After a great first quarter of the season for the Indiana Pacers, the question has to be asked: can Domantas Sabonis win two different awards?
Domantas Sabonis has been excellent off the bench for the Indiana Pacers. Domantas Sabonis has also been much better than he was last season. This begs the question: can he do something unprecedented and win Sixth Man of the Year AND Most Improved Player?
Very rarely in NBA history has one player won two different awards in one season. Hakeem Olajuwon and Michael Jordon both won Most Valuable Player and Defensive Player of the year in the same season. Wes Unseld and Wilt Chamberlain both won MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same year. Finals MVP has been mixed in with a few other various awards (if that even counts).
But nobody has even won Sixth Man of the Year and Most Improved Player in the same season. That could change this year, as Domantas Sabonis looks like he could be a candidate for both awards.
It seems like the Pacers breed Most Improved Players. Victor Oladipo won it last year. They’ve won 5 since the turn of the century. The team has a crazy good player development staff, and Sabonis is another product of it.
Sabonis has the 5th largest improvement in Box Plus-Minus from 2017-18 to this season. The 4 guys in front of him look much better than last year, to be fair; that list consists of Derrick Rose, Furkan Korkmaz, Nerlens Noel, and Quincy Pondexter.
But a mix of narrative and context help Sabonis here. Rose has been much better than last year, but his past as a former MVP would make it a weird narrative if he won MIP. Korkmaz only played 80 minutes last season – it’s hard to say that is enough of a baseline to “improve” off of. Pondexter went from statistically terrible to average, a huge improvement, but not the type of one that wins you the MIP award.
Noel has been great, though, and other guys right behind Sabonis in the BPM improvement rankings look like good MIP candidates too. Montrezl Harrell, Nikola Vucevic, Boban Marjanovic, and Noah Vonleh highlight this group.
The nature of the MIP award means it usually goes to the guy who goes from a good player to a great player. Harrell, Sabonis, and Vucevic probably lead this group right now. It will be a great race to watch the rest of the season, but the Indiana Pacers big man could definitely win it.
The Sixth Man of the Year race features a similar crop of players. Sabonis, Noel, Harrell, and Rose all do all of their damage off the bench. Harrell is having a huge impact and scoring a ton of points.
Additionally, you have Lou Williams (duh) and Julius Randle doing a great job off the bench for their respective teams. Randle has been great behind Anthony Davis in New Orleans. Lou Williams always piles up the scoring off the bench.
At some point, Williams is going to have a two week period where he can’t miss a shot and looks unstoppable. That could prop him up to (deservedly) winning another Sixth Man of the Year award. But if that doesn’t happen, that could open the door for someone else to win the award.
It’s not necessarily an uphill battle for Sabonis to win some awards. He has the impact numbers and skills on his side. But what he needs is the narrative portion, and that is the hardest part to get.
Harrell and Williams would deserve 6MOY based on their play alone, but playing in the LA market helps their narrative. Vucevic’s play could be enough to get him MIP, but if he makes an All-Star team, that narrative would pick up steam. Rose’s popularity helps vault him into any award discussion.
Domantas Sabonis needs a narrative. Throwing down a poster dunk on Joel Embiid was a great start, on national TV nonetheless. People saw that. Shirts were made to commemorate it. Sports Illustrated’s profile on him helped get him even more attention. But he needs more. An insane stat game. Another monster dunk. Something that gets less informed fans outside of the midwest saying “dang, that Sabonis guy is really freakin’ good”.
If Sabonis can cling on to something that helps him achieve a narrative, then he has a chance. That, combined with his stats, would be enough to merit awards consideration. He’s substantially improved. He’s killing it off the bench. He’s in the hunt for both awards. If he keeps up his supreme play, he could win them.