He was considered the runaway winner from the middle of the season on, so there was little surprise when it became official on Tuesday.
De’Aaron Fox was voted the NBA’s inaugural winner of the Clutch Player of the Year award, and he ran away with it getting 91 out of 100 first-place votes. Fox led the NBA with 194 clutch points (clutch being the teams within five points in the final five minutes of the game), and he did that shooting 53% and with the highest usage rate in the clutch of any player with more than 100 points in clutch minutes.
7 minutes of the 𝐍𝐁𝐀 𝐂𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐂𝐇 𝐏𝐋𝐀𝐘𝐄𝐑 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐘𝐄𝐀𝐑 doing clutch things 🎥👑 pic.twitter.com/savSBvmGHD
— Sacramento Kings (@SacramentoKings) April 18, 2023
The Heat’s Jimmy Butler finished second in the voting, with the Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan third. Here are the full voting results.
This is the first year of the award, and in future years there will be interesting debates about how to define this award — how much does usage rate/clutch games played matter compared to efficiency in those minutes? It can’t be just about racking up clutch points, other factors — clutch assists, defense — have to figure in as well.
This year, Fox made all that discussion moot. He was clear and away the best clutch player.