Voters Split Love Between Monk and Reid for 6MOTY

It was nearly even in the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year race.

The Sacramento Kings and their fans have missed out on a lot this year. First, an injured roster couldn’t get the job done, causing the team to miss the playoffs just one year after sitting in third place in the Western Conference.

Now, one of those injured players fell short of winning the first NBA award of his career. Backup guard Malik Monk lost the race for the Sixth Man of the Year award to F Naz Reid of the Minnesota Timberwolves. Monk played 72 games off the bench for Sacramento and tallied career-best numbers, but voters felt Reid played a bigger role for his team.

The decision was a close one, however. Only two first-place votes separated Reid (45) and Monk (43), with a few other players recording some votes in between. Two voters completely omitted Monk from their ballots, giving Reid the slight edge to take home the silverware. 

Naz Reid received 45 first place votes to Malik Monk’s 43 first place votes. The difference was two first place votes. A total of 352 to 342 in total points pic.twitter.com/icZzlarxlh

— Sean Cunningham (@SeanCunningham) April 24, 2024

If Monk had tallied just three more first-place votes, he would have won the award. Monk averaged 15.4 points per game along with 5.1 assists while playing as one of the main ball handlers for Mike Brown’s offense. In comparison, the Wolves’ big man put up 13.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game on a team that secured the 2 seed in the playoffs.

6th Man of the Year snub?

— 15.4 PPG
— 5.1 APG
— 1st in bench points
— 1st in bench assists
— 1st in clutch points by a bench player

First player since Lou Williams with 1,000+ points and 350+ assists off the bench in a season. pic.twitter.com/Am6J0h3357

— StatMuse (@statmuse) April 24, 2024

Recency bias was undoubtedly a factor for voters this year, especially with Monk missing out on the final stretch of the season that saw the Kings fall out of playoff contention. If anything, Sacramento’s collapse should have been a sign showing how valuable Monk was to his team. 

“I feel like we’d be playing right now if I was playing,” said Monk (via @James_HamNBA | X). His impact and veteran leadership could have been of use on the Kings’ final stretch, but inexperienced players were instead put in a difficult position that led to the team’s fall from grace. 

Monk is set to be a free agent and will test the open market before deciding where he will continue his NBA career.

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