Basketball Free For All

The All Star break is always a good time to start reviewing and analyzing the current season, as we are starting to acquire large enough of a sample size to begin to make decent judgments. With the season over 60 percent complete, the Coach of the Year (COTY) race is starting to take shape, with two coaches in particular rising above the rest of the pack: Atlanta’s Mike Woodson and Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks. However, this season there are a decent number of qualified coaches so we’ll break down the other hopefuls and also examine the COTY’s recent (and in some ways dubious) history to get a full picture of this season’s race.

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Both Coach Woodson and Coach Brooks deserve consideration for COTY honors this season but before we examine this season’s potential candidates and make the case for Woody and Brooks, consider the recent history of Coach of the Year Award recipients. Then decide whether it is actually a blessing or a curse.

Recent (Dubious) History of the COTY Award

For some of the recent recipients, being named the COTY has probably been a curse. Three out of the last four COTY award winners are currently no longer coaching professional basketball (Byron Scott, Sam Mitchell, Avery Johnson) with only Mike Brown still coaching in the NBA — for now, that is.

Mike Brown, 2008-09. Last season’s winner has the most talented player in the world right now, Lebron James, at his disposal (and has coached him for his entire tenure as a head coach in the NBA), a supporting cast of capable defensive role players and a front office willing to spend deep into luxury tax territory. Meaning last season’s Eastern Conference Finals appearance is actually a mild disappointment and does nothing to increase his job security, as he ultimately failed to secure a championship for Cleveland. For Coach Brown, the only way to ensure he keeps his head coaching gig with Cleveland is to win a title this season while maintaining the trust and faith of Cleveland’s franchise player. Anything less and Coach Brown may continue the recent trend of COTY recipients ending up in the unemployment line (a.k.a. the TNT studios). For anyone who watched last season’s Eastern Conference Finals versus the Magic, it would not be surprising at all to see Coach Brown join the three prior recipients of this award in the next couple of years in the soup line.

Bryon Scott, 2007-08. The former Showtime Laker is the most recent COTY to be kicked to the curb shortly after winning the award. After a disappointing start to the 2009-10 season (3-6 to start under Scott) following up a relatively disappointing 2008-09 season (49-33; 4-1 loss to Dallas Mavericks in first round of playoffs), Scott was unceremoniously canned. The Hornets were supposed to be turning into a force in the Western Conference after falling one game short of the Western Conference Finals during the 2007-08 season. New Orleans finally jettisoned Scott when it was clear that he had pretty much lost the Hornets locker room and refused to develop his young talent (see Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison, for example, who have both thrived in his absence). The latest rumors have Byron Scott penciled in as the next head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers (among other rumored destinations) should they or another team decide to make a coaching change of their own this season.

Sam Mitchell, 2006-07. After leading the Raptors to the playoffs for two consecutive seasons and nabbing the COTY award along the way, Coach Mitchell and the Raptors hit a wall of adversity that ultimately cost him his job. The Raptors were dealing with injuries to some of their key players but were simply under-performing relative to expectations heading into the 2008-09 season (some had them pegged to be a serious contender in the Eastern Conference before the season started). They got off to an 8-9 start under Mitchell with the final straw being an absolutely brutal beat-down by the Denver Nuggets, which was one of the worst losses in Raptors history. The other main knocks on Mitchell were his failures to develop and effectively use some of Toronto’s players (Andrea Bargnani, Jason Kapono, Jermaine O’Neal) and poor performance with the basics of coaching (X’s and O’s). This was the culmination of a string of disappointments under Sam’s watch including the impressive feat of alienating his players, the Raptors fan base and the front office at the same time.

Avery Johnson, 2005-06. Coach Johnson brought Dallas to the brink of a title before ultimately crumbling under the pressure (and some questionable officiating) and allowing the Miami Heat to steal the championship. After their heart-breaking loss to the Heat in the 2005-06 postseason, the Mavs played the following season with a chip on their shoulder finishing the regular season with a League-best record of 67-15 under the leadership of regular season MVP Dirk Nowitzki and Coach Johnson. Then they ran into the Golden State Warriors, who simply had their number and bounced them 4-2 in the first round of the playoffs in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the NBA playoffs. Let’s face it; it is truly amazing Avery Johnson made it another season beyond the extraordinarily embarrassing first round loss to the Golden State Warriors. Beyond these black eyes in the playoffs, Coach Johnson was also definitely not a “player’s coach”, who arguably stunted the growth of future All-Star Devin Harris in Dallas forcing them to look elsewhere for an impact point guard. It took a second disappointing first round playoff exit for Avery to finally get the pink slip.

Seeing the recent post-COTY track record of shame is somewhat surprising given the nature of the award. Perhaps the award itself helps create and reinforce unrealistic expectations that play a role in the coach’s firings later on? Regardless, the recent trend of COTY award recipient firings is certainly an interesting one that has bearing on the discussion of those presently being considered for this season’s COTY honors.

Honorable Mentions

And now the runners-up, listed in alphabetical order, with a brief description of what they’ve done to deserve consideration to be named the Coach of the Year for the 2009-10 season.

Rick Adelman. With all their injury troubles, nobody expected Houston’s rowdy group of role players to make any noise this season at all. Instead, most thought they would be lottery-bound without making a trade to acquire some serious star power to compensate for missing Yao Ming and Ron Artest. As of now, the Rockets have rolled with their same crew, shut down the Tracy McGrady experiment and maintained a record of 27-24, making them the ninth place team in the Western Conference just on the cusp of a playoff berth. The fact that the Rockets are even in the playoff discussion is a testament to Coach Adelman’s skills as a coach and should not be overlooked or underestimated.

Larry Brown. This man needs no introduction, as a former COTY award winner (Philadelphia 76ers, 2000-01) and Hall of Fame head coach. But even with those honors and championships at all levels, Coach Brown is continuing to add to his already impressive resume. LB has transformed the Bobcats from a perennial bottom-feeder into a defensive powerhouse (fifth best defense in the League). The Bobcats are currently above .500 with a record of 26-25 that puts them sixth in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. Believe it or not, Coach Brown has put the Bobcats on pace for their first playoff appearance in franchise history.

Lionel Hollins. Expectations heading into the season were generally pretty low for the Memphis Grizzlies despite signing free agent Allen Iverson and trading for Zach Randolph during the offseason. It’s probably safe to say most people envisioned them being among the bottom three teams in the West. Everything changed when AI quit on the team and ended up providing the spark for this team, and they have played solid basketball since he left, including some really brilliant stretches. From December to January, the Grizzlies went 19-9 while picking up high profile wins over the Lakers, Magic, Thunder, Suns (twice), Spurs, Jazz, Blazers, Nuggets, Cavaliers, Heat and Mavericks. Heading into the All-Star break, Memphis stumbled a bit but have still have a record of 26-25 (.510), which is good for 11th in the Western Conference. However, with a strong post-All-Star break push Memphis could still challenge for the eighth and final playoff spot in the West. Lionel Hollins is a dark-horse candidate for COTY if the Grizz finish strong and make the playoffs.

Nate McMillan. No other team has dealt with more adversity this season than the Portland Trailblazers, while taking everything in stride and maintaining their professionalism and optimism. Much of the credit has to go to head coach Nate McMillan. The Blazers have dealt with some locker room discord early-on, off court distractions and a rash of injuries (Greg Oden, Joel Przybilla, Brandon Roy, Nicolas Batum, Rudy Fernandez, Jeff Pendergraph, Patty Mills all have missed significant time this season). The injury woes got so bad that Coach McMillan had to suit up in practice to have enough bodies, which resulted in him promptly rupturing his Achilles tendon. Meanwhile, the Blazers continue to get it done without using the injury excuse, maintaining the eighth best record in the Western Conference with a record of 31-24 and the sixth best offense in the League.

Jerry Sloan. Despite being inducted into the Hall of Fame as a coach last summer, Jerry Sloan has never won a Coach of the Year award and it is a damn shame. Coach Sloan has made the Utah Jazz one of the hottest teams in the League right now, sporting a 14-5 record in 2010. They’ve clawed their way to third place in the Western Conference with a record of 32-19 on the season. It shouldn’t be surprising at this point because Coach Sloan has literally been doing it for decades. In the 21 seasons coaching Utah prior to this season, Sloan’s Jazz have missed the playoffs a grand total of three times. Three times. Not to mention the two NBA Finals appearances, in which they unfortunately ran into the G.O.A.T, Michael Jordan, and his indomitable will, like so many other superstars at the time. Perhaps the single biggest COTY snub amongst active NBA coaches.

A couple of coaches that started strong but fizzled out are Alvin Gentry and Paul Westphal. I guess that makes them the honorable-honorable mentions? Despite the incredible successes of these very deserving candidates, Atlanta’s Mike Woodson and Oklahoma City’s Scott Brooks stand out for the exceptional coaching jobs they’ve done this season (and in years past in Woody’s case).

Let’s examine their cases in-depth and see what makes them more deserving than the five other coaches mentioned above.

The Case for Woody

The case for Coach Woodson really needs to include a longer-term perspective to really understand what a remarkable job he has done with the Hawks over the past five-and-a-half seasons in Atlanta. Before Woodson took the head coaching reins, the Hawks went 28-54 in the 2003-04 season under coach Terry Strotts and missed the playoffs. Before taking over, Coach Woodson learned the ropes of coaching under Coach Larry Brown after playing college ball under the legendary Bob Knight at Indiana University. So he has certainly benefited from learning from some of the best coaches in the games’ history.

When Woody took over, the Hawks were in the middle of a playoff drought that ultimately would span eight seasons. Mike’s Hawks broke the streak in 2007-08 when Atlanta pushed the eventual NBA Champions, the Boston Celtics, to seven games in a memorable first round playoff series. The following season, the Hawks advanced to the second round before eventually being swept by Lebron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. This season, the Hawks are currently third in the Eastern Conference, below only the Cleveland Cavaliers (.792) and the Orlando Magic (.679) with the League’s fourth best offense and an above-average defense. If you believe their postseason play to be a trend, we may see the Hawks in the Eastern Conference Finals this postseason.

Take a look at the following table, which show’s the improvement of Woodson’s Hawks over time.

*Table is sortable. Click on column headers to sort data.

^Estimated win total for the Hawks at the end of the season based upon win-loss percentage through the first 51 games of the season.

If the Hawks end up winning 53 games this season as expected, Mike Woodson will have added a whopping 40 wins to their win total since taking over as head coach. That makes an average of 8 wins added per season, after his first season as head coach. The win-loss percentage difference is striking as well, going from .159 to .647 from his first season to the current season.

Beyond the win totals, Woodson has also done a remarkable job at both creating a great locker room environment and handling the development of his young talent. His relationship with dynamic forward Josh Smith is indicative of what an excellent coaching job Woody has done over the course of half of a decade. Smith’s main knocks have all been related to his personal maturity, not athleticism or skill-set. After playing for Woodson for over five years, Smith has turned the corner maturity-wise and just seems to “get it” (finally). He plays under control, has eliminated inefficient facets of his game and is playing the best basketball of his career, despite the blatant All-Star snub this year. You also never hear about locker room discord in Atlanta and the players have nothing to negative say about Coach Woodson’s as a coach.

The Case for Brooks

Even those who predicted the Thunder would improve this season from last season’s record of 23-59 never could have guessed the huge strides they’ve made so far this season, especially on the defensive end. Of course, you have to acknowledge the role of the surprisingly quick development of budding-superstar Kevin Durant in OKC’s improvement this season. However, that is only part of the story with Scott Brooks and his coaching staff being the other major factor that contributed to the Thunder’s improvement this season.

Contrary to the case for Woody, Brooks’ case for COTY is based entirely on the Thunder’s performance this season. The Thunder currently own the third best defense in the entire Association and an impressive record of 30-21 at the All-Star break, which is good for the fifth best record in the ultra-competitive Western Conference and a playoff berth for the first time since the franchise moved to Oklahoma.

*Table is sortable. Click on column headers to sort data.

^Estimated win total for the Thunder at the end of the season based upon win-loss percentage through the first 51 games of the season.

What a difference a training camp can make. In his first full season as the Thunder’s head coach, Coach Brooks has orchestrated what will be a 25 game jump in the win column if the Thunder continuing winning at their current clip. Think about this incredible feat for a moment — 25 wins added in a single season, without major roster changes (added James Harden, Eric Maynor and Serge Ibaka to the rotation). For a young team, this is probably unprecedented in the history of the Association.

Breaking it down even further, the Thunder have made moderate strides on the offensive end of the floor, moving from the second worst offense in the League to the 21st best offense. These offensive gains are likely the result of the growth and maturity of OKC’s core first and coaching staff second. Brook’s main offensive contribution to the Thunder came last season when he shifted KD from the two to the three, unleashing the full fury of the Durantula on the world.

It’s the defensive gains that illustrate what an outstanding job Brooks has done with the Thunder. Oklahoma City was dead last in defensive efficiency last season and had no where to go but up. To the surprise of everyone, everywhere, Brooks has installed a defensive philosophy and mindset in OKC, transforming the Thunder in the process and making them a legitimately scary match-up in the first round of the playoffs this postseason. This defensive transformation has to be unprecedented. The closest recent defensive leap would probably be the Boston Celtics’ jump from 2006-07 (17th) to 2007-08 (1st), although they did it by adding two future Hall of Famers to their roster. Brooks has done it in OKC through repetition and by instilling simple defensive philosophies and focusing on the fundamentals — simple as that.

Conclusions

This season, there are an nusually high number of deserving candidates for the COTY award and frankly any of the honorable mentions are equally qualified as the two featured candidates. Looking at ESPN’s preseason picks for COTY, nobody picked Coach Woodson to win and only a couple of brave souls selected Coach Brooks for the honors. To be perfectly honest, both of these coaches are extremely deserving of the COTY award, and not in the Byron Scott-Sam Mitchell-Avery Johnson sense. Instead, they deserve the award based upon their incredible job coaching their teams to vastly improved records, whether it be over the course of years (Woodson) or a single season (Brooks).

Depending upon how the post-All-Star break period works out, either coach could conceivably stake claim to the COTY honors. Woodson probably deserves it more at this point, based upon his largely unheralded half-decade of hard work he has put in with the Hawks to mold them into a serious contender this season. However, Brooks is the classic underdog that will most certainly get his due in time but probably needs to “wait his turn” and “pay his dues” before winning true accolades as a professional basketball coach.