If Jaime Jaquez Jr. falls one vote short in the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year race, Bill Simmons is going to emerge as enemy No. 1 for Miami Heat fans.
That's because he just admitted that he switched his vote from Jaquez Jr. (to Keldon Johnson) after the Heat lost in their Play-In Tournament games against the Charlotte Hornets. Not only is it quite unfortunate (especially for Jaquez Jr.'s pursuit of the award), but it's also a dumb and unethical way for Jaquez Jr. to lose a vote.
For one, to change your vote based on a single-game outcome is quite unfair. It’s even more egregious that Simmons based his final decision for a regular-season award on a postseason performance.
Jaime Jaquez Jr. is a finalist for the NBA's 6MOY award
Jaquez Jr. was named as one of the three finalists for the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award over the weekend. Along with Jaquez Jr., Tim Hardaway Jr., and Keldon Johnson were named as the other two finalists.
The award winners are expected to be announced later this week. However, it does seem as if the award is going to come down to Jaquez Jr. and Johnson (with the latter being the favorite). But if it does come down to one vote, this move from Simmons is likely only going to get more scrutinized
Again, the real unfairness is that the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award is based on the regular season. Even though it may be hard to distinguish between the two, especially since the ballots weren't submitted until after the start of the Play-In Tournament, this is something that Simmons has to have the integrity to do on his own.
Bill Simmons may win the technical argument on his vote
I suppose there's an argument to be made that the Play-In Tournament isn't the postseason. But it also isn't the regular season.
It's stuck between the two in a way. And maybe that's more the NBA's fault than it is Simmons'. Nevertheless, this would be an extremely dumb way for Jaquez Jr. to lose out on the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year award.
Again, there's no guarantee that it will, but it will at least open the door to that possibility until it's decided one way or another. At the very least, it's one thing to watch until the award winners are announced.
No matter how the NBA's Sixth Man of the Year final vote goes, there's not much that can take away from this season for Jaquez Jr. He had a breakout year and set the foundation for what is to come. Still, there's no question that winning this award could put a nice punctuation on this year for Jaquez Jr.