Immanuel Quickley emerges as favorite for Sixth Man of The Year Award

After Sunday night’s gigantic performance against the Boston Celtics, Knicks point guard Immanuel Quickley continues to prove his worth to his team. Starting in place of an injured Jalen Brunson, Quickley scored 38 points, grabbed eight rebounds, and dished seven assists. The Knicks would outlast Boston 131-129 in double overtime, causing IQ to play a career-high 55 minutes.

Taking a look at DraftKings Sportsbook, Quickley has emerged as the favorite to win Sixth Man of the Year. The Knicks guard comes in on top while Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon slightly trails behind. It really is a two-man race but after Brogdon, you can find Norman Powell, Bobby Portis, Malik Monk, and Tyrese Maxey as super long shots.

Being that this looks like it’ll be Quickley vs. Brogdon, it’s worth seeing how the two candidates compare next to each other:

Immanuel Quickley (65 games played, 11 games started):

28 minutes per game

13.4 points

4.1 rebounds

3.1 assists

0.9 steals

45/36.6/81.8 shooting splits

57.7 true shooting percentage

Malcolm Brogdon (54 games played, zero games started):

25.4 minutes

14.6 points

4.1 rebounds

3.7 assists

0.6 steals

48.8/46/88.7 shooting splits

62.5 true shooting percentage

Just going over basic stats, these two players are eerily similar.

Advanced categories to look at:

Offensive/Defensive ratings:

Immanuel Quickley: 113.5 offensive rating, 107.3 defensive rating, +6.2 net rating

Malcolm Brogdon: 114.6 offensive rating, 111.4 defensive rating, +3.3 net rating

The Knicks' point guard takes an edge and has been massive on the defensive side of the ball this season.

Offensive/Defensive win shares:

Quickley: 3.2 offensive win shares, 1.8 defensive win shares, +5.0 total win shares

Brogdon: 2.9 offensive win shares, 1.6 defensive win shares, +4.5 total win shares

Malcolm Brogdon may shoot a better percentage and have a higher PER/usage but Quickley has had the bigger impact on winning thus far.

Offensive/Defensive box plus/minus:

Quickley: 0.9 offensive, 0.7 defensive, +1.6 total

Brogdon: 2.8 offensive, 0.3 defensive, +2.8 total

The Celtics guard on paper takes the edge in this category but IQ looks like the more complete player on both ends.

VORP (Value over Replacement Player):

Quickley: +1.6

Brodgon: +1.7

Another strong factor could be games played.

Here’s how many games each winner of the award has played in the last ten seasons:

2021-22: Tyler Herro (66)

2020-21: Clarkson (68)

2019-20: Montrezl Harrell (69)

2018-19: Lou Williams (75)

2017-18: Lou Williams (79)

2016-17: Eric Gordon (75)

2015-16: Jamal Crawford (79)

2014-15: Lou Williams (80)

2013-14: Jamal Crawford (64)

2012-13: J.R. Smith (74)

This is to show that there has been a standard of games played with the winner of the award. Quickley right now has a double-digit game edge on Brogdon, which again, could play a major factor at the season’s end.

Final thought:

This race will continue to be tight until the end of the season. Brogdon has been dealing with ankle soreness that forced him to miss the Knicks vs. Celtics game Sunday night. If he is forced to miss more time, Quickley can really grab hold of this award and run with it. It certainly helps that the Knicks are winning right now but a lot of the advanced metrics back up IQ’s strong play. He is very impactful on both sides of the court and that could ultimately be the decider when it comes time to vote.

It’s a situation that will continue to be monitored but it’s great to see Immanuel Quickley getting recognition. It wasn't too long ago that there were at least rumors of the Knicks potentially looking to move Quickley. Thankfully, they held onto him and he should hopefully be holding onto a nice piece of hardware at the end of the regular season.

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