The sixth man, the primary role of the team's substitute lineup, is often overlooked because he is outside the main list, but in fact, the outstanding sixth man is often a strong support behind a period of glory.
Measuring the value of a sixth person solely on the basis of the technical statistics of the game is often biased. It should be emphasized that a good sixth man is not the sixth person in the team, but a key character who needs to hide outside the starting lineup for many reasons. When the head coach chooses a player to play the sixth person role in the team, he often refers to many factors such as the player's style, technical characteristics, psychological quality, and compatibility with the main lineup. In the whole world, the bad sixth person is often the same, and the great sixth person has its own wonderful uses. According to the above factors, the outstanding people in the sixth person can probably be divided into three categories: microwave oven type, hidden core type, and victim type.
Microwave players, as the name suggests, that is, they can find their status in a very short period of time when they play at any time, and use excellent personal offensive and defensive capabilities to play an immediate effect on the situation on the left and right or control of the rhythm of the game.
A sixth person in the microwave row can have a certain lack of physical fitness or personal skills to be competent to start, but it is crucial that the player must have a far superior skill in attack or defense, and belong to the type of nerve that is prone to excitement. Among the great sixth people who have emerged in the NBA, Bobby Jackson of the Kings, Van Exel of the Mavericks, and Ben Gordon of the Bulls are all in this category. In the 2-03 season, the reason why the Mavericks and Kings became the most watchable offensive team in the league, in addition to the tactics of the two teams of managers and the style of the soul players, van Exelel and Bobby Jackson's best sixth man battle has also become a major highlight. At the start of the season, kings point guard Bibi was sidelined due to injury, and Bobby Jackson played 26 games as a starter. Although slightly inferior in organizing offense, he averaged 20.2 points per game and burst out with amazing offensive ability. In the year's Best Sixth Man selection, Jackson was voted by an absolute margin, becoming the first player in The Kings' history to receive the honor. In the entire history of the league, Jackson is also the first point guard to receive this honor.
When Jackson's winning information was announced, at the beginning of the playoffs, Van Exel, the sixth man of the Mavericks, who was also a point guard, fell into jealousy. As a result, the et maniac played a breathtakingly frenzied attack against the Kings in the Western Conference semifinals, even overshadowing the team's original trident. When the Mavericks advanced, Nelson Sr. smiled and said, "I think it's a good thing to have Van Exel." When the game seems hopeless, we need a player, not a coach, to step up and lead the team back on track and be determined to take the next step. ”
However after the end of the season. Mavericks sent ET to the Golden State in exchange for Jamison.
Coincidentally, Ben Gordon, once the Bulls' super sixth man, also had difficulty dying in the mother team. He won the record-breaking sixth man in his rookie season, was the number one killer on the Bulls bench, and in the first round of the playoffs in 2009, he played the most spectacular seven games with Ray Allen. But the summer went to change the court, signed the Pistons, and the career was also in a slump.
In the last decade, the craziest sixth man has belonged to Crawford and Louis Williams, both of whom have won the best sixth man award three times. Crawford was an important output point for the team when he was with the Hawks and Clippers, and changing direction was a big magic weapon for him;
Lou Wei reached the peak of his career with the Clippers, and was better at shooting. He stood up from the bench to dominate the team's firepower and earned himself the title of "Road Daddy".
In order to ensure that the team shows a consistent competitiveness in this game, as a manager, it is often deliberate to put a heavyweight player with outstanding personal skills and leadership talents in the bench.
If used properly, this snow hiding core player strategy can generally play the following three good effects: Appropriately shortening the playing time can save the player's physical strength, thereby improving the efficiency on the field; At the beginning of the game or at a non-critical moment, the player can watch the changes off the field and listen to the will of the head coach in order to solve the problem in a targeted manner after the debut, the so-called bystander clear; When the starting player is mostly in a respite, the player can lead the substitute player group on the field to avoid a temporary shock in the lineup. History has shown that teams that can successfully implement these strategies are often highly successful, but in fact, it is not easy to hide star players on the bench. Even among second- and third-rate players, the battle for the starting position is commonplace, let alone the big names? Although there are many cases of stars condescending to the sixth person, it is rare for a successful person who can really ignore fame and fortune and sacrifice himself for the honor of the team.
If the NBA's greatest sixth person ever is selected, it is not McHale and Ginobili. After being selected by the Celtics in the No. 3 draw at the 1980 draft, McHale dedicated all of his 13-year career to his home team. As one of the most outstanding white forwards in NBA history, his excellent rebounding ability and extremely high shooting percentage have left countless opponents unmatched. McHale has been named an NBA All-Star seven times, named to the NBA's All-Defensive Team or Second Defensive Team six times, and won a championship with the team three times. When McHale retired from the Celtics in 1993, his total scores and rebounds ranked fourth and sixth in the history of the dynasty team. Perhaps the most shocking part of McHale's personal saga is that of all 971 games he played in his career, 571 were played as a substitute. Among the NBA50 superstars, this is the only one of its kind.
The Best Sixth Man Award was established at the start of the '82-83 season and was voted on by sports journalists and TV commentators to reward the best performing substitute player in the NBA. In the end, Bobby Jones of the 76ers became the first best sixth man in history, and in the 83-84 season, McHale finally won the award. At this time, although McHale is still not a substitute, he has actually become a greenshirt iron triangle side by side with Larry Bird and Robert Parrish. That season, McHale played 82 regular season games, averaging 18.4 points, 7.4 rebounds per game, and a career record of 56 points against the Pistons.
