Jazz-Specific Awards, Volume 2: Best Rookie, Most Clutch, Top Sub

Clarkson is the only Jazz 6MOY winner, and was also big in clutch moments for Utah this year. (Francisco Kjolseth, The Salt Lake Tribune)

Yesterday, we started the process of deciding which figures from Jazz history should have their names tied to Utah-specific awards, and which guys from the present deserve the recognition now.

This year, the NBA renamed season awards after former league stars, which led to some fun debates about guys’ respective places in history. It made me wonder what would happen if we gave out Jazz-specific awards to key performers in certain categories each season, and similarly named those trophies after guys who personified the excellence each award celebrates.

We’re doing this a few awards at a time. Today is the second batch of fake awards we’re giving out.

• Yesterday: We named and then gave away Jazz-focused MVP, DPOY and MIP awards
• Today: ROY, Clutch, 6MOY, Postseason MVP
• Tomorrow: Comeback player, COY, EOY

As a reminder, these aren’t meant to be nominations for league-level awards, just a way to recognize the best performances within the team for the 2022-23 season. A few other reminders on the methodology here:

• No one Jazz player/figure can be the namesake for more than one award.
• Generally speaking, we should recognize guys who actually won the award in question. (Although spoiler alert: I’m going to break this rule in a couple of cases.)
• The NBA decided not to name any awards after players who are still active. I did not impose that same rule on this exercise. Rudy Gobert and Lauri Markkanen already had awards named after them in yesterday’s part one, and more will follow.
• With all due respect to the David Robinson Community Assist Award or the Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year, I’m focusing on individual awards for on-court stuff.

Here are four more.

The Donovan Mitchell Jazz Rookie of the Year Trophy

If I were abiding by my own rules, this would have to be the Darrell Griffith trophy, as Dr. Dunkenstein (how cool were nicknames in the ’80s?!) was the only Jazz ROY winner.

But this is one where I thought it would be fun to recognize a more recent — and if we’re honest, a more important — Jazz personality. What Mitchell did as a rookie was a little bonkers: he was the 20.5-ppg centerpiece of a playoff team’s offense. Then he went in the playoffs and somehow got better, averaging 24.4 in a postseason that saw Utah upset a team with a pair of future Hall of Famers.

Golden Griff (yeah, the man had TWO badass nicknames) would be a fine choice, too. He averaged 20.6 as a rookie, in an era before the 3-point shot was a major weapon. (He made just 10 threes all year.) Griff was the second option right away for a team that finished 28-54, and he scored just over a point per shot attempt. Don was slightly more efficient, on a much more relevant team, and at the end of the day he’s one of the best half dozen Jazz players from a historical standpoint. Someone that good just had to be memorialized somewhere on this list of fake trophies.

2022-23 Winner: Walker Kessler

Yeah, we’ll go with Kid Kessler once again.

In addition to the defensive impact stats, his 72% from the field would be the best in the NBA. (He was two makes shy of the 300 field goals needed to qualify for the leaderboard, but the best qualified FG shooter ended the year at 70.5%.) More than anything, it was his impact. Only Markkanen had a better net rating.

The only other real choice here is Ochai Agbaji. (Simone Fontecchio had moments, but man did he struggle late. Johnny Juzang barely played.) Agbaji awoke from early-season timidity to average 13.7 from mid-February on. Kessler was a key contributor all season long. He was just too special, with 20 double-doubles and a real impact on winning, which is rare for rookies.

Personally, I wouldn’t have given him my vote for the actual award over Paolo Banchero given what ROY traditionally celebrates, but I understand why someone would. Simply put, he contributed to winning more than Banchero, Jalen Williams or any other first-year player, and he’s already an elite paint protector. He’s the easy choice for Jazz-specific ROY, though, and that’s what we’re trying to accomplish here.

The Deron Williams Clutch Jazz Player Trophy

John Stockton hit the biggest clutch shot in franchise history. But I’m saving his name for something else.

Here’s a fun fact I found while researching another project: no Jazz player in the post-Stockton-to-Malone era has more tying or go-ahead field goals in the last 2:00 of the fourth quarter or overtime than Mehmet Okur’s 31. Fifteen of those were threes, which is also the most.

Williams is close at 30 such shots. It should also mean something that Williams was his era’s clutch table-setter, as opposed to Okur who was more often the pressure release valve. On the other hand, Okur was beloved specifically for always being ready with these types of shots. And making THAT many super-clutch bombs when the ball wasn’t even his hands most of the time makes what Okur did even more impressive. The gap in macro quality in the historical scheme of things is narrower here than in the Griff-Mitchell case; Okur and Williams were both Jazz All-Stars.

I was really torn on this one. In the end, the argument that clinched this for Williams is exactly what I said above about Mitchell: he’s simply too high in the franchise pecking order to not have something with his name on it.

