2 weeks Ago
Late last week, the NBA revealed the three finalists for the Sixth Man of the Year award. Detroit Pistons veteran Malik Beasley was in the running. Although Beasley had a strong case, he came up short.
On Tuesday night, the NBA announced that Beasley would be the runner-up to Boston Celtics guard Payton Pritchard. According to the NBA , Pritchard dominated with 82 first-place votes, which equal five points for each vote. Beasley had 13, with Cleveland’s Ty Jerome and De’Andre Hunter each getting two votes.
Minnesota’s Naz Reid picked up one of his own. Beasley collected the most second-place votes with 66. Overall, Beasley had 279 points, while Prtichard had 454.
Jerome, Hunter, Reid, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Russell Westbrook, and Alex Caruso were the others in the running. This season, Pritchard produced 14 points per game while shooting 47 percent from the field and 41 percent from three. He also came down with four rebounds per outing and dished out four assists.
He averaged 28 minutes of action in 80 games, playing for the second-seeded Celtics. As for Beasley, he played all 82 games this season. Seeing the court for roughly the same amount of time as Pritchard, Beasley hit on 43 percent of his shots and 42 percent of his threes to score 16 points per game.
He also averaged three rebounds and two assists throughout the year. The Pistons signed Beasley during the 2024 offseason after his lone year with the Milwaukee Bucks. While Beasley was viewed as a veteran sharpshooter who could help unlock Cade Cunningham’s game, Beasley ended up being a critical rotational piece for the Pistons’ surprisingly successful season.
Beasley’s 2024-2025 campaign won’t end with the Sixth Man of the Year award, but he’ll go down as the 2025 runner-up after a strong regular season..
