Is the Sixth Man of the Year Race Done?

"One goal and achievement I do wanna have under my belt is win the Sixth Man of the Year award," that's what Jordan Clarkson said at the beginning of the season.

On Tuesday's episode of Hoops Life, Aaron Atayde and Jinno Rufino broke down who could win and who should win the major awards in the 2020-2021 National Basketball Association (NBA) season as the condensed season is now in its final stretch. Both Atayde and Rufino agreed on one thing: Jordan Clarkson should be and will be the Sixth Man of the Year.

For Rufino, Clarkson resembles the games of previous Sixth Man of the Year awardees such as Lou Williams and Jamal Crawford. "I always saw JC as that guy in the mold of a Lou Will, of a Jamal Crawford, that guy off the bench who's gonna give you some offense. Sometimes, he does force shots. But that's what he's there for. He's there to get buckets,"

"And he's been doing that this season with great efficiency," Rufino added.

Atayde has a different take on Clarkson's settling down to his role as a sixth man for the Utah Jazz.

"If he finds comfort in this and he says, 'You know what? This is where I'm going to be,' If he can settle in to be the Fil-Am version of Manu Ginobili, if he can become more comfortable, and just settle in, he will be so good in this role,"

In the end, the Hoops Life hosts believed that Jordan Clarkson will be the runaway winner of the Sixth Man of the Year award, and the numbers can prove that. In 61 games thus far, he averaged 17 points, four rebounds, and three assists. He's the top scorer among all bench players. And he already proved this season that he can get the job done even without the Jazz’s leading scorer in Donovan Mitchell.

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