No, You Don’t Need a Sparkplug Scorer off the Bench.

"Instant Offense" reserves are an NBA Twitter Fiction

The term “sparkplug” gets thrown around a lot in NBA circles. It’s usually attributed to that guy who everybody in the league thinks should be Sixth Man of the Year; he’s probably pretty good off the bounce, can get hot from three in a hurry… and also completely shoot you out of a game. It’s a tale as old as time, and a fun liturgy to play out every season: Which team has that exciting-yet-streaky shot-maker to get us through the NBA’s winter doldrums?

But the conversation has, in my humble opinion, gotten a bit out of hand. If you’re so unlucky to ever type “Greatest Sixth Man in NBA History” into your google search bar, you’ll be disappointed to find out that this article is the first result to appear. It’s not so bad, really, except for the first two names on the list: Jamal Crawford and Lou Williams.

The fact that these two top the chart may not even be shocking to you; When you talk to anyone under the age of, say, 30, these are usually the two guys that people anoint as the best Sixth Men of all time, or at least of the last decade. In fact their names are almost synonymous with the term now – Drake wrote a song in honor of Williams, and Crawford has likewise been accordingly commemorated in Hip Hop.

Now, I’m not here to trash Lou Will or Jamal Crawford (although it’s about to sound like it). It’s not their fault that they get buckets in the manner that they do; no, the problem is how the NBA world has received their contribution to the game. It speaks to a larger issue at play, and one that simply will not leave the collective NBA conscious: 6th Men are usually bad NBA players.

Now, I hold reservations on this statement. Of course the likes of Manu Ginobili, Kevin McHale, James Harden, Bill Walton, and John Havlicek are exempt from this conversation; these are players who either transitioned into the starting five soon after their bench stint, or went back to the bench after producing as All-Stars previously. They are truly great bench players, and they should (and have been) honored accordingly.

But that’s not how the Sixth Man is understood in today’s league. Ever since 2012 in fact, the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award has not been given to a reverted star or a future one (save Tyler Herro’s 2022 win, if you’re high on him). Instead it’s been given to players that have been designated precisely for their ability to come off the bench and be a “sparkplug” for their team somewhere in the early second quarter. It’s not just Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford that stand guilty of this designation (although both of them have been awarded three 6MOTY trophies a piece); Alas, JR Smith, Jordan Clarkson, and Eric Gordon were all given the title within the last decade too. They’re all of the same exciting ilk – that “no-one-can-guard-me” mentality allows them to put defenders on the floor with a crossover, or demoralize them with back-to-back-to-back threes. So what’s my problem with these guys? Well, simply put, they never do any of this stuff in the playoffs.

Yes, I hate to burst NBA Twitter’s bubble by eviscerating their patron saints, but the “bench-sparkplug scorer” architype has not actually worked in the playoffs for, well, a decade at least. Starting in 2013, not a single 6th man of the year has actually gotten better, much less helped their team win, in the playoffs. In fact, their play almost always fell off a cliff in the postseason! I took the liberty of doing the research for you, tracking their change from the regular season to the playoffs, going back 10 years now. Here's the last ten Sixth Man of the Year winners:

In 2013, JR Smith: Less minutes, significant scoring drop-off, and massive efficiency drop (33%FG in the playoffs), Knicks lose in the 2nd round

In 2014, Jamal Crawford: Less minutes, significant scoring drop-off, and massive efficiency drop (38%FG in the playoffs), Clippers lose in the 2nd round

In 2015, Lou Williams: Same minutes, significant scoring drop-off, and massive efficiency drop (31%FG in the playoffs), Raptors swept in the 1st round

In 2016, Jamal Crawford (again): More minutes and points (because Chris Paul and Blake Griffin both got injured, neither playing more than 4 games), massive efficiency drop (38%FG in the playoffs), Clippers lose in the 1st round

In 2017, Eric Gordon: Same minutes, significant scoring drop-off, and slight efficiency boost (up to 42%FG in the playoffs from 41% in the regular season), Rockets lose in the 2nd round

In 2018, Lou Williams (again): Clippers did not make the playoffs

In 2019, Lou Williams (one more time!): More minutes, slight scoring and efficiency bump (well, not from beyond the arc, but we need as many wins as we can get right now), Clippers lose in the 1st round

In 2020, Montrezl Harrell: Massive drop in both minutes and points (down to 10.5 points from nearly 19 during the regular season), slight efficiency drop, Clippers lose in the 2nd round

In 2021, Jordan Clarkson: Similar minutes, significant drop in points and efficiency (42%FG in the playoffs), Jazz lose in the 2nd round

In 2022, Tyler Herro: Massive drop in minutes, points, and efficiency (41%FG in the playoffs), Heat lose in Conference Finals

All of these guys qualify for the “sparkplug” label, yet they seem to be actively shooting their team out of games when the defense tightens up. So much for “instant offense”. Those offensive woes goes back even further than 2013, by the way, and some players you think highly of have likely been victim to the playoff plummet (*cough, cough*).

Well, maybe these guys dig in on the defensive end! They must have made up for their poor offensive play on that side of the ball, right? Wrong. Every single one of the above players has actively hurt their team on the defensive side of the ball in the playoffs. The advanced stats bear it out, but let’s be real, all you need is eyes to see Jamal Crawford get hunted in the pick and roll.

Only one of these players has even escaped the second round in the same year as their 6MOTY campaign. But the bench-sparkplug isn’t just a 2010s issue. In reality, there have been so few players that can qualify as “good” sixth men that we could probably count them on two hands. One would need to go back almost 30 years ago to finally find a Sixth Man award winner that actually helped his team win a title – that would be Toni Kukoč during the 1995-96 season. And guess what? Even his numbers tanked during the playoffs.

So it seems reasonable at this stage to ask: is having a 6th man even important?

The short answer is… probably not. Rings are won because of Michael Jordan, not Toni Kukoč. There will always be guys who show out with big performances in the regular season and make us question this fact, but the reality is, unless they’re a guy you’d be willing to play in the final five minutes of a playoff game, he’s probably fulfilling a role that many NBA players could also accomplish if given a similarly long leash on offense.

If you look at even the regular season stats for any of the last ten 6MOTY winners, you’ll find that none of these players even hit league average efficiency in any of their Sixth Man of the Year campaigns. They’re putting up numbers, but doing it at the expense of their team more often than not. They may be good for a highlight every now and then, but you should probably be praying to God that they’re not on your team if you want to win a championship. If they’re not good enough to start, then why do you think they are good enough to do anything at all in a playoff series?

So then, what have we learned?

1. It’s okay to like sixth men for their entertainment value

2. It’s even fun to follow the 6MOTY race every year!

3. Letting a sparkplug have free reign on your bench minutes is an absolutely abysmal way to coach your team. Concentrating possessions into inefficient players is a recipe for disaster in every other situation, but the occasional “That Boy Nice” crossover should change our minds? Absolutely not.

So next time your team drafts a sparkplug scorer to come off the bench, here are your instructions: send them to the Clippers. They’ll gladly settle for Sixth Man of the Year Awards over there at the expense of championships. In fact, they may just have their face of the franchise with their deadline acquisition of Bones Hyland! So congratulations to Bones Hyland on finally fulfilling the role you were born to fulfill: 6th Man of the Year for the 2025 Los Angeles Clippers. We’ll see you, briefly, in the playoffs, before you get benched.