Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams has been named the 2018 NBA Sixth Man of the Year, the NBA announced during its 2018 NBA Awards Show. The award was presented by TNT’s Ernie Johnson and Kenny Smith:
Williams beat out fellow guards Eric Gordon of the Houston Rockets (18 points and 2.5 rebounds per game) and Fred VanVleet of the Toronto Raptors (8.6 points and 3.2 assists per game). Gordon won the award in 2016-17.
At 31 years old, Williams had the finest season of his career, putting up career-high marks in the following per-game averages: points (22.6), assists (5.3) and minutes (32.8).
This is Williams’ second time winning this award, as he also won it in 2015.
Williams’ 22.6 points per game are the second-highest of all time among Sixth Men of the Year, only behind Ricky Pierce in 1989-90. His assists per game also rank second all-time among winners of this award, behind Darrell Armstrong in 1998-99.
The strongest argument against Williams for this award was his team’s success; the Clippers went 42-40, missing the playoffs. Gordon and VanVleet’s teams were the first seeds in their respective conferences, with the Raptors winning 59 games and the Rockets winning a league-high 65. Williams had the best season, though. In fact, it was one of the best off-the-bench seasons in NBA history. It’s hard to argue that this award wasn’t well-deserved.
