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Ty Jerome, De'Andre Hunter Finish 3rd & 4th in NBA Sixth Man of the Year Voting

Matt Newton

Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
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The winner of the 2025 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year award was announced on Tuesday and, sadly for fans of either (or both) the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Virginia Cavaliers, neither Ty Jerome nor De'Andre Hunter were selected as the Sixth Man of the Year. Instead, the award went to Payton Pritchard of the Boston Celtics.

Pritchard won the award in a landslide over the other two finalists, Malik Beasley of the Detroit Pistons and Ty Jerome of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Of the 100 eligible voters, Pritchard received 82 first-place votes and finished with 454 total points, nearly 200 more points more than the runner-up Malik Beasley, who had 279 total points and received two first-place votes.

Then came a pair of Cavalier teammates in Ty Jerome and De'Andre Hunter, who had 91 points and 33 points, respectively. Both former Wahoos received two first-place votes and Jerome picked up 12 second-place votes and 45 third-place votes, while Hunter had two second-place votes and 17 third-place votes. With the margin that Pritchard had on the rest of the field, it doesn't seem like it would have made much of a difference, but it does appear that Jerome and Hunter split some votes with each other.

2025 NBA Sixth Man of the Year Voting Results

  1. Payton Pritchard, Boston Celtics: 82 1st-place votes, 13 2nd-place votes, 5 3rd-place votes, 454 total points
  2. Malik Beasley, Detroit Pistons: 13 1st-place votes, 66 2nd-place votes, 16 3rd-place votes, 279 total points
  3. Ty Jerome, Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 1st-place votes, 12 2nd-place votes, 45 3rd-place votes, 91 total points
  4. De'Andre Hunter, Cleveland Cavaliers: 2 1st-place votes, 2 2nd-place votes, 17 3rd-place votes, 33 total points
  5. Naz Reid, Minnesota Timberwolves, 1 1st-place vote, 5 2nd-place votes, 11 3rd-place votes, 31 total points

Though Pritchard ultimately ran away with the award, the statistical cases for Pritchard versus each of the Cleveland candidates tells a different picture. Take a look at the regular season numbers for Payton Pritchard, Ty Jerome, and De'Andre Hunter below:

Pritchard: 80 games, 3 starts, 28.4 mpg, 47.2% FG, 40.7% 3pt, 14.3 ppg, 3.5 apg, 3.8 rpg
Jerome: 70 games, 3 starts, 19.9 mpg, 51.6% FG, 43.9% 3pt, 12.5 ppg, 3.4 apg, 2.5 rpg
Hunter: 64 games, 9 starts, 27.2 mpg, 47.0% FG, 40.5% 3pt, 17.0 ppg, 4.0 rpg, 1.4 apg

Pritchard has Jerome beat in scoring, but he averaged way more minutes per game and Jerome achieved his scoring totals with way more efficiency, shooting a few percentage points better than Pritchard from the floor and from three-point range while nearly matching his assists and collecting more rebounds. De'Andre Hunter had both of them beat in scoring, though he scored way more before he was traded from the Atlanta Hawks to the Cavs at the deadline. Hunter averaged 19.0 points per game with the Hawks and 14.3 points per game with the Cavs.

All three players had big individual games and their respective teams had similar levels of success, finishing as the top two teams in the Eastern Conference. Ultimately, Payton Pritchard, at least somewhat deservedly, got a boost for having played such an instrumental role in Boston's run to the 2024 NBA Championship, while Ty Jerome was certainly flying under the radar coming into this season after an injury-riddled first five years in the NBA, while De'Andre Hunter had some of his individual momentum disrupted by the trade, though he definitely finds himself in a better spot with the Cavs.

For what's it's worth, Ty Jerome also could have been in the running for the NBA's Most Improved Player award after posting career-highs in scoring (12.5 points per game) and three-point shooting (43.9%) following a season in which he missed all but two games due to injury. Unfortunately, Jerome was not eligible for that award as he did not play 20 minutes in at least 65 games during the regular season.

Ty Jerome and De'Andre Hunter will look to win the more important competition if and when the Cavaliers meet Pritchard's Boston Celtics in an eventual Eastern Conference Finals matchup. The Cavs, who currently have a 1-0 lead on the Miami Heat in the first round, will host Miami for game 2 on Wednesday at 7:30pm ET on NBA TV.

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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.