenders from the pretenders.

LA CLIPPERS’ MONTREZL HARRELL WINS 2019-20 KIA NBA SIXTH MAN AWARD

Montrez Herel, centar Los Anđeles Klipersa, proglašen je za najboljeg šestog igrača u sezoni 2019-2020, nadmašivši glavne konkurente za to priznanje, plejmejkera Oklahoma Siti Tandera Denisa Šrudera  i  saigrača iz Klipersa, Lu Vilijamsa.

NEW YORK, Sept. 4, 2020 – LA Clippers forward-center Montrezl Harrell has won the 2019-20 Kia NBA Sixth Man Award for his contributions in a reserve role, the NBA announced today.  This is the first NBA Sixth Man Award for Harrell, who finished in third place last season.    

Harrell received 58 first-place votes from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters and earned 397 total points.  Oklahoma City Thunder guard Dennis Schröder finished in second place with 328 points (35 first-place votes).  Clippers guard Lou Williams, a three-time Kia NBA Sixth Man Award winner, received the other seven first-place votes and finished in third place with 127 points.

Players were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.  The voting was conducted based on regular-season games played through March 11.  The seeding games, which were played July 30 – Aug. 14 as part of the season restart, did not count toward voting for the Kia NBA Sixth Man Award or the league’s other traditional end-ofseason awards.  To be eligible for the Sixth Man Award, players had to have come off the bench in more games than they started in games played through March 11.

From the beginning of the season through March 11, Harrell averaged 18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds and 1.14 blocked shots in 27.8 minutes in 63 games (two starts) as part of his fifth NBA season.  In games played off the bench during that time, Harrell ranked second in the NBA in scoring (18.4 ppg) and fifth in rebounding (7.0 rpg).  He also shot 58.0 percent from the field in all games played through March 11, the 10th-best mark in the NBA.    

In games played off the bench through March 11, Harrell recorded an NBA-high 11 double-doubles, tied for first with four games of at least 30 points and ranked second with 10 games of 25 or more points.  He scored 34 points off the bench twice, matching his single-game career high as a starter or reserve.      

Led by Harrell and Williams, the Clippers averaged an NBA-high 51.5 points off the bench and outscored their opponents’ reserves in 53 of 64 games through March 11.  LA posted a 44-20 record during that period, the second-best mark in the Western Conference.    

Harrell, 26, has spent the last three seasons with the Clippers, who acquired him in a trade with the Houston Rockets in June 2017.  He played his first two seasons with the Rockets after they selected him in the second round (No. 32 overall) of NBA Draft 2015 presented by State Farm.    

GORDON PROVES HE’S STILL GOT IT - By Zack Elkhaldy  

(Photo: David Zalubowski/STF)

Second chances don’t around very often, let alone a sixth.  But when it comes to the Houston Rockets’ backup shooting guard, Eric Gordon, his opportunity to shine this season has proven he’s been  one of the most underrated acquisitions in this past summer’s free agency frenzy.  With the All-Star break right around the corner, the leading Sixth Man of the Year of candidate is none other than Gordon.

While players this past offseason were taking advantage of the increased salary caps, and walking away with more than they probably should have, Gordon quietly signed a four-year, $12.4 million dollar contract with the Rockets.

Why?  Well because of his proven history of being injury prone.  

Gordon’s missed 173 games out of a 394, 43% of the possible games played, in his five-year stint with the New Orleans Pelicans.  It was like the Pelicans’ fan base barely knew him, let alone the rest of the NBA.

But the difference between the Rockets and the Pelicans for Gordon are the expectations.  While Gordon is in the middle of his eighth season in the league, the primary role on his last two teams, the Pelicans and the Los Angeles Clippers, was to be a starter. Now that he’s with the Rockets, he can come off the bench for All-Star and regular season MVP candidate, James Harden.

This role of being a backup is new to Gordon, but is paying dividends, especially with how well the Rockets are doing.  Led by coach Mike D’Antoni’s fast-paced offense, the Rockets are currently the fourth best team in the league, with a record of 34-14.  Not bad for a team that many predicted would not even make the playoffs at the start of the season.

And to quote one of the greatest basketball coaches of all-time, John Wooden, “It’s not so important who starts the game but who finishes it.” Gordon is playing his best ball since the 2011 campaign with the Clippers, where now he is averaging 17.4 ppg on 30 minutes and has played 46 games out of a possible 48 (he also started 8 of them).  

Since the addition of Gordon, D’Antoni mixed up the lineup to have Harden play point guard.  The payout on this move has been tremendous, as both Harden and Gordon are balling out of their minds to close the games.  Harden, a former Sixth Man of the Year himself, is averaging 28.6 ppg, 11.6 apg, 8.1 rpg and has not missed a single game this season.

"Before the season, they expected us to be eighth or ninth in the West, 10th in the West," Harden said. "We're third (in the conference) with a chance to be second or first. Obviously, I'm not doing it alone. Eric Gordon is the second-leading scorer. He's top ... in 3-pointers made. He's doing it at an extremely high level. You can't overlook that. 

"For us to be where we are midway through the season, obviously our team is playing well but Eric is playing at an extremely high level."

If anything, this year was supposed to be the changing of the guard for the Sixth Man award, since its’ the big men who have been making a strong case. The 26-19 Oklahoma City Thunder have center Enes Kanter who’s averaging 14.6 ppg and 7.5 rpg, and the 26-20 Memphis Grizzlies have power forward Zach Randolph 13.7 ppg and 8.2 rpg.  Both Kanter and Randolph were also starters for most of their careers until their recent transition to the second unit helped bolster their teams’ chances of making it to the playoffs.

Since 2005, 11 of the last 12 players awarded Sixth Man of the Year are shooting guards (including swingman Mike Miller).  The prototype of a successful sixth man for any team has been a great shooter off the bench.  Past winners – J.R. Smith, Jamal Crawford, and Lou Williams – are already out of the race for the season, for each of their or team’s respective issues.  The last one to represent the shooting guards proudly is Gordon.

I actually really enjoyed Zyuohger before The World came onto the scene.  It was different enough to stand apart from previous shows with a theme that hadn’t been explored before.  I feel the same about ToQger.  I can see your point though, after character introductions and the like a lot of Sentai series of late seem to tread water and do monster of the week episodes over and over until it is time to introduce the sixth man and advance the story.  

Then again, if you watch the VERY old series like Himitsu Sentai GoRanger down through Battle Fever J, the monster of the week formula is almost never broken except by major story beats.  It’s one of the problems with a year-long season that doesn’t have an overarching story and continuous plot developments.

That’s one of the major differences between Super Sentai and modern* Kamen Rider.  Kamen Rider series seem to build from one episode to the next and reveal more and more of the plot, sometimes becoming completely different series by the end.  If you miss an episode of Kamen Rider, you miss big parts of the story.  If you miss a random episode of Sentai, you miss another monster dying randomly.  That is, unless you miss a plot episode which are concentrated in the early middle part and towards the end.  

I have skipped over whole chunks of some of the older series without really getting lost.  It’s not AS common today but it is still present given that Sentai is aimed at a younger audience than Kamen Rider (though not much younger). This is not a BAD thing, just a distinction between the two and the way the plot and season are structured between them.

There are, of course, exceptions to this but it is a general trend. You can see it to great effect in how most Kamen Rider episodes are at least two-parters while Sentai reserves multi-part episodes for the big plot moments and advancing the wider story.