{"id":22422,"date":"2026-10-17T09:58:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bb-auae-prd-ext-blog-01.azurewebsites.net\/?p=22422"},"modified":"2026-10-17T09:59:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T23:59:57","slug":"nba-most-improved-player-2026-27-best-bets-and-value-picks-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/nba\/nba-most-improved-player-2026-27-best-bets-and-value-picks-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Sixth Man of the Year 2026-27: Best Bets and Value Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The Sixth Man Award has generally gone to the best bench point production from a team with one of the best records that season, and there’s a $7 chance that is incredible value this season.<\/p>\n

Best Bet<\/h2>\n

Payton Pritchard @ $7<\/h3>\n

Can a $7 pick be a lock? I won’t go that far, but I’m completely shocked to see Payton Pritchard the third line of betting, and personally would have the Celtic priced up around $3.50.<\/p>\n

Boston has lost Jaylen Brown, and although Paul George fills that role he’s not going to be replacing 25 points a game. Joe Mazzulla is keen to run Pritchard off the bench, and appears to be starting Scheierman at the two.<\/p>\n

Pritchard averaged 17 a game last season, and actually had a better scoring output coming off the bench, but started 50 games last season. He won’t be starting this year, and in this system could average close to 20 a game.<\/p>\n

Bet on Payton Pritchard for Sixth Man with betr<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Next Best<\/h2>\n

Reed Sheppard @ $31<\/h3>\n

I think the Rockets will be right up there this season, and I expect Sheppard to move back to the bench full-time with VanVleet returning.<\/p>\n

The sharpshooter averaged 13.5 points per game last season, and will still play an integral role in this Houston lineup which lacks genuine range from deep.<\/p>\n

If the Rockets have a top-four record in the NBA this season and Sheppard is averaging 16+ points per game, he will be a finalist for this award.<\/p>\n

Bet on Reed Sheppard for Sixth Man with betr<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Value Bet<\/h2>\n

Jared McCain @ $41<\/h3>\n

Ajay Mitchell is the favourite for this award, but I can’t ignore what Jared McCain is capable of in a similar role to Mitchell.<\/p>\n

McCain lifted in the post-season for the Thunder after taking a while to find his feet following a season-long injury in his rookie year, and in his last 11 games averaged 12.5 points in just 21 minutes per game during that playoff stretch.<\/p>\n

If the Thunder combo guard can produce those numbers in a playoff environment, he’s capable of doing even more in a sixth or seventh man role for OKC this regular season. Remember, Keldon Johnson won this award last season averaging just 13.2 points per game for the Spurs.<\/p>\n

Bet on Jared McCain for Sixth Man with betr<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sixth Man Award has generally gone to the best bench point production from a team with one of the best records that season, and there’s a $7 chance that is incredible value this season. Best Bet Payton Pritchard @ $7 Can a $7 pick be a lock? I won’t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":21696,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22422"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22422\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22425,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22422\/revisions\/22425"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}