What constitutes a bench player? Obviously, it isn’t someone who started all season, so that quickly eliminates Caleb Wilson, Henri Veesaar, and Seth Trimble. What about guys like Jarin Stevenson and Luka Bogavac? They did start most of the season, but they also came off the bench at varying points as well. Do they count as bench players?
I think the easiest way to decide this is to look at it based on the NBA rule for Sixth Man of the Year. Basically, the only rule for NBA Sixth Man of the Year is that you come off the bench more games than you start (also that you play at least 65 games, but we aren’t about to get into the craziness of that for this exercise). So, based on that, neither Jarin Stevenson (25 starts) nor Luka Bogavac (21 starts) are eligible, as both started more games than they came off the bench. Kyan Evans is also ineligible as he started 17 of the team’s 33 games (51.5%).
So, with all that established, who was North Carolina’s best bench player?
Well, based on the rules, the easy answer is Derek Dixon, who started only 16 of the team’s 33 games (48.5%). Dixon led the team in assists with 90 (which is eight more than second place) and free throw percentage (81.8%, which was nearly seven percentage points higher than second place). He finished second on the team in made threes (50), three-point percentage (39.7%, minimum 10 three-point attempts), and assists per game (2.7, which was tied with Caleb Wilson).
However, if you feel like this was a cop out, then lets give a shout out to Jonathan Powell as well, who started zero games this past season but still finished third on the team in three point percentage (.365), fourth in three pointers made (38), sixth in total steals (16), and seventh in total points (158).
