The concept of the sixth man is rooted in Celtics history.

When Red Auerbach was cutting his teeth with the Washington Capitols in the 1940s, he kept Brooklyn-born forward Irv Torgoff stashed on the bench. Having a double-digit scorer on the floor during stretches when opponents were starving for offense gave the Capitols a clear edge. They finished the 1946-47 season with the best record in the Basketball Association of America, which later merged with the National Basketball League to become the NBA.

Auerbach brought the idea with him when he arrived in Boston in 1951. Whether it was Frank Ramsey or John Havlicek, the Celtics had a go-to player off the bench for decades.

 

The NBA being a copy-cat league, other teams adopted the philosophy, but the role briefly fell out of fashion in the ‘70s. Perfectly capable players who spent most of their lives as starters weren’t keen to come off the bench, and didn’t want to perform like starters and get paid like reserves.

Even when the league decided to recognize the role with the Sixth Man of the Year award in 1982-83, it was still hard for even the best bench players to accept. The inaugural award went to Bobby Jones, a starter in Denver and Philadelphia before Nuggets coach Billy Cunningham moved him to the bench.

“After starting for so many years,” he told the New York Times in 1984, “I felt like I was in outer space.”

The Celtics didn’t have that problem. After Jones, Kevin McHale won in back-to-back seasons, followed by Bill Walton in 1985-86. The Celtics went to the Finals in each of those seasons and won titles in 1984 and 1986.

“Most basketball players want to score a lot of points and they want to be starters,” Auerbach told the New York Times in 1984. “They want their name announced before the game and hear the crowd cheer. But a sixth man has to be someone who thinks about the team before himself. He has to be somebody who wants to do anything necessary to help the ball club win.”

Despite that, Toni Kukoc and the 1995-96 Bulls are the last team to collect both an NBA championship and a Sixth Man of the Year award. After three decades, is it possible that Payton Pritchard and the Celtics can match that accomplishment?

At 21-5, the Celtics have the second-best record in basketball and are favored to repeat as NBA champions. Pritchard leads the league in bench scoring amid a breakout season after making a splash in the playoffs.

“It’s not something I really think about,” Pritchard said after scoring 27 points and dishing out a season-high 10 assists last Thursday against the Pistons. “If I’m fortunate to win [Sixth Man] that’s, I guess, a testament to the hard work I put in and I think it just means I’ve helped this team in coming off the bench and doing my job at a high level.”

Pritchard has come off the bench in each of the Celtics’ 26 games and has played the most minutes in his career (28.7 per game, the same as the average starter). He’s averaging career highs in shots (11.5) and points (16.5), each better than the numbers for an average NBA starter (10.7, 13.6).

He’s shooting at similar career highs from the floor (48.5 percent), on 3-pointers (43.5 percent), and from the free throw line (84.1).

Pritchard is averaging more minutes than All-Stars Ja Morant (28.6) and Klay Thompson (27.7), and more points than Paul George (15.9). The Celtics have outscored opponents by 112 points with Pritchard on the floor, or 9.3 per 100 possessions.

Pritchard’s role has evolved.

He’s a scorer first, but he’s doing it in different ways. His bread and butter is still the pick-and-roll, but his isolation possessions are up from 0.46 per game last season to 0.8. He’s involved more in off-ball screen action (0.21 to 0.92). His transition opportunities have nearly doubled, from 1.68 per game to 3.0.

Only Jayson Tatum, Derrick White, and Jaylen Brown average more touches per game than Pritchard. Only White and Tatum have passed the ball more, with Pritchard averaging 3.3 assists.

“I just feel like people are playing my 3-ball so heavy, and obviously I shoot it from a deep range, so if they come and close out on me then it allows me to get in the paint. Then I just manipulate the bigs,” Pritchard said. “If they play me, dump it off. If they don’t, I finish it. I try to make the game very simple.”

All those factors have made him arguably the best bench weapon in the league and the most productive offensive bench player the Celtics have had in years.

Like the other NBA postseason awards, Sixth Man of the Year is decided by a contingent of basketball writers and broadcasters. Timberwolves big man Naz Reid won it last season, but historically, the honor has been a guard’s award, with 25 of the 42 winners and 19 of the last 24. Guards Lou Williams (three), Jamal Crawford (three), and Ricky Pierce (two) won it multiple times.

It’s also a scorer’s award — 19 led the league in bench scoring — and a winner’s award. Detlef Schrempf is the only winner to come from a sub-.500 team — his 1991-92 Pacers were 40-42 — and only Dell Curry (1993-94 Hornets) and Williams (2017-18 Clippers) won it after their teams missed the playoffs.

Although, winning too much might be a detriment. Only nine players overall, and two in the last 23 years, won the award while playing for the best team in their conference.

McHale set the bar for Celtics’ sixth men. In 1983-84, he played all 82 games, came off the bench in 72, and averaged 18.4 points. In 1984-85, he played all 82 again, came off the bench 57 times, and averaged 19.8 points.

The Celtics didn’t have another Sixth Man of the Year winner until 2022-23, when Malcolm Brogdon won it as one of their three starter-quality two-way guards, but they had plenty of sixth men who made their mark. From James Posey, Eddie House, and Glen Davis during the 2008 championship run, to Evan Turner and Terry Rozier during the rebuilding years that led to last season’s championship. Even during some of the darker years, the Celtics kept a player tucked away. Ricky Davis finished second in 2004-05 voting.

Pritchard has turned himself into an early-season darling to join that fraternity.

“If I don’t win,it’s not make or break for me,” Pritchard said. “I’m going to continue doing what I’m doing. But yeah, it would be an honor.”