You know things have changed when you see Celtics fans sticking up for the Detroit Pistons.
That includes one Bill Simmons, a famous Celtics Homer who is old enough to remember when both of these teams were regularly good and hated each other.
He also knows something that many NBA fans don’t want to admit, which is that the NBA is just better when the Pistons are good whether you hate them or love them.
The Pistons making the playoffs for the first time in six years is bar-none the best story in the NBA this season, and I have to give Simmons credit, as he’s been watching and talking about Detroit all season, often singing their praises.
That happened again on a recent episode of his podcast, where Simmons made the case for Malik Beasley over Payton Pritchard for 6th Man of the Year.
Here’s part of what Simmons had to say:
“I’m just telling you right now I’m voting for him (Beasley) for 6th Man of the Year. I love Pritchard but he’s on an awesome team, the team can survive whether he’s good or not, game to game, Detroit can’t...They actually need him to make big shots night after night to succeed. The Celtics don’t need Pritchard the same way.”
This is a compelling case, and he’s right. The Celtics are loaded and the points and contributions they get from Pritchard are gravy.
Since Jaden Ivey has been out, Beasley is the 2nd-leading scorer on Detroit, while Pritchard is just the 5th-leading scorer on the Celtics.
Beasley is scoring three more points per game on average than Pritchard, even though Pritchard plays more. Both guys are 3-point snipers, but Beasley shoots a slightly better percentage on more attempts per game.
And there are other reasons Beasley should be the clear frontrunner for 6th Man of the Year.
Malik Beasley: Historical shooting and leadership
I agree with Simmons that the importance of a player’s role should be a factor in the 6th Man of the Year voting.
I’d add that Beasley is currently leading the entire NBA in 3-pointers made and he’s doing that from the bench. Pritchard is 7th in the NBA in 3-point makes and 3rd on his own team, which just broke the all-time record for long-range makes in a season.
Beasley is on pace to become just the 4th player in league history to make over 300 from 3-point range in a season, the others being Steph Curry (who has done it an outrageous five times), Klay Thompson and James Harden, and I repeat, Beasley is doing this OFF THE BENCH.
Beasley has also assumed a veteran leadership role on the Pistons, which is not on Pritchard’s plate, as the Celtics are stacked with veterans and Pritchard’s name wouldn’t even get mentioned in that conversation.
The Celtics are off a championship just last season, while the Pistons went from a 14-win team to the playoffs, with Beasley being one of the key offseason additions and biggest reasons for the historic turnaround.
There is no quantitative or qualitative measure by which Pritchard is the 6th Man of the Year, as the numbers, eye test and common sense are all behind Malik Beasley.