The Best Bench Player in the NBA This Season

This was supposed to be a weak year for the Sixth Man award. The two best candidates early in the season — Ajay Mitchell and Isaiah Stewart — both missed significant time through injury and disqualified themselves from serious contention. What remained was a two-man race with legitimate arguments on both sides, a clear longshot, and no consensus answer.

The experts are split. The betting markets lean one way. This publication leans the other.

#1 — JAIME JAQUEZ JR., MIAMI HEAT
15.4 points, 5.0 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 50.7% FG
Previous season: 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists

The raw numbers win the argument. Jaquez averages more points, more assists and more steals per game than anyone else in this field — and does so while carrying a heavier offensive load than any bench player in the race. His unassisted field goal rate is nearly 15 percentage points higher than Keldon Johnson's, which means he is creating far more for himself and others rather than operating within a structured system with clean looks already generated.

Last season, Jaquez averaged 8.6 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.5 assists. This year: 15.4, 5.0 and 4.7. That is a complete transformation of his offensive role — from complementary piece to primary option during Miami's most difficult stretches. When Tyler Herro and Norman Powell were unavailable, Jaquez ran the Heat offense. Not as a placeholder. As the plan.

The counterargument is always team context. Miami finished 42-40, in the play-in. Keldon Johnson's Spurs won 62 games. Voters historically reward winning — the last five Sixth Man winners all came from teams with 52 or more victories. That pattern is real, and it is the strongest case against Jaquez.

But here is the thing: the award is for the best sixth man, not the sixth man on the best team. Jaquez is the only player in this field who can credibly claim to have been his team's most important bench player and, on many nights, most important player full stop. Miami does not make the play-in without him. That matters more than the record on the building he plays in.

#2 — KELDON JOHNSON, SAN ANTONIO SPURS
13.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 1.4 assists, 51.9% FG, 62.5% TS
Previous season: 12.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.6 assists

The efficiency case is real and it deserves full credit. Johnson's 62.5% true shooting is elite — significantly better than Jaquez's 56.1% — and he played all 82 games off the bench with remarkable consistency. He is the longest-serving Spur on the roster and by multiple accounts the heartbeat of the locker room: the player who sets the tone, holds the standard and leads without the ball.

Johnson is also operating within an extraordinary team context. San Antonio's bench is one of the best in the NBA, and Johnson benefits from the gravity of Victor Wembanyama, De'Aaron Fox and Stephon Castle on the floor with or near him. Clean looks are easier to find when your starting lineup produces that kind of spacing and defensive pressure on opponents.

His case is strong. His efficiency is genuine. The Spurs are a better team because he is in the rotation. On a different roster, in a different year — he wins this award without much debate.

#3 — REED SHEPPARD, HOUSTON ROCKETS
13.5 points, 2.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 43.0% FG, 39.4% from three, 26.2 minutes Previous season: 4.4 points

A legitimate surprise. The third overall pick in the 2024 Draft was largely invisible as a rookie — Houston prioritized winning over developmental minutes, and Sheppard averaged under five points in limited time. This season he became a genuine rotation piece, providing shooting, playmaking and defensive energy in under 27 minutes per game.

His three-point shooting on real volume, combined with 1.5 steals per game, gives him a profile that few bench players can match. He is not yet in the same category as Jaquez or Johnson in terms of overall impact — but as a second-year player producing at this level off the bench for a 52-win team, he has made an argument that will matter more next season than it does this one.

HONORABLE MENTION — AJAY MITCHELL, OKC THUNDER
13.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, 3.6 assists, 1.2 steals, 48.5% FG — in 57 games
Previous season: 6.5 points

The most frustrating story in this race. Before his mid-season absence — an abdominal strain followed by an ankle injury that cost him over 20 games — Mitchell was averaging 14.1 points, 3.7 assists and 1.4 steals on 48.7% shooting. Multiple experts said outright: if Mitchell stays healthy, he wins this award.

He didn't stay healthy. That is the full sentence. It is also the reason a second-round pick from UC Santa Barbara — born in Belgium, the first Belgian to score in an NBA Finals game last season — belongs in this conversation at all. Oklahoma City's depth is genuinely ridiculous. Mitchell thrives within it not because the system carries him, but because his feel for the game is rare. SGA himself said it best: playing with him feels like a pickup game. He just figures it out.

The verdict: Jaquez. The award goes to the best bench player — not the bench player on the best team. By that measure, Miami's most important reserve in a difficult season edges Johnson's outstanding efficiency on a 62-win juggernaut.

The argument will be close. The answer shouldn't be.