How bad is the Sixth Man snub for Wolves' Naz Reid, Nickeil Alexander-Walker

There will be a new Sixth Man of the Year after Reid was snubbed as a finalist.

Dec 8, 2024; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles upcourt against Minnesota Timberwolves center-forward Naz Reid (11) and guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker (9) in the third period at Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: David Gonzales-Imagn Images | David Gonzales-Imagn Images

The 2024-25 NBA Awards Finalists were revealed Sunday and while Anthony Edwards is up for the Clutch Player of the Year award, Timberwolves standout role players Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker were snubbed in the Sixth Man of the Year category.

Reid, who won the Sixth Man award last season, and Alexander-Walker were snubbed while the three finalists are Detroit Pistons guard Malik Beasley, Boston guard Payton Pritchard, and Cleveland's Ty Jerome.

Pritchard is the heavy favorite to win the award, but there are plenty of bench players who can argue they were snubbed. Let's see how Ried and Alexander-Walker stack up to the finalists by the numbers.

Comparison via Stathead Basketball | Stathead

Four of the five, with the exception of Jerome, played in at least 80 games. Jerome played in 70 and averaged 19.9 minutes per game, while the others all averaged 25+ minutes.

Jerome, however, ousted Reid and Alexander-Walker in the advanced metrics, namely Player Efficiency Rating (PER) and Win Shares (WS).

In PER, Jerome's 21.0 rating is six points higher than the average (15.0) NBA player's per-minute production rating. It's also better than Pritchard (17.6), Reid (15.8), Beasley (14.4) and Alexander-Walker (11.6).

When it comes to Win Shares, Jerome's 5.9 estimated wins contributed to Cleveland is second among the five players in the discussion, trailing Pritchard's 8.6. Reid is third at 5.7, followed by Beasley (4.7) and Alexander-Walker (4.3).

By this point, you should be realizing that Beasley doesn't do much beyond hit a ton of threes. His 319 made threes was incredible considering he came off the bench, but he didn't provide the Pistons much in the realms of rebounding, playmaking and defense. That's reflected in his below average Player Efficience Rating.

Based on the data, it looks like Pritchard and Jerome are very much deserving of being Sixth man finalists, while Reid has a very strong argument that he was snubbed.

Reid gave the Timberwolves important minutes, scoring, rebounding and blocks, which is evident in his 3.3 Defensive Win Shares. Reid, based on the Defensive Win Shares metric, provided more value on the defensive end than Pritchard, Jerome, Beasley and Alexander-Walker.

That said, anyone who watched the Timberwolves all season knows that Alexander-Walker was a terrific defender who gave the Wolves a spark on both ends of the floor.