Houston Rockets' Carl Landry: Dark Horse For Sixth Man Of The Year

The Sixth Man of the Year Award has always intrigued me. On its surface, it seems like an award given to the player most willing to sacrifice his own personal accolades for the betterment of his team.  

A counter-intuitive notion in a world driven by statistics and personal achievement. It would take a special type of player to embrace and thrive within this role.

In fact, reading through the names of the award's recipients since its inception in 1982, you would think you were perusing  through a list of who's who in class and respectability.  

Bobby Jones, Kevin McHale, Eddie Johnson, Dell Curry, Aaron McKie, Manu Ginobli—all players cut from the finest moral cloth.

There are of course some notable exceptions. Roy Tarpley and John Starks come to mind, but as they say, the whole can't be judged by the sum of its parts.

The great Red Auerbach is often attributed with the creation of the "sixth man," with the way he utilized guard Frank Ramsey. Despite being one of his most talented players, Auerbach felt more comfortable bringing Ramsey in off of the bench to give his second unit an advantage over his competitors.  

Of course, John Havlicek would later be used as the Celtics sixth man for the span of his 16-year career, and is thought by most to have revolutionized the role and paved the way for what it has become.

As it stands today, the sixth man has become pivotal to the makeup of every contending team. He is often more talented and logs more minutes than the player starting in his place. He is usually relied upon to provide a spark and energy for the second unit. And he is often thought of as a top tier player in the NBA.

The Spurs have Manu Ginobli. The Nuggets have J.R. Smith. The Celtics have Rasheed Wallace. The Lakers have Lamar Odom.  

And the Rockets have...Carl Landry?

That's right.

Through two weeks of the season, Landry has been playing some impressive yet unheralded basketball coming off of the bench.

He is fourth on the Rockets in points, third in rebounds, and currently leads the team in blocked shots. He has arguably been the most important contributor for a Houston team off to a surprisingly hot start. 

The Rockets basically rely on three players to come off of the bench for some productive minutes (Kyle Lowry, Chase Budinger, and Carl Landry), and Landry has proven to be the most versatile and consistent of the trio.

If you doubt his importance, look no further than the Rockets most recent game.  

In the 109-100 loss to the Sacramento Kings, Landry struggled mightily, going 1-6 from the field and scoring a season low two points.

In fact, in the Rockets five wins this season, Landry has significantly better numbers across the board (15.4 ppg, 5.6 rpg, 1.6 bpg) than when compared to his performance in their four losses (8 ppg, 4.5 rpg, .5bpg). 

I don't think the correlation between his individual performance and the Rockets' performance as a team is coincidental. When he is good, the Rockets have been very good. When he has struggled, so has his team.

Considering the Rockets lack of depth, and how much they depend on his minutes and production, it would be hard for me to leave Landry out of any conversations regarding early season projections for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year Award.

He has proven to be a difference maker on a good team, and he is quickly emerging as the leader and spark plug of the Rocket's second unit.  

Don't sleep on Carl Landry.