NBA: The Importance of the Seventh Man: An Essential But Underrated Role

Everyone is familiar with the concept of the sixth man. The guy who isn't quite good enough to start but is the best of the rest. The game changer.

Sixth men in the NBA tend to be one-trick ponies, usually scorers. The sixth man from last season, Jason 'Jet' Terry embodies this role. His job last season was to provide a scoring punch from the bench.  To be the 'instant offense' guy.

As well as an important role, it is also 'fashionable'. The gunslinger who rolls into town and lets the bullets fly without worrying too much about the law. (In this case, substitute 'law' with 'defense' to a degree) The role is also overrated.

Whilst the title of sixth man is almost meaningless, (is it the first guy off the bench, the best bench player, the biggest name, etc.) almost everyone can name their teams sixth man. Rasheed Wallace, Z, Jason Terry, Kirk Hinrich, and Ben Gordon are all names associated with the role.

Let me throw some more names at you; Marquis Daniels, Anthony Parker, Drew Gooden, Brad Miller and Kwame Brown. You see the difference?

The second list of names are often seen as 'merely' role players, taking the back seat to the designated sixth man. Why? Well it's all about image.

The first list, the sixth men, contains 'bigger' names and better scorers. They are no more important to the team than the others. Consider removing the seventh man from the roster and the strength of the second unit, and therefore, the team suffers significantly.

In view of this, I propose a change. Scrap the sixth man award. Sometimes it is appropriate, but mostly it's just a reflection of the strength of a teams bench. Why not then replace the award with a 'Bench of the Year' award?

It will be more representative than the role of the mythical sixth man and reflect a teams good work over that of an individual. I'm aware that in this age of individualism that may seem odd. That doesn't make it wrong, though.

The bench of a team is often called the 'second unit' and it's called that for a reason. Whilst the concept of 'team' is important to the starting five, it can be argued that it is even more so to the reserves.

As the bench often doesn't include a dominant player, the concept of team is given a more prominent role. If this is the case, then why continue to ignore the seventh man? Or even the eighth or ninth, for that matter.

Any team that ignores the role of the seventh man usually struggles and has to rethink.  It is about time the league followed suit.