Tuesday, May 25, 2021

Jordan Clarkson named as Sixth Man of the Year



History was made on Monday, as the NBA honored Jordan Clarkson as its latest Sixth Man of the Year winner.

He became the first player from the Utah Jazz to claim the award, beating out teammate Joe Ingles and Derrick Rose of the New York Knicks.

The guard of Filipino descent earned 407 points from a global panel of a hundred members of the media, including 65 first-place votes. Ingles would net 272 points with 34 first-place votes. Rose netted the remaining first place vote to finish third with 77 points.  Clarkson and Ingles would be the first set of teammates to finish 1-2 in voting for this honor.

First-place votes are worth five points, second place nets three points, and third-place votes are one point. To be eligible for this award, the NBA denotes that a player needs to come off the bench in more games than as a starter.  

Clarkson came off the bench for 67 of 68 games this season, averaging a career-high 18.4 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 2.5 assists in 26.7 minutes. He led all reserves in scoring with 18.3 points and converted 203 triples, the fourth-highest total from a reserve in NBA history. His career-high 208 total three-pointers made is seventh in the NBA this season.

To add, his 89.6% shooting from the free throw line is ninth in the league.

Clarkson produced 23 games scoring at least twenty points off the bench for the Jazz, with five of those scoring at least thirty points. With his 40-point performance against Philadelphia in February and 41 against Golden State in May, he has two of the five 40-point games from a player off the Utah Jazz bench.

In his first full season for Utah after being traded from Cleveland in exchange for Dante Exum and two second round picks (2022 San Antonio and 2023 Golden State), the Mizzou alumnus helped secure the top-seed and homecourt advantage for the entire postseason for the Jazz at 52-20.

The breakdown of voting can be seen below, with individual ballots to be revealed once all season awards have been revealed.



No comments:

Post a Comment