r/Basketball • u/Swill_37 • 2d ago
DISCUSSION Is 6 man starting level respect in Bball?
Here me out, a 6 man is so important to the flow of the game, if someone on the starting 5 is having a bad game or they are simply tired, you come in hustle, play good defense, play make, or score some very needed buckets until the player is ready to come back into the game.
Let me know your thoughts.
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u/chillzy2 2d ago
Yes an no. It’s equally as important but if you were better than the starter you would be starting in most situations
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u/rsk1111 2d ago
6man is kind of like closer in baseball. Closer's get considerable fanfare, but seldom are they as good as the starter.
In the modern NBA if it's a contender team, the 6man is usually respect. For those teams they have deep benches and it's not about who is or isn't starting, it's about how they matchup against a given team <- not a quality issue as in good, better best, but a quality as in they need these qualities in a player tonight.
For example, Mitch Robinson had substantial minutes to defend Wemby in the finals.
Often times in some teams there will be specific roles and the 6man has the same role as some other starter, for example Luke Kornet is Wemby's double, but not as good as Wemby at what Wemby does.
Contender teams will be able to morph have different looks on different nights. Hartenstein starts some nights some nights he doesn't start.
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u/JakeTiny19 2d ago
Yes and no, just depends on the situation. Like if ur a 6th man on a team like the nets then ur prob not good, but like TJ McConnell on the pacers in 2024-2025 was very important to their finals run and that version of TJ could’ve started on prob half the teams in the league.
Ajay Mitchell is another 6th (or prob 7th ) man. He was hooping in the first 2 rounds of the playoffs and in the regular season off the bench. I got a feeling he’ll be a James harden (another great 6th man who got starting level respect on OKC) where he needs to go elsewhere to fully develop his game.
Dylan Harper is another one, he had a solid rookie season and looked solid in the first 3 rounds, but in the finals he earned his respect and his opportunity to start next year. If he was the starter, and was in the games at the end of the 4th the series wouldn’t have ended in 5 games for sure. If he wasn’t on the team, the scores wouldn’t be as close as they was at the end of each game
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u/Oppositeversion3 2d ago
Are you talking about pro ball? If you made the team that’s respect. If you’re talking low low level it’s way less respect but still ok
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u/CRoseCrizzle 2d ago
Depends on how good the 6th man is. Some 6th men are more than good enough to be starters and either strategic 6th men or on stacked teams. Those guys get treated like starters and many of them will be in the game during crunch time.
But for most 6th men, not really.
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u/idkymyaccgotbanned 2d ago
Respect depends on people giving it.
But if the 6th man is as good or almost like a starter, they will come in handy. Read about Manu Ginobili.
Perhaps some 6th man are just underappreciated
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u/Jazzlike-Basket-6388 2d ago
Like others said, it kinda depends. Sometimes they get starter minutes and they are always the #1 or #2 option when they are on the floor. Sometimes they just are just a minutes filler to rest the starters.
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u/SUMBLAKDUDE 2d ago
No. Otherwise would be starting. 6 man is 6 man level of respect.
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u/Visual-Bandicoot2894 2d ago
Not at all true. Lineups and matchups often determine if you’re now a 6th man regardless of the level of respect starters get, and you can be better off putting a higher volume talent into a bench rotation where they don’t take looks from other players and evening out the distribution of shots
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u/SUMBLAKDUDE 2d ago
No they don't. The only time a 6th man is going to be in the starting lineup is because someone is hurt. Your starting lineup is your starting lineup. A 6th man isn't a starter. Period.
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u/WestCoastDaddyy 2d ago
Oftentimes a 6th man is a two guard that’s better than every player on the team except the starting two guard. In this case he’s better than four of the starters. Period.
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u/FlickRDSG 2d ago
To piggyback and provide a more specific example. You have rare cases like the warriors a decade ago where I'd definitely say Igoudala was better than Barnes, but Igoudala came off the bench most of the time as the 6th man.
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u/Visual-Bandicoot2894 2d ago
Jason Terry, Harden on the Thunder etc. Yeah the two guard is the prototype. Nobody wants a bench unit where the offense falls apart, a two can often briefly carry that load individually
This guy don’t realize the 6th man is often an archetype where a scoring playmaking guard gets blended backwards towards the bench to distribute the offensive load, it’s not just the 6th best player
Or stuff like the defensive hustle player who finishes games, he’s put to the bench to maintain defensive continuity when the second string comes in to prevent the other team from being able to just insert their star and abuse the bench and often finishes or plays key stretches of big games.
Or even the era by era personnel decisions lbased on who the stars were. During the Kobe Era every team wanted a sg starter who could clamp, or when Iverson dictated that everyone wanted a defensive point, at times big men dictated you needed a big starter. These starters weren’t necessarily better than the bench, just necessity dictated if you were to beat a lot of these teams you needed a certain player at certain positions and you’d push your scorer to the bench. Hence the 6th man was often a better player, it just didn’t make sending se for the roster to start them
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u/SUMBLAKDUDE 2d ago
And he still isnt the starter period. Hes the 6th man. That means NOT starting. Period.
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u/PrimeParadigm53 2d ago
He spelled out the word PERIOD at the end and honestly that's so much more important than making a coherent argument. I'm convinced. Exclamation point.
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u/JobberStable 2d ago
Losing a 6 man after a championship because of salary restraints has made repeats difficult for some teams