Just because a player doesn’t start, doesn’t mean they’re not starter-worthy. Sometimes, it’s just about fulfilling team needs, figuring out chemistry, knowing if you need scoring punch off the bench, etc. A lot of times, having an effective player coming off the bench will impact the outcome of a respective game in a very significant way. Below are three game changers that come off the pine, looking to immediately make an impact on the floor.
Keep an eye on the below list of awards, which will be updated as we push forward.
Executive of the Year | Coach of the Year | Most Improved Player | Sixth Man of the Year | Defensive Player of the Year | Rookie of the Year | Most Valuable Player
Lou Williams, Los Angeles Clippers
Williams and Jamal Crawford are the only three-time winners of this award with Lou Will winning the last two seasons, and three of the last five; the other two players to win in this five-year span are Eric Gordon (2016-17) and the aforementioned Crawford (2017-18). If Williams wins this season, we may as well just rename the award after him!
Lou Will, playing in his 15th season, continued to excel in his role off the bench, after averaging 20+ points the past couple of seasons, 20.0 and 22.6, respectively. For his career, he’s a 14.5 PPG scorer, but since winning his first SMOY award in 2014-15 with the Toronto Raptors, his average jumps up to 18.3 points. This past season, he was right around there at 18.7 points, and led the team in assists with 5.7 dimes per game. In other words, he was doing his usual thing, and this was with the additions of superstars, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Lou Will is definitely Mr. Reliable, which is almost hard to believe at his age of 33. But wait… Crawford last won the award at age 35, and with the Clippers too! Must be something in the water.
Montrezl Harrell, Los Angeles Clippers
Yup, with Harrell also in the contention for this award for the second straight season, there definitely must be something going on at the Clippers practice facility during water breaks! Maybe this is a “pass the torch” kind of thing as Harrell is 26 years old and maybe picks up where Williams leaves off. But, will it be this season that he wins the award?
Harrell is right behind Lou Will in points, averaging 18.6 points on 58.0 percent shooting from the field, in addition to 7.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks per game. His 23.1 PER is second on the team behind Kawhi’s 26.7, above PG’s 20.5 and Lou Will’s 17.2. Harrell is underrated because of the stars around him and almost everyone knows that Lou Will is the man off the bench, able to keep a team together while its stars have been either injured or under load management. It’s a shame because Harrell is an especially efficient player with a career PER of 22.4. For some perspective, Leonard is at 23.0 and PG is at 19.2. And it’s not really a small sample size for Montrezl either as he’s played in the league five seasons. Starter-worthy? No question. He just gets lost in that Clippers mix.
Dennis Schroder, Oklahoma City Thunder
Schroder is part of an excellent trio of guards down in OKC along with future star, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and future Hall of Famer, Chris Paul. They led the Thunder to a surprising 40-24 season, one in which they were supposedly rebuilding after trading both Russell Westbrook and Paul George. Schroder continues to play third fiddle for the team despite the loss of star power, but if he even had a gripe, winning cures everything.
Schroder is third on the team in scoring at 19.0 points per game, but the leader, Gilgeous-Alexander is at a very close 19.3 with Danilo Gallanari at 19.2. Schroder is second on the team in assists with 4.1 behind CP3’s 6.8. In his second season with the team, Schroder has improved in every category, highlighted by his ability to snap nets - 46.8 shooting from the field, 83.9 percent from the line, and 38.1 from beyond the arch. After starting his last two seasons with the Atlanta Hawks (2016-18), it was difficult to once again come off the bench when Schroder joined the Thunder last season. However, this year, he seems to have found a groove and making the most of his minutes. Schroder stays ready.
WINNER
I really thought that last season, the inclusion of two players from the same team - in this case, Williams and Harrell with the Clippers - would have somehow diluted either player’s chances. Obviously, with Lou Will’s win, that wasn’t the case. Last season, Harrell was impressive, but not as established as Williams in terms of reputation and that probably took some votes away from him when he finished third behind Lou Will and Domantas Sabonis of the Indiana Pacers. He can make a little more of a case this season, and I think because of that and, seriously, someone has to be the seventh man on that team, the votes get diluted to some degree and Schroder gets the win and the award. However, don’t think it’s because of said dilution, but because Schroder definitely earned it.