NBA 6th Man of the Year Odds: Monk or Reid in 2024-25?

The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year Award became fashionable because the best reserve players on two NBA Eastern Conference dynasties in the 1980s, Bobby Jones of the Philadelphia 76ers and Kevin McHale of the Boston Celtics, were too good to be considered bench players.

(Photo by Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Players of their caliber off the bench needed their own unique recognition as great players. Jones won the NBA’s first Sixth Man honoree on a dominant 76ers team in 1982-83 and McHale won the award the next two seasons. Both are now Naismith Hall of Famers.

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Favorites to Win NBA Sixth Man of the Year Odds (2024-25)

*Odds as of September 24th

Evolution of the Sixth Man Award

As the Sixth Man award has evolved over the years, it’s been reserved mostly for core pieces on winning teams, not future Hall of Fame-types. James Harden, the 2011-12 winner, is the only future MVP to earn Sixth Man of the Year.

Manu Ginóbili, the winner for the San Antonio Spurs in 2007-08 and one of five honorees now in the Hall of Fame, is the only winner (so far) to make All-NBA team (third team).

There has been a growing push for the award’s two three-time honorees, Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams, to be mentioned and considered as legit Hall of Fame candidates.

Current Trends in the Sixth Man Award

There are two certainties among the best bets to earn 2024-25 NBA Sixth Man of the Year: This season’s eventual winner is not likely to be at an all-NBA level or a future Hall of Famer, and unlike the NBA MVP race, the eventual winner is nearly guaranteed to be a U.S.-born player.

Last Season's Close Battle: Malik Monk vs Naz Reid

Last season, it looked like Sacramento Kings shooting guard Malik Monk was on his way to earning Sixth Man of the Year as the prohibitive favorite.

A late-season MCL sprain, however, forced him to miss the final nine games and the Play-In Tournament and that opened the door for Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Naz Reid to make a final push and earn the 2023-24 award.

1. Reid earned 45 first place votes (worth five points each) and ended up with 352 total points,
2. while Monk ended up with 43 first place votes and 342 points. Nobody else was in the race and with two more first place votes, Monk would have been the winner.

Last 10 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Winners

Handicapping This Year’s 6th Man Race

Look for the 2024-25 NBA Sixth Man of the Year to once again come down to Reid or Monk. First off, they both will play sixth man roles, and to win the award a player must come off the bench in more games than he starts.

• Both players also play for projected playoff teams, which is a major plus.

There are two factors we feel give the edge to Monk over Reid heading into the 2024-25 season, which opens on October 22.

1. Winning this award back-to-back doesn’t happen often, so that favors Monk. You have to go all the way back to Detlef Schrempf of the Indiana Pacers in 1991 and 1992 to find a back-to-back honoree besides the Los Angeles Clippers’ Williams in 2017-18 and 2018-19. It just doesn’t happen often.
2. Which brings us to our second point, which is expectations. Reid, who averaged 13.5 ppg and 5.2 rpg in 81 contests for a 56-26 Timberwolves club that finished third in the Western Conference, was not a 2023-24 preseason favorite. Reid’s physical conditioning was the best of his career and he upped his 3-point shooting percentage to .414 (his previous career high in five NBA seasons was .351) and played 24.2 mpg (previous best was 19.2 in his second season).

His increased stamina and turning into a legitimate threat on the perimeter opened up his game on a team that advanced to the West Conference Finals. The Timberwolves have plenty of weapons around him and thrive around shooting guard Anthony Edwards evolving into a NBA superstar.

This season the expectations will play out differently.

1. The Timberwolves, nor Reid, won't sneak up on anyone.
2. Reif will be expected to perform, rather than be a pleasant surprise, and quite frankly if his production is not better in key statistical categories than it was in 2023-24, we don’t see him earning the award.
3. After finishing third in the Western Conference in 2022-23 with a 48-34 mark, most felt the Sacramento Kings’ 46-36 mark last season was quite disappointing.
4. Especially since the two-game slide meant a ninth place finish in the conference for a team that was expected to take another leap forward in the Western Conference.
5. The late season injury and those team expectations hurt Monk plenty and he still was only two first place votes short.

The sign-and-trade deal for all-star wing DeMar DeRozan not only heightened expectations for Sacramento, it should open up opportunities for Monk on a team expected to be in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

There is a great chance Monk won’t start any games (Reid started 14) and since DeRozan is one of the better fourth quarter performers in basketball, Monk will shine playing alongside the future Hall of Famer.

• Last season Monk averaged 15.4 ppg and 5.1 apg, both career highs with 3.9 being his previous assist mark high.

Monk is an explosive scorer who can knock down threes and is an underrated passer and with point guard De'Aaron Fox and big man Domantas Sabonis being all-star level players, fans and the voting media will realize just how impressive Monk’s carved out role really is.

Other Sixth Man of the Year Candidates

There are some other candidates to watch for NBA Sixth Man of the Year, especially if injury or other unseen circumstances force Reid or Monk to start.

A good place to begin and a good bet will involve another player that left the Chicago Bulls in the off-season for a Western Conference playoff contender.

Hart is a terrific defender, rebounder and distributor and is hard to leave off the court when it’s winning time.

In fact, Hart played 33.4 mpg last season, which is only .4 off the all-time mark for any Sixth Man of the Year winner (33.7 by Jason Terry for the Dallas Mavs in 2008-09), so he’ll have plenty of opportunity to produce and leave his mark with voters.

• Hart averaged 9.4 ppg and was just one of nine players in the league to average at least 8.0 rpg (8.3) and 4.0 apg (4.1).
• He also finished in the Top 20 in defensive win shares (3.6).
• Those are terrific numbers to work with and shows the value of Hart on a team with two potential Sixth Man of the Year candidates.

Hart and DiVincenzo could actually cancel each other out, so to speak, if the Knicks play up to expectations, so the smart money is on last year’s winner or the player he just beat out for the award.