Early Sixth Man of the Year Rankings: Do any Nets crack the list?

1. Immanuel Quickley

Quickley was last year’s runner-up to the Sixth Man of the Year award, and this year, he is on a mission to show that it should have gone to him instead of Malcolm Brogdon. The media hyped up the Knicks during the preseason, which is why Quickley’s chances are as high as they are, but his play on the court proves it.

Out of all of the contenders for the award, Quickley is the best defender. He has the lowest defensive rating of all the players on this list at 107.6, which probably shouldn’t be a shock, considering he plays for Tom Thibodeau. Just for the sake of comparison, the next closest is Norman Powell at 110.1, and he probably won’t be in contention for the award by the end of the year.

With those tremendous defensive intangibles, he is also putting up 15.8 points per game, which, if he continues on this pace, would be a career-high scoring output.

Yes, the Knicks are off to a shaky start to the season, and there’s some controversy around Julius Randle, but they had one of the more arduous schedules in the league over the first two weeks, so I expect a turnaround soon.

Quickley currently has +600 odds to win the award.

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