Seventh Man of the Year: Jason Maxiell

Filed under: 76ers, Pistons, Nuggets, Mavericks, Spurs, NBA Awards, DetroitWe Rite Goode added a special category to the season's final Blogger MVP Rankings last week: seventh man of the year. The reasoning?We elected to skip 6th Man--not just because Manu Ginobili was near-unanimous, but since typical candidates are de facto starters--and instead wanted to recognize a true impact reserve. A player who doesn't get starter's minutes (so, no one who played more than 24 mpg) and came off the bench all season (so, no one who started more than 25% of the games he played in).The winner? Jason Maxiell of the Pistons, the leader of the Zoo Crew. He finished ahead of Denver's J.R. Smith and Philadelphia's Louis Williams. And while Manu and Leandro Barbosa are obvious picks for Sixth Man honors, this level of player surely has plenty of highly important guys.The definition of sixth-man has been so distorted by the Spurs and Mavericks, anyway. It works against those teams around the All-Star Game (where Manu's absence was criminal) but wins them uncontested support in year-end voting. And you know what? Gregg Popovich and Avery Johnson don't care. They don't care about the awards ... bringing Manu and Jason Terry off the bench is better for their teams. (Ditto Maxiell and Smith.)(WRG's post also contains some terrific charts on season-long sentiments re: the MVP race. Well worth a gander.)Permalink | Email this | Comments more...