Tyler Herro wins NBA Sixth Man of the Year

On3 image — Photo by Michael Reaves | Getty Images

Former Kentucky star Tyler Herro has been named the 2021-22 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year, the league announced Tuesday.

The Miami Heat guard received 488 total points (96 first-place votes) from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters to win the prestigious award. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Kevin Love finished in second place with 214 points (three first-place votes), followed by Phoenix Suns forward Cam Johnson in third place with 128 points (one first-place vote).

6ix man pic.twitter.com/3k55gXMkpC
— Tyler Herro (@raf_tyler) May 3, 2022

To be eligible for the award, a player must come off the bench in more games than he started.

In his third NBA season, Herro averaged 20.7 points, 5.0 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game in 66 total games (10 starts). He became just the fifth player to average at least 20.0 points off the bench (minimum 50 games as a reserve) since starts began being tracked in the 1970-71 season, joining Thurl Bailey (1987-88), Eddie Johnson (1988-89), Ricky Pierce (1989-90, 1990-91) and Lou Williams (2017-18, 2018-19). His eight 30-point games of the bench were tied for the third-most since the 1970-71 season and his 20 25-point games were tied for the fourth-most.

Herro set a single-season franchise record with 1,162 points off the bench, leading the Heat to a 53-29 record and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2022 NBA Playoffs.

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The former Wildcat was selected No. 13 overall in the 2019 NBA Draft and has averaged 16.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 175 games over three seasons with the Heat.

The voting results for the 2021-22 Kia NBA Sixth Man of the Year Award can be found below:

During his lone season at Kentucky, Herro was voted SEC Newcomer of the Year and earned All-SEC Second Team and All-Freshman Team honors after averaging 14.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game. He was first on the team with 60 3-pointers, second on the team in scoring (519 points), second in assists (91), second in steals (40) and fourth in rebounds (166).

Now, he’s an NBA Sixth Man of the Year.