Most of NBA history gave us a certain kind of Sixth Man of the Year winner. Between 2006 and 2022, 10 of the 17 winners were simply that season's leading bench scorer. Voters expect gunners in the sixth man role, and they tended to reward the best of them. But they've gotten a bit more open-minded in recent years. None of the last three winners have been the league's leading bench scorer, and 2024 winner Naz Reid wasn't even in the top 10. He was also only the third center to win the trophy. Payton Pritchard last year was a bit closer to the standard archetype as a high-scoring guard, but Malik Beasley out-scored him and lost.

In other words, we can't simply point to the bench player who's going to take the most shots and assume he'll win anymore. This is still an award that favor

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