Sacramento Kings: Darren Collison Doesn’t Win NBA’s Best Sixth Man
By Rafe Wong
It may be shocking for some diehard Sacramento Kings fans but was inevitable for the majority of others that Kings backup point guard Darren Collison did not win this season’s NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award.
The news was released today that shooting guard Jamal Crawford from the Los Angeles Clippers was rewarded with this tremendous accolade, which will be his third time winning this award.
When the final results were shown, Collison for Sacramento finished 15th place in the final votings.
More from Kings News
- 3 Ways Chris Duarte improves the Kings chances in 2023-24
- Bleacher Report crazily lists Kings’ All-Star as “most overrated NBA player”
- Kings and Heat fans clash on Twitter to debate All-Star players
- Sacramento Kings’ Chris Duarte playing in 2023 FIBA World Cup
- 3 Young players the Kings must develop, 2 to give up on
Players that were ahead of him in the results were Crawford, Andre Iguodala, Enes Kanter, Will Barton, Evan Turner, Ryan Anderson, Jeremy Lin, Ed Davis, Dennis Schroder, Tristan Thompson, Shaun Livingston, J.J. Barea, Boris Diaw, and Zach LaVine (per NBA News).
Although there’s a good argument that can be made that Collison could have leap-frogged in front of a couple of names that were mentioned ahead of him, but the chances of Collison winning the best sixth man were as likely as the Kings winning this year’s draft lottery. Maybe even less.
Yes, Collison had a great year with Sacramento and has been one of the more consistent and efficient contributors for his team since signing with them in 2014. But when you are the sixth man on a team that finished the season 33-49 you are automatically disqualified from winning this award.
More from A Royal Pain
- 3 Ways Chris Duarte improves the Kings chances in 2023-24
- 5 Players the Sacramento Kings never should have signed
- Bleacher Report crazily lists Kings’ All-Star as “most overrated NBA player”
- Kings and Heat fans clash on Twitter to debate All-Star players
- Sacramento Kings’ Chris Duarte playing in 2023 FIBA World Cup
To be able to be a serious candidate for the best sixth man, your team has to be at least contending in the postseason. In the last decade, at least, all the past winners of NBA’s best sixth man were part of teams that made the playoffs (per NBA News).
Overall, it pretty much 100% that Collison wouldn’t win the Sixth Man of the Year Award, but I did think he should have been placed higher in the standings because he has been one of the few diamonds found in what has been a rough mess for the Sacramento Kings in the last couple of seasons.
He finished this season averaging 14 points and 4.3 assists per game off shooting 48.6% from the court overall and 40.1% from the three-point stripe.