Coach of the Year

Mike Budenholzer (Hawks) is your 2014-15 NBA (fill in sponsor) Coach of the Year.  Kerr (Warriors) was 2nd, followed by Jason Kidd (Bucks) and Brad Stevens (Celtics).  Budenholzer and Kerr were the clear top 2 choices, both teams vastly exceeded last year with minimal roster moves.  Perhaps its foolhardy to assume the coach gets all the credit...but that's how we do it.  Let's look over each team and how they were coached this year.

EAST
Hawks: The only real difference btw this year's squad and last year's squad is the return of Al Horford (a great season btw) and the exiles of Lou Williams (to Toronto), Adriean Payne (to Minnesota) and GM Danny Ferry (to wherever it is Danny Ferry hangs out).  The same team from last year grew together and got career years out of everybody.  Coach Bud deserve all the credit?  Yeah, sure, I guess.  Its a good roster all on the same page.  I love that with this Hawks team everyone shoots 3's, everyone!  That'll keep any defense off balance.  Budenholzer is a good coach, had a good year.

Cavs: Can Lebron win Coach of the Year?  He's the coach, right?  David Blatt flew in from a different world and before he could even hang up posters, his team was taken over by a ghost returned from Miami.  Hard to tell what Blatt's influence is.  My gut feeling is if Love stays, Blatt goes and vice versa.  Blatt doesn't get any of the credit if/when they win, we'll see how much of the blame comes to him if/when they lose.  Can't really tell if Blatt is a good coach or had a productive year.

Bulls: For years Coach Thibs has kept plucky youngsters overacheiving by being a rugged taskmaster and stressing team defense above all.  That style works for a while and then wears people out.  The buzz all year long (really going back a coupla years now) is that the franchise has wearied of Thibs and that he's probably on his way out (New Orleans?  OKC?  Would he be up for being an assistant in Cleveland to Coach Calipari?  Orlando might be the best spot for him).  All year long I've wondered why the Bulls weren't better: they got a great maturation year out of Butler, added an excellent year from Pau, got a strong rookie campaign from Mirotic, fir Dunleavy and Brooks back to their proper rotation spots, D Rose had a solid return season and while Taj Gibson kinda floundered, Doug McDermott never got in the game and D Rose was out of action for long chunks of the season, seems to me the Bulls should have improved more than they did.  Oh well, this team is solid enough that they cruised to 3rd place in the East without much effort, they were looking ahead to the playoffs anyway.  Coach Thibs didn't seem to have much impact on this team: a new and different squad somehow managed to play just like last year...that doesn't seem right at all...I'd say Thibodeau was playing for the playoffs all year long, if the Bulls come out of the East, then he will have shown himself to be Coach of the Year.  But for the regular season alone, Thibs isn't even in the conversation, I'd say.

Raptors: The Hawks brought back the same squad as last year and dominated the East.  The Raptors brought back the same squad and dominated the East...for a month or so.  Somewhere around Xmas time, the bloom came off the rose and even though they were all still having good years, the Raptors were not the steady regular season juggernaut team that the Hawks became.  So were the saving it for the playoffs?  Do the Raptors have another gear to get to?  Ehhh, I'm dubious.  I thought the