Is The Next Big NBA Evolution Having Two Bonafide Sixth Men?

The Los Angeles Clippers are currently sporting two candidates for the Sixth Man Of the Year-award in form of Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell.

The pairing, one a guard, another a big man, provides the Clippers’ second-unit with significant offensive production, as the duo is able to off of one another, forcing opposing benches to key in on two players, until superstars Kawhi Leonard and Paul George check back in – or join them on the court.

Williams (18.2 points, 5.6 assists) and Harrell (18.6 points, 7.1 rebounds) play integral roles for the Clippers despite not being a part of the starting five, and that type of roster construction might be worth copying for other teams.

With NBA clubs mostly abandoning the three-star system, having mostly pivoted into a two-star setting with greater depth, it makes sense for teams to allocate funds to strengthen said depth.

The Raptors, led by Pascal Siakam and Kyle Lowry, have also used two players as sixth men this season, as Serge Ibaka and Norman Powell have started in just 26 and 27 games respectively.

While Miami is now starting Goran Dragic, the Slovenian came off the bench for 56 games this season, and shared the sixth man role with rookie gunner Tyler Herro, as both averaged double-digits in scoring.

Defensive-minded sixth men

The sixth man concept isn’t entirely restricted to just offense, however. While most associate the role with putting up points, in large due to how the Sixth Man award is handed out, there are players, both past and present, who’ve come off the bench to provide a kick on the other end of the floor as well.

The Dallas Mavericks are playing Maxi Kleber over 25 minutes a night, in which he provides the team with stable all-around play. His raw statistical line of 9.1 points, 5.2 rebounds and 1.2 assists nightly might appear modest, but Kleber plays a crucial role for the Mavericks bench, offering tough screens, steady defense and box-outs, and generally functions as a player who rarely makes mistakes.

Kleber is similar in some ways to a former Sixth Man candidate, Taj Gibson, who never quite got the buzz due to the award’s perception of pertaining to mostly scorers. Gibson, who was an elite defender, came off the Bulls bench for years, backing up Carlos Boozer. While Gibson’s scoring never cracked double-digits until Boozer’s final season with Chicago, he was instrumental in closing games for the then league-leading Bulls during the 2010/2011 season.

Gibson and Kleber functions as examples of how a secondary sixth man could look if teams were to copy that format, thus balancing offense and defense, instead of having two players coming off the bench with the sole purpose of just shooting the ball.

Sixth man and role player – there is a difference

Some might argue that a secondary sixth man would normally be labeled a role player. But the idea of having two players, who are similar or equal in both value and production, provides playoff teams with the chance of running a tighter rotation.

Traditionally, a sixth man is viewed as a player who is equally worthy of a starting slot, but is relegated to the bench entirely due to the restriction of having five players on the court instead of six. That definition rarely goes hand-in-hand with a role player, who fills in on occasion, but is rarely viewed as starter material. As such, the dual sixth man format referenced here would fall under the notion that both players would be worthy of starting.

As most coaches tighten their playoff rotations, sometimes down to seven or eight players, being able to essentially play seven starters over the course of a 48-minute game would prove beneficial as it lessens the drop-off in talent from the starting unit to a team’s backups.

Is it feasible financially?

The Clippers duo of Williams and Harrell are both making money that aren’t in line with what they would receive on the open market. Harrell, an upcoming unrestricted free agent, is earning $6 million this season, a fraction of what he’ll earn by next season. Williams signed a modest three-year contract in 2018 worth a total of $24 million, despite being one of the most productive scorers in the NBA.

Those type of deals won’t necessarily be out there for everyone. The whole idea is to look at the dual-sixth man setup as an extension of the starting line-up, and starters cost. In today’s league, few starters on non-rookie deals are earning less than $10 million annually, suggesting that’s probably where any offer starts.

If so, that’s where the added financial flexibility of not having to pay three max-tier superstars come into play. Instead of handing out in the ballpark of $90-100 million per year for three players, teams are instead opening up for the chance of redistributing their funds by prioritizing depth.

One interesting aspect, which needs to be remembered, is that teams in today’s league continuously undervalue both defensive-oriented players, and centers, from a contractual perspective.

Depending on how a team is built, there is a path towards finding players, capable of handling 30 minutes a game, if you take advantage of the market. Just last year, two examples stood out with Dorian Finney-Smith and Richaun Holmes.

Dallas signed Finney-Smith to a three-year contract worth $12 million after a season in which he showed defensive production, a rebounding presence, and offensive upside. He’s now a full-time starter.

Richaun Holmes signed a two-year contract with Sacramento in 2019 worth just $9.77 million, after producing over eight points and almost five rebounds per game in just over 16 minutes of playing time the year before. He’s now a starting center for the Kings.

Theoretically, adding Finney-Smith and Holmes to a roster as devoted sixth men would for the vast majority of teams be viewed as an asset. Just ask the Los Angeles Lakers.

Most players won’t sign for as little as Finney-Smith and Holmes, but it does prove there are creative and unexplored paths to acquiring starting caliber talent. One might argue that the non-tax MLE of roughly $9.3 million is the perfect weapon to find a player who can slide in as the sixth or seven theoretical starter.

Different uses

It’s an untraditional path, and it might cause plenty of rickus behind the scenes if seven players of somewhat equal ability are fighting for five desirable starting spots. But given the right personality, the right setting, the right coach and the right system, this approach to team building could open up a world of possibilities.

Several teams, including the Oklahoma City Thunder, utilize at least one low-usage starter to balance otherwise high-usage players. In the Thunder’s case, defensive-oriented Luguentz Dort functions as a token starter who does not require a significant amount of shots. This helps the Thunder’s current sixth man, Dennis Schröder, to come off the bench and play the role as the team’s fourth high-usage player next to Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Danilo Gallinari.

For teams who want to strike a certain balance, and pending what type of players they already have at their disposal, splitting up the responsibilities somewhat equally between the primary starters and the dual sixth men could uphold a certain level of quality when the starters leave the floor.

Ultimately, having two sixth men on equal footing should – in theory – allow teams to minimize the drop-off when it’s time to give the starters a breather, thus allowing the team to stay competitive and avoid a nose-dive in the minutes the primary players are off the floor.

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