Atlanta Hawks Team Awards at the All-Star Break

Sixth Man of the Year: Malcolm Delaney

While this award went to perennial bench sharpshooter Marco Belinelli in our first iteration of this story at the quarter-season mark, Belinelli was recently bought out by the Hawks and is now a Philadelphia 76er. Happy trails Marco!

In his place, John Collins and Dewayne Dedmon have certainly been tremendous players off the bench – but both were already represented on this list (and Dedmon looks as if he will be the full-time starter going forward for Atlanta).

Instead, let’s recognize the play of second-year guard Malcolm Delaney, who has had a quiet, unassuming season off the bench – but his numbers bear out a solid statistical impact when he’s on the floor, which has mostly been as Dennis Schröder’s primary backup at point guard.

Though he lost that role early in the season after the surprising rise of Isaiah Taylor, Delaney has been a consistent contributor for Atlanta this season, and he certainly seems to be an important emotional and locker room leader.

Malcolm is scoring a solid 6.2 points per game in 19.1 minutes per game off the bench, but where Delaney truly shines is with his passing.

Delaney’s pass-first skill set puts the rest of the team on their toes, as they know they must be ready to shoot or make another pass whenever Delaney is on the floor, and Delaney is third on the team in assists per game (3.0), total assists (155) and 4^th in assist rate (23.2%).

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When coupled with a 17 percent usage rate, which is 4^th-lowest on the team, and you have the makings of an excellent pass-first option off the bench for the Hawks – the perfect reason to give him the mantle of Hawks Sixth Man of the Year at the All-Star break.