After the 1980s marked by the dominance of the Celtics and The Lakers, individualism has spread unprecedentedly in the NBA, coupled with the widening salary gap between players of different levels, there are fewer and fewer star players who are willing to sacrifice their personal data for the team as a whole, and the big-name sixth person who is willing to sit on the bench for the sake of the overall situation is even rarer. Ginobili, however, is an exception.
Ginobili, known as the "Jordan of Europe", came in as the sixth man when he joined the Spurs in the 02-03 season. But to Povic's surprise, the talented Ginobili can actually be a substitute for Stephen Jackson and Parker, and his scoring ability, wide vision and quick passing allow him to navigate between the 1st and 2nd positions. What is even more rare is that Ginobili's defensive awareness is rare among international cadets, and it is the comprehensiveness of the technology that allows Ginobili to win the trust of the team and stand out in the 2003 playoffs, making a great contribution to the team's victory.
Since then, The Demon Knife has been the main candidate for the Spurs' sixth-man role (there are some seasons where there are more starting appearances), and for 15 years, he has worked hard and has not complained. The stability and strength of the GDP combination has also become a good story in the mouths of fans.
The Lakers' lineup in the 08-09 season is unprecedentedly strong, and Gasol, Bynum and Odom are lined up in a row, which is the nightmare of all teams. But Phil Jackson had the ingenuity to put Odom on the bench and take Ariza to the starting point, intending to let the former's all-rounder lead the bench. The maneuver was a success, with Ariza defending, air-cut and non-possession of the ball in the No. 3 position, Odom quickly getting into form when he came off the bench, contributing to the team, and the Lakers also won a championship that season.
Of course, we must not forget Papalokas outside the NBA, the Greek who was the 2005 Euro 2005 champion and MVP and was once called "the strongest organizational defender outside the NBA". In the 2006 World Championships, we got to know the king of Europe, and in the semi-finals, Papallucas contributed the highest 12 assists of the Greek team to lead Greece to defeat the United States, so that the "Dream Seven" who aspired to win the championship was defeated. Theodoros Papalucas, who is already old, jumped out of the Greek starting line-up. Although it is a substitute, it is the most important substitute for the Greek team, even more important than the main force. In the Beijing Olympic Games, Papalukas averaged nearly 23 minutes of appearances, ranking fourth in the team.
Over the years, personnel changes such as drafts, player trades, and free agent signings inevitably cause the positions of major players within a team to overlap, so cases of condescending benches are not uncommon.
The most typical cases of this type of sixth man are Kukoc in the Bulls era and Jamison in the 03-04 Mavericks. Although the two were named the best sixth man in 1996 and 2004, the fundamental difference between them and players such as McHale and Ginobili is that they are "tired" of the job. The so-called best sixth person is like a consolation award given to them by the league, but in fact, it is easier for them to be more like irony.
When Jamison had just been poached from the Golden State by Nelson Sr., the question asked the most was whether the team at Nowitzki would feel awkward about losing the boss position. But no one would have dreamed that Jamison, the elder Nelson," would have been sent to be the captain of the bench squad. Jamison was so helpless that he could only comfort himself: "Sitting on the bench is a special feeling, I haven't been on the bench for so long in four and a half years." ”
In the end, Jamison scored 14.5 points in less than 30 minutes per game and was the Mavericks' highest shooting percentage that season. But at the end of the season, he was sent to the Wizards by the team in exchange for another scoring machine, Starkhouse.
In the Bulls' second triple-title period, Kukoc spent most of his time only as the team's chief substitute for the front. In the 95-96 season, the Bulls were invincible, eventually setting an unprecedented record of 72 wins and 10 losses in the regular season and 44 consecutive home wins. In the playoffs, the Bulls cut down the Heat, Knicks, Magic and Western Supersonics to win the playoffs with a 15-3 record. That season, Jordan has successively won the all-Star Game MVP, regular season MVP, Finals MVP and other honors, and Kukoc, as the key player who achieved this series of legends, also won the title of best sixth man. Game 5 of the 1998 Finals was probably the most glorious game of Kukoc's entire basketball career. In the case of Pippen's slump, Kukoc played alongside Jordan, and he scored 13 points in the first quarter to finish with 30 points and 6 rebounds to help the team win. But there's no denying that the Bulls dynasty ruthlessly buried Kukotka's peak game talent, and Jordan's strength overshadowed the three-time Europa League mvp legend.
In fact, years after the collapse of the Bulls dynasty, Jordan also suffered from the sixth man in the final season of his career. With injuries in the middle of the 01-02 season directly affecting the team's record, Jordan announced before the start of the 02-03 season that he would play as a sixth man in order to save energy, avoid injuries, and provide more space for young people. At the beginning of the season, Jordan's sixth-man strategy worked significantly, and the team's record soared, but for Jordan, who was born for scoring and honor, he simply could not bear the feeling of sitting on the bench for a long time. In the end, Jordan not only had to return to his starting position, but also re-established himself as a leader on the field. As all the changes unfold, the irrepressible personal heroism in Jordan's bones re-inflates. But after all, Jordan was 40 years old at the time, and the price of his arbitrariness could only be the disillusionment of playoff hopes and the sinking of the team. It follows that not a great player can be a sixth man. Compared with outstanding personal ability, the sixth person, as a slightly tragic character, needs a hidden mind.