Coach of the Year (part 2)

West

Warriors: I had the Warriors improving this season but they exceeded my expectations by a long shot. With this team (unlike the Hawks) you can see changes from the previous years basically in the play of 3 dudes: Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala.  Kerr used Barnes correctly, was able to convince Iguodala (and Lee) to take a lesser role, and oversaw the emergence of Green (personally, I think Green would've still been a badass under Mark Jackson, Kerr was lucky enough to be there when he blossomed).  Add in a typical maturation year from Thompson and a healthy year from Bogut, then Curry is allowed to just do what he does best: he's better at expanding a lead than hitting the last shot to win it (he's a piler-onner more than a rescuer).  Kerr streamlined the offense, tightened the defense, got the most out of his parts.  He'd be my choice for Coach of the Year.

Rockets: At the beginning of the year, Coach McHale was one of the popular choices for an early firing.  Nope.  2nd best record in the West, suck on that!  The James Harden show worked better than I thought it would, exceeded everyone's expectations (we'll see how far he can carry that in the playoffs).  How much credit does McHale deserve?  Well, he didn't screw it up.  He didn't get in the way but there's nothing I can really point to and say that's the McHale effect.  I don't know where to put McHale, top 20 I guess.

Clippers: I thought the Clippers would roll this year, not so much but they had a really good season, so can't complain.  The Clippers, though, have post-season expectation so for the regular season his coaching doesn't seem that integral.  That top 6 (CP3, Reddick, Barnes, Deandre, Blake and Jamal off the bench) is pretty great.  Man, after that though, oooooohhhh, doesn't look good.  You'd think the coach wold make the most out of that, right?  Then why does it look like Austin Rivers is gonna get the 7th most minutes played this post-season?  That top 6 can beat the Spurs, the next 4 will lose to the Spurs.  As the Spurs get into the bullpen, they'll score plenty.  (Weird: This series will go 7 games but I can see the first 6 games being blowouts, home team will crush for the first 6 games)  So how's the coach?  Doc the Coach is cursed by Doc the GM, the guy who still has Turkoglu, Big Baby and Austin (can we call him 'Little Baby'?) on the roster.  I dunno, finishing 3rd in the West doesn't seem like the correct place to judge his season.  Doc is in my top 20, maybe top 10.

Blazers: I expected the Blazers to falter this year as their starters logged more and more minutes (or got hurt).  I don't know much about Coach Stotts, I thought if the Blazers dipped in the table (out of the playoffs I thought), then Stotts could be sent packing.  Stotts seems like an integral part of the vibe but really this team goes as far as Lillard and Aldridge can carry them, not sure it matters who the coach is.  And since the coach's strategy is to continually use and abuse his starters, I figured maybe the Blazers would be better without him.  But they overachieved this year, easily made the playoffs even without Matthews.  Still, though, I don't know what to make of Stotts because I don't get the Blazers at all.

Grizzlies: As much as any team I can think of recently, it feels like the Grizz thrive on the relationships of the players more than the scheme on the court or even the roster construction.  When Gasol-Conley-Zebo-Allen are groovin' they can hang with anyone in the league; if any one of those guys is off, the Grizzly bench doesn't step up as much as need be.  I think the Grizzlies can win at home in the playoffs but I don't like them on the road.  The coach is the guy that needs to make the most of the non-core players.  Not sure Coach Joerger is that guy.  Joerger is probably top 20 but not top 10.

Spurs: I love Coach Popovich almost as much as I love basketball itself.  (John Lennon thought rock and roll could be called Chuck Berry, I think basketball can be called Coach Pop)  I thought the Spurs would hum through the regular season, cruise through the West, crush whoever in the Finals; the Spurs actually kinda sucked for the first 2 months, didn't really get right til the All-Star break, closed strong...but then curiously dropped the last game in New Orleans (one of the clearest conspiracy theory talking points of the entire season), fell from 2nd down to 6th.  The masterstroke move at the end of the year backfired and left them playing the Clippers, who can beat them.  So did Coach Pop have a good season?  If they beat the Pelicans, Pop gets serious Coach of the Year consideration; if they lose, how can you give Coach of the Year to the defending champion that finished 6th while enduring no great hardship?  Well he's still in my top 5.

Mavs: I thought the Mavs would improve this season up into the top 4 in the West; they seemed well on their way to doing that til they panic-moved for Rondo and shot their offense in the foot.  They still had enough talent, veteran grit and (yep) coaching smarts to secure a playoff spot in the West (against the potentially beatable Rockets).  Though he openly fought with his high profile contract year PG, I think Coach Carlisle did pretty well to keep the wheels from falling off.  The GM did him no favors this year and that has to factor in.  Carlisle definitely in my top 10.

Pelicans: The thought pre-season was suspicion that Monte Williams wasn't good enough to coach Anthony Davis and he'd probably be pushed aside for a more high profile candidate (Calipari, Thibodeau, Karl, Donovan, D'antoni, Mike Brown, Larry Brown is always just a phone call away (couldn't Ben Howland coach in the NBA?)) and that only making the playoffs could save his job...which is (theoretically) what happened.  I was of a different view: I thought Williams had a rapport with AD that would save his job, since the problem is the horrible roster construction rather than x's and o's.  I'm not sure any of the above is true.  I guess Williams stays, I don't think he's horrible but I don't think he's great either, and either way the horrible roster construction is what is bad about the team and Anthony Davis is all that is good...not really much for the coach to do.  Why fire the guy your star likes when the situation isn't really ready for a high profile coach anyway?  Williams is a middle of the pack coach (that's probably better than most people would rank him) and I reckon he's here to stay.

Thunder: I thought OKC would fall back this year and I predicted two scenarios: either Brooks is blamed for everything and run out of town or the GM values stability and doubles down on the coach that KD and Westbrook have tolerated for the last few years.  I am still convinced one of those things will happen, but I have no idea which one and I've never had any grasp on which will prevail.  If OKC thinks they can get a coach that Westbrook and KD will like better, I reckon Brooks is out; if they think another coach would just muck up the chemistry, then I reckon Brooks gets an extension.  I dunno.  Did Brooks have a good year?  Well I thought they made some great moves at the deadline but only Kanter really seemed to matter (and some are dubious of his positive impact), shouldn't the coach have made more of a difference?  Brooks is much maligned but I reckon he does just fine.  I'd make him top 20 just based on experience.

Suns: I drank the Suns kool-aid last year, thought the Suns would make the 3 PG thing work and cruise into the playoffs.  Nope.  None of that.  Not a terrible year but the unexpected improvement of the year before suggested a steeper upward curve than this past year bore out.  This season saw a lot more roster maneuvering than I would've thought (Dragic, Thomas, Plumlee, Ennis Tolliver got jettisoned), so all in all they've got the future laid out: maybe the Bledsoe-Knight combo can get it done, maybe not.  I guess I still gotta say Coach Hornacek had a decent year, top 20 easily.

Jazz: Coach Snyder did well.  The Jazz are one of those terminally young teams who are built on draft picks because no big NBA star wants to live in Salt Lake City.  The Stockton-Malone days are gone, they are now destined to be a feeder team that always has a nice young nucleus of players....that will all play better for other teams (the Donald Sterling Clippers, the Pittsburgh Pirates for two solid decades).  Their only chance is to draft well and shepherd them into solid NBA careers.  Kanter was the odd man out all along, once they finally got rid of him Gobert had room to grow.  Hayward, Favors had nice years, Exum had a good rookie campaign, they got good minutes from Ingles, Evans, Hood and Booker.  A lot of young talent without the veteran smarts to win big in the NBA but they can be competitive with good coaching.  I'd say that's where they are.  Snyder had a top 10 year.

Nuggets: At the start of the year Brian Shaw was a popular choice for getting fired during the year.  The Nuggets were not very good, weird injury problems, weird morale, Shaw got the axe.  His interim replacement (?) is well-respected and may well keep the job.  But the Nuggets are the Nuggets, man, they usually have good talent, sometimes they overachieve, sometimes they underachieve.  This year I can't say either of their coaches get too much from me.

Kings: Coach Malone got off to a great start this year...then Boogie get sick and Malone got fired.  Not sure why, never really sure about anything that happens in Sacramento (the NBA equivalent of Twin Peaks).  They went with (some guy) as an interim for a while, lost because the Kings were gonna lose anyway, then gave George Karl a dump truck full of money.  Karl had a seemingly good effect on McLemore, Gay and Stauskus but apparently not so much on Boogie.  Buzz is they'll be shopping Boogie in the off-season.  So how was Karl?  Well Malone actually won a few games with Boogie, Karl might get him shipped out of town.  Karl might be the right coach for the Kings next year but he didn't do much for them this year.

Lakers: Coach Scott's job is to stand there and remind everybody how good the Lakers usually are.  The roster will change quite a bit next year, maybe he'll have something to work with.  Maybe when the Lakers finally turn around Coach Scott will still be there to get some glory...maybe not.  He's collecting a paycheck.  Not in my top 20.


Wolves: Coach Flip is just there in case GM Flip turns out to be a genius.  Wiggins, LaVine and Payne are good looking rookies, Dieng and Muhammad are still young, I don't hate the Peckovic and Rubio contracts but they need to get veteran presence if they're paying top dollar for it.  They've got a lot of nice players, they'll be adding one more this year, (don't you think Kevin Martin would look good in Mavs uniform?), is Coach Flip a developer of talent?  We'll see.  How was his coaching performances?  I dunno.  Top 20 I guess, he kept his youth playing hard all year, that's good stuff.