{"id":703121,"date":"2026-04-07T11:03:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703121\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T11:03:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T11:03:17","slug":"daniss-jenkins-has-perfect-argument-for-unlikely-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/703121\/","title":{"rendered":"Daniss Jenkins has perfect argument for unlikely award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daniss Jenkins has been one of the best stories in the NBA this season for the Detroit Pistons and it may earn him 6th\u00a0Man of the Year votes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He got some love from Bill Simmons and Zach Lowe on a recent podcast when both hosts gave him an award <\/a>they made up called the \u201c1986 Bill Walton Biggest Impact in 20 minutes or less\u201d award, but both agreed he\u00a0should get consideration for the actual 6th\u00a0Man of the Year award as well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins fits the mold of a true 6th\u00a0man better than some of the other candidates, and even though his numbers\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0immediately\u00a0jump out, he has one argument that sets him apart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Daniss Jenkins kept the Detroit Pistons alive\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Cade Cunningham went out, the pundits\u00a0immediately\u00a0dismissed the Pistons<\/a> as a\u00a0threat,\u00a0and they instantly became the trendy choice for a first-round upset.\u00a0<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve\u00a0had to listen to people who have clearly not watched the Pistons much\u00a0tell\u00a0me how Cunningham was\u00a0basically carrying\u00a0a bunch of try-hard role players who would fall apart without him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That message was ignored by Cade\u2019s teammates<\/a>, who\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0lose an inch with him out, largely because of the play of Jenkins, Jalen\u00a0Duren\u00a0and Ausar Thompson, who has been the best defender on the planet for the last two months.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins is only averaging 9.5 points and 3.8\u00a0assists on\u00a0the season, but his impact is more accurately defined by what\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0done as a starter. Simmons laid out his definition of a true 6th\u00a0Man, which is a bench player\u00a0who can start and carry your team for a few\u00a0weeks if necessary, which is exactly what Jenkins has done.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins has averaged 17.2 points, 7.4 assists and\u00a03.6 rebounds per game in 19 starts this season, and more importantly, the Pistons are 14-5 with him as the starting point guard.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins has provided scoring, has set up teammates and has played better-than-advertised defense in that stretch, doing his best Cade Cunningham impersonation and helping to keep the Pistons afloat in his absence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jenkins has gone from a two-way afterthought who only got a shot because of injuries, to a guy who the Pistons will have to protect or risk losing in the upcoming expansion draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0funny to me that the Pistons, who have been in first place in the Eastern Conference for all but nine games this season and have never relinquished that spot once they got it,\u00a0aren\u2019t\u00a0getting much love for individual awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

JB Bickerstaff is being overlooked, as is Ausar Thompson and Cade Cunningham is already ineligible, so this could be the best team ever to not win any individual awards.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The thing\u00a0is,\u00a0that\u00a0won\u2019t\u00a0bother the Pistons at all, as we know\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0Detroit vs. Everybody and that\u00a0hasn\u2019t\u00a0changed, but it would be nice to see some of their individual players get rewarded for one of the best regular seasons in team history.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Daniss Jenkins has been one of the best stories in the NBA this season for the Detroit Pistons…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-703121","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116363093926641261","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}