Lou Williams cooks up Sixth Man of the Year honors at NBA Awards

The Sixth Man of the Year award went to Los Angeles Clippers guard Lou Williams at the NBA Awards.

Lou Williams shined in 2017-18, showing off an offensive repertoire that had many believing he should be a starter in the league. For now, he’ll have to settle with being named Sixth Man of the Year. 

The Los Angeles Clippers guard averaged 22.6 points and 5.3 assists coming off the bench. Williams did end up starting 19 games for the banged up Clippers, but that didn’t disqualify him from winning the award. He led Los Angeles in both categories.

Williams, dressed in all black, thanked fellow nominee and former teammate Eric Gordon along with Toronto Raptors guard Fred VanVleet, who was also nominated. He also thanked “everybody rebounding for me.”

This is the second Sixth Man of the Year award for Williams. He previously won the trophy in 2014-15 as a member of the Toronto Raptors.

The Clippers underwent a huge makeover in the middle of the season when they traded franchise forward Blake Griffin to Detroit. A rebuild looked likely, and Williams’ name was on the hot stove leading up to the trade deadline. Instead of dealing the microwave guard, Los Angeles not only held onto him, they rewarded him with a three-year extension.

Many believed Williams should have been named to the 2017-18 All-Star team, but their requests did not come to fruition. Accepting a bench role when you’re as good of a scorer and playmaker as Williams is no easy task. He could have easily been moved to the starting lineup, but Doc Rivers used him to create mismatches against the opponents second units. Despite rarely starting, Williams often closed for Rivers.

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Despite Williams’ best efforts, the Clippers fell short of making the playoffs, finishing 10th in the competitive Western Conference.