The NBA’s Coach of the Year award is one that has seen legendary head coaches win the honor and it also has seen coaches who may now be considered jokes in the NBA community take home the trophy.
Last year, Mike Budenholzer won the award as he led the Atlanta Hawks to a franchise record 60 wins and an NBA record perfect month of 19-0 in January of 2015.
Budenholzer beat Steve Kerr for the award despite the Warriors having the NBA’s best record. The Warriors would go on to win the NBA championship and I’m sure Kerr is fine with the NBA title over the Coach of the Year award.
The last time a coach won the Coach of the Year award while winning under 50 games was Sam Mitchell with the Toronto Raptors in 2007 and Doc Rivers won the award in 2000 after leading the Magic to a 41-41 record, the lowest win total since Hubie Brown won it in 1978 with the same win total. There are some guys who could get nominated with similar records like Frank Vogel, Stan Van Gundy, Brad Stevens, Scott Skiles, Rick Carlisle, Quin Snyder and Terry Stotts but it is unlikely but those coaches should get some end of the season love.
Tom Thibodeau, Mike Brown, Scott Brooks, Hubie Brown, Avery Johnson and Mike D’Antoni are all former winners but none of them have current head coaching jobs in the NBA but Byron Scott does, a fellow former coach of the year.
This year, the coaches in the running for the Coach of the Year award have all achieved greatness so far this season but the winner, in my opinion, is quite possibly the best coach of all-time.
Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt was in the running last year for the Coach of the Year award in his first year as the Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Any team with LeBron James on it, might need to push close to 65 wins in order to have their coach win Coach of the Year. Mike Brown won it in 2009 with the Cavs after Cleveland won 66 games that season. Blatt might be out considering the expectations coming into this season for Cleveland were already high, so him winning it, unless the Cavs go on a historic run, would be a surprise.
Steve Kerr almost won the award last year so looking on the surface, with the Warriors off to a historic start to their season, he has to be the favorite, right? Well, halfway through the season the Warriors have been coached by Luke Walton because of Kerr’s back issues and Kerr has yet to grace the sidelines for the Dubs. While the award would go to Kerr, you have to believe that there would be some voters who wouldn’t be alright with Walton not getting the award despite coaching over half the season.
Midway through the season, the Toronto Raptors are sitting pretty in second place in the Eastern Conference and the performance might not only save the job of Dwane Casey but it may also catapult him into one of the favorites for the award. The 2016 NBA All-Star Game takes place in Toronto this year and it may also see two members of the Toronto Raptors on the team as Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan are both playing out of their minds this season. The Raptors started slow, they had an injury to their big man Jonas Valanciunas and they currently don’t have their top free agent signing in DeMarre Carroll yet Toronto is sitting only three games behind Cleveland on top of the East. If the Raptors somehow leapfrog Cleveland for the top spot in the East, expect Casey to be a heavy favorite to win the award.
The man who should win the award but most likely doesn’t want it, is Gregg Popovich. Coach Pop has led the San Antonio Spurs to another fantastic season yet not many recognize it. Pop has the Spurs with the NBA’s best defense and they’re on pace to have the best defense in NBA history. Their point differential is +14.2 with the Warriors behind them at +11.7. Pop has won the Coach of the Month award already and he’s leading a team that is already 24-0 at home, one of five teams to start the season with that unblemished record. Plus, he’s Gregg Popovich, one of the best minds to ever coach in the NBA and adding another coach of the year award to his mantle would cement him as the only coach to win the award four times.
The Spurs and Warriors will battle it out for the top spot in the NBA’s Western Conference but don’t get confused, the best coach in the NBA right now is Gregg Popovich and he should run away with this award. Plus, he just loves his players.
LMAO. Gregg Popovich is a fool!
Showing Tony Parker some love.
#spurs
https://t.co/zPric3vEvy
— NBA On Def Pen (@NBAOnDefPen) January 15, 2016
