The NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award has been decided by only a few votes. It went to Minnesota Timberwolves big man Naz Reid. This was quite unexpected given that a lot of the league’s avid watchers and everyone who is part of the Sacramento Kings faithful had Malik Monk winning as a foregone conclusion.

Just laugh it off

The Kings’ Sixth Man of the Year finalist saw the votes and just could not help but laugh. Malik Monk replied under a tweet that unveiled that he was the first player in league history to lead the NBA in bench points but not win the coveted award.

Malik Monk received the same number of second and third-place votes as Naz Reid. They both convinced 39 and 10 voters in those categories respectively. However, the Timberwolves big man got the edge in the votes for first place. He got two more with 45 votes than the Kings guard who just notched 43 of them. In total, Monk only managed to get 342 points in the voting period while the winner got 352.

These two were way ahead of the rest of the competition. Bobby Portis Jr. of the Milwaukee Bucks, another Sixth Man of the Year finalist, only got 81 votes from pundits, analysts, and other members of the populace. To put it into perspective, he only got five first-place votes, 10 for second place, and 26 for third. The race was really between the beloved Timberwolves’ big man who started quite a lot of games while getting a towel giveaway and the Kings’ elite bench leader.

This is the second year that Monk made a bid to get the award. Hopefully, he will come back stronger in the next season and win the award. After all, the third time truly is the charm. It might finally be his year to bring home the hardware for the Kings.

Monk’s leadership in the Kings’ bench

Coach Mike Brown may have had issues with depth in the middle of the season. But, Monk was the one who was patching up those woes such that the Kings could land a play-in spot at the very least. He stayed and rode with the bench until they found success.

Monk did everything while giving the Kings starters a chance to shine first. He had 17 games where he recorded 20+ points alongside 5+ assists. This was good enough to lead everyone who came off the bench in the league. His 25 games with 20+ points were also league-leading. This is why it is fairly easy for a lot of Kings fans to be left in disbelief after he lost the award to Reid

To further hammer down that point, he was one of the best players in the league when it came to exposing driving lanes. He had 153 assists off drives which was second only to the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Most Valuable Player finalist, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Monk is just 26 years old and will have plenty of opportunities to win the award again. Now, he just has a very large chip on his shoulder and a hunger for the postseason which might just make him a different force come next season.