Immanuel Quickley wasn’t buying the reasoning many voters undoubtedly cited for him to finish second in the balloting for the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award to Celtics guard Malcolm Brogdon.
Quickley started 21 times in 81 appearances this season, averaging 22.6 points per game as a starter, compared to Brogdon making all 67 of his appearances off the bench for Boston.
“There’s been a lot of, there’s been more players that have started a lot more games than me,” Quickley noted before Friday’s Game 3 against the Cavaliers. “So it’s something that I wanted to win, but at the end of the day, it’s not the end of the world. Still got a long career hopefully, God willing, ahead of me.
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“And we got an important game tonight, so just gonna try to lock into that.”
Brogdon received 60 first-place votes among 100 voters to 34 for Quickley.
Lakers forward Lamar Odom started 35 games when he won the Sixth Man award in 2010-11 and Spurs guard Manu Ginobli made 23 starts when he won it in 2007-08.
More recently, Clippers guard Lou Williams made 19 starts in 2017-18.
Just like his snub two years ago for All-Rookie first team and second team, Quickley added that he will use falling short as motivation in the future.
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“No doubt, when I was in my first year in the league, when I didn’t make that first-team rookie, that was something that fueled me,” Quickley said. So you always look for stuff to continue to fuel you and continue to help you get better. So that’ll be one thing that I’ll always remember for the rest of my career.”
Added teammate RJ Barrett: “It’s tough. Obviously Brogdon is deserving. He had a great season. 50-40-90 [in field-goal, 3-point and free-throw percentages], and that’s a really exclusive club. He helped them for sure on the way to all the success they’ve had already. But Quick was a finalist. I think he was very deserving. Quick’s played very well, so to be in that category says a lot about his work and says a lot about him as a player.”
Jericho Sims, who hasn’t appeared in the first two games of the series, has been ruled out for Friday’s game due to a sore right shoulder.