NBA Sixth Man of the Year: Pick for Jaime Jaquez Jr. vs. Keldon Johnson

This has been a fascinating NBA season in many aspects, but especially when it comes to the various awards races. Despite the regular season being almost complete, a handful of the biddings for these categories are coming down to the wire.

This year’s Sixth Man of the Year discussion is no exception. In most years, we usually have a pretty obvious candidate. However, this go around, injuries have forced some of the best bench guys to start too many games to qualify (i.e., Payton Pritchard).

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With this said, the race has narrowed to two main candidates: Jaime Jaquez Jr. and Keldon Johnson. According to popular sportsbooks like FanDuel, they are the only two players with realistic odds of taking home the crown.

But which of these two gentlemen is most deserving of the award? Let’s take a look at the numbers.

The Box Score

Raw counting stats favor Jaquez. This season, he boasts a higher PPG, APG, and stocks (steals and blocks) per game, and his RPG (5.1) are nearly identical to that of Johnson (5.4). However, Jaime also plays nearly five more minutes per contest than Johnson, so it isn’t necessarily fair to compare these two without adjusting for playing time.

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To do this, we will look at points per 75 possessions, rebounding rates (both offensive and defensive), assist rate, and stock rate. We also need to factor in efficiency. So, true shooting percentage is also included in the chart below:

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When you look at it this way, Johnson is the superior scorer and rebounder, and he’s managing this higher scoring output on better efficiency. However, Jaquez’s role within the Miami Heat offense asks him to do a lot more creating for himself (his unassisted field goal rate is 14.7% higher than Johnson’s) and his teammates.

Jaquez’s steal/block rate is also higher than Johnson’s, but only by a slight margin, and that may be explained by the fact that the Heat tend to be a more aggressive defense than the San Antonio Spurs in general (Miami’s opponent turnover rate is 1.3% higher).

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The Advanced Stats

As many of you know by now, the box score hardly ever tells the full…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/nba-sixth-man-pick-jaime-120000024.html

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Publish date : 2026-04-11 12:00:00

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