ORLANDO, FLORIDA – NOVEMBER 24: Cole Anthony #50 of the Orlando Magic looks on against the Boston … [+]
As of November 29th, fourth-year guard Cole Anthony only has the tenth-highest odds to win the Sixth Man of the Year Award. However, that ranking is vastly underselling what Anthony is doing for this Orlando Magic squad.
As the highest minute-earner of any non-starter, a sixth man’s duty is to keep the team afloat when the best players are on the bench. And Anthony is doing just that. When he’s on the floor, the Magic have an on-court net rating of +4.4, which is in the 71st percentile league-wide (per Cleaning the Glass).
But to cite a plus-minus statistic without providing any additional context would be immature. So, what is it that makes the Magic so good when Anthony is on the court?
Like Jamal Crawford, Lou Williams, and many of the other past Sixth Man of the Year winners, Anthony gets buckets. On the season, Anthony is averaging 22.1 points per 75 possessions (79th percentile). And those points are coming on a versatile (and cleaner) shot diet.
Anthony can score at three levels. From three, he can burn teams with pull-up and spot-up shooting. On the year, he’s 37.5% from three on 4.0 attempts per game. In the midrange, Anthony feasts on soft bunnies from floater territory (75th percentile among point guards from short midrange). And while he isn’t an accurate rim finisher for his position (28th percentile), he makes up for it by getting to the charity stripe at a high rate (88th percentile).
[Sidebar: Anthony has also had a strong year as a passer and playmaker. This season, Anthony is in the 60th percentile in Passer Rating (a metric that estimates passing ability) and the 81st percentile in playmaking (per Thinking Basketball).]
This scoring package comes in both an on and off-ball form. Anthony is averaging a career-high in assisted twos (33.9% of his made two-point field goals) and threes (81.5%). That means that, along with buoying the team when the stars are off the floor, Anthony can also slot in alongside Franz Wagner and Paolo Banchero without the latter two having to secede touches.
Anthony also offers Orlando something they desperately need: spacing. The Magic sport a bounty of athletic and rangy wings and forwards. However, many of those players don’t have strong reputations as shooters. As a team, the Magic are 28th in 3-point makes (10.6), 28th in 3-point attempts (29.9), and 20th in 3-point% (35.4%).
He’s no Stephen Curry. But Anthony is likely one of Orlando’s top three shooters. And when he’s on the floor, the spacing he provides (through his outside shooting) helps clear the paint for Wagner and Banchero (and others) to do their bidding. This is evidenced by the fact that Orlando’s rim accuracy increases by 3.9% when Anthony is on the floor (78th percentile), despite the fact that Anthony himself isn’t a strong finisher.
Many times, when a team bereft of spacing tries to field more shooters, they do so at the cost of their defense (see Matt Ryan on the New Orleans Pelicans). Orlando does not have to bear the burden of this tradeoff with Anthony.
Anthony comes from the Kyle Lowry defensive school of being small in stature but big in heart. He uses his institutional knowledge and accurate hands to pry the ball free from larger opponents (often using Lowry’s signature swipe-down move).
His high motor and great physical tools (which are on display any time he punctuates a lob thrown by a teammate) make him a great point-of-attack defender and screen navigator.
According to BBall Index, Anthony’s 2022-23 screen navigation (they don’t have 2023-24 numbers up yet) put him in the 98th percentile in their Ball Screen Navigation metric (the database dates back to 2013).
Overall, the Magic’s elite defense (one that makes them look like a serious contender to start the season) is still very strong when Anthony is on the floor (defensive rating is in the 72nd percentile).
Right before the start of the season, Anthony inked a 3-year, 39-million-dollar extension to stay with the team through the 2026-27 season. At the time, that decision may have seemed curious given the team’s already crowded young backcourt room. However, given how Anthony has started the season off, that deal now seems like a stroke of genius.
The bottom line is that Anthony’s combination of on and off-ball scoring, playmaking, spacing, and defense makes him one of the best bench guards in the association. And if he keeps up this sort of play, voters better start considering Anthony as a legitimate Sixth Man of the Year candidate.
