After a season of scorching the nets from downtown, Houston Rockets guard Eric Gordon was named the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year on Monday. He beat out teammate Lou Williams and Warriors swingman Andre Iguodala for the trophy.
The vote was extremely close, with Gordon receiving 46 first-place votes, 40 second-place votes, and eight third-place votes for a total of 358 points. Iguodala had 43 first-place votes, 34 second-place votes, and nine third-place votes.
NBA Sixth Man award voting pic.twitter.com/AK39uaP643
— Marc J. Spears (@MarcJSpearsESPN) June 27, 2017
Gordon was lights out from three for Houston last season, averaging 16.2 points on 37 percent three-point shooting. The Rockets’ sniper drilled 246 threes last season, fourth-most in the NBA behind only James Harden, Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry. More impressively, after missing significant time due to injury in each of his last five seasons, Gordon stayed healthy and played in 75 games last season.
The Rockets used Gordon in a multitude of ways, including leading the second unit as its primary scorer and putting him alongside Harden as a vaunted distance shooter. The result was one of the best Rockets’ seasons in recent memory, finishing with a 55-27 record for the third seed in the Western Conference.
Williams averaged 18.6 points with the Lakers before he was traded to the Rockets midseason. He subsequently averaged 14.9 points on below-average shooting percentages in Houston. Iguodala averaged 7.6 points per game for the best team in the NBA, serving as a utility player off the bench for a Warriors squad that won the NBA Finals.
But of the three finalists, it was Gordon who had the best season all-around.