Knicks' J.R. Smith wins Kia Sixth Man Award
NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks' J.R. Smith is the winner of the 2012-13 Kia NBA Sixth Man Award as the league's best player in a reserve role, the NBA announced Monday. Smith, who came off the bench in all 80 games in which he appeared, led all reserves in scoring, averaging 18.1 points. Additionally, Smith contributed 5.3 rpg, 2.7 apg and 1.3 spg in 33.5 minutes per game to a Knicks squad that went 54-28 and earned the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
Smith received 484 of a possible 1,084 points, including 72 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Jamal Crawford of the Los Angeles Clippers finished second with 352 points (31 first-place votes). Jarrett Jack of the Golden State Warriors finished third with 170 points (14 first-place votes).
In order to be eligible for this award, players had to have come off the bench in more games than they started. 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.
NBA.com
Crawford had 31 1st place votes, 59 2nd place votes and 20 3rd place votes meaning that 110 of the possible 121 voters voted for him. Jordan Crawford scored 1 1st place vote. Was that meant for Jamal?
I kind of had a feeling JR would get it after the final 2 months that he had. He had 7 30-point scoring efforts in the final 25 games and handled the scoring load when Melo was out.
I don't think that you should be eligible when you're basically playing 34 mpg. JR Smith averaged more minutes than any player on our team (including Paul and Blake). The rule is you have to be a sub for more games than you start, but there should also be a minute restriction as well imo. If you're playing over 70% of the game, you're not really a bench player. Smith will have averaged the 2nd most mpg of any 6MOY winner. 28 of the 31 winners have played 32 minutes or less.
Also, who voted for Luke Babbitt?