Ultimately, this was a little like George Mikan getting the league MIP award named after him. He didn’t get that because he embodied “most improved,” but because he was one of the league’s best historical figures and needed to be included in this exercise. Mikan led the league in scoring AND won a title, both as a rookie. How do you improve on that? The answer, of course, is that he wasn’t given trophy naming honors because he was literally the best choice for that specific award; he just needed to be part of the exercise.

Williams needs to be part of this exercise.

2022-23 Winner: Jordan Clarkson

This ultimately came down to Clarkson or (surprisingly) Kelly Olynyk. Clarkson hit seven go-ahead or tying shots in the final two minutes compared to five from Olynyk, but shot just 33%. On the other hand, KO shot 64% on clutch threes to Clarkson’s 36%, but had a slightly worse clutch net rating.

Here’s what broke the tie for me: Clarkson was way more likely to TAKE the shot. He attempted 22.2 field goals per every 36 minutes of clutch play, where Olynyk took just 9.5. Being “clutch” is about more than just making the final shot; it’s at least partially defined by who teams trust enough to put the ball in their hands when the game hangs in the balance. That was Clarkson, the Jazz’s leader in total clutch points (120) and assists (18).

Markkanen obviously did plenty of heavy lifting late in games, too. Kessler is the only player with multiple game-saving blocks in the final five seconds.

But speaking of Clarkson…

The Jordan Clarkson Jazz Sixth Man Trophy

In addition to winning our fake Jazz-focused clutch award, Clarkson is also the only Jazz winner of the real 6MOY trophy. So naming a Jazz bench award after him seems like a no-brainer. The only worthy alternatives are Thurl Bailey and Joe Ingles. The former was a majority bench player for six of his eight full seasons in Utah, and averaged 15.7 points and 5.5 boards in those years. The latter had his own case for the 2021 award that Clarkson won, and was a beloved figure who brought order to Utah’s bench units for years.

Honestly, neither Big T nor Jingles has quite a strong enough case to justify overriding the logical decision of letting Clarkson have it. Plus, Clarkson is the exact type of bench player who embodies what 6MOY is usually about: a guy who changes the dynamic of games the with his aggressiveness and combustible shot-making off the bench. Flame on, as folks around here like to say.

2022-23 Winner: Collin Sexton

Sexton only played 48 games. But the list of guys who played more than him and came off the bench in at least half of their outings doesn’t provide a ton of options. Malik Beasley (42 of 55 games as a reserve) ended the year elsewhere. Fontecchio (46 of 52) and Rudy Gay (all 56) both struggled. Sorry, but no Talen Horton-Tucker (45 of 65), and most of his “what just happened?!” nights came as a starter anyway. Agbaji (37 of 59) is probably the second best candidate, but his role as a reserve was tiny: <15 mpg and <12% usage.

It had to be Sexton. His 14.3 nightly points are in traditional 6MOY territory anyway, plus I don’t think Jazz fans are talking enough about how he completed a year with 51-39-82 shooting splits. Like we just said about what made Clarkson’s disposition ideal for a 6MOY type impact, Sexton would come in and just smash up defenses. More than 61% of his shots were in the paint, and he had an elite foul-drawing rate.

The Jazz still want to work on his decision-making before deciding if he could be a starting PG on some future version of the Jazz, but he was perfect in his role. He got a lot of his Cavs-era swagger back while posting his most efficient season by far.

The John Stockton Postseason Jazz MVP Trophy

The NBA has the Finals MVP and Conference Finals MVP awards, but since the Jazz haven’t made it that deep since 2007, it seems silly to dedicate a spot on the trophy shelf for something they wouldn’t give out most years.

Alternatively, they could honor Stockton by handing out a “playoff MVP” award with his name on it. Did you know Stock, not Karl Malone, is the franchise leader in playoff wins above replacement? Stockton propelled the Jazz in some of the biggest postseason moments ever. 

That said, there’s a perception out there that Malone choked on the biggest stage, and that is blatantly unfair. He was a superb playoff performer. During an 11-year stretch dating from his first series win to the second Finals — 128 total playoff games — the Mailman averaged 27.4 points and 11.5 rebounds. In the Finals years alone, he averaged 27-10-4 and scored nearly a point and a half per shot. People will recall the “Mailman don’t deliver on Sundays” free throws and the MJ strip in 1998 Game 6 forever. But that’s an extremely small sample size against a massive body of impressive postseason work. Malone was a playoff beast.

So the proposal here isn’t to name this one after Stockton as any sort of slight to #32. We already honored Malone on one of these, and we need to have Stockton represented.

Alternatively, give Stockton the Clutch Award (or even MIP) so that his name gets emblazoned on a trophy every year. But I like the idea of Stockton’s legacy being attached to this one.

2022-23 Winner: n/a

Soon, friends. Soon.

That’s seven of 10 awards named and handed out for the 2022-23 season. We’ll do three more tomorrow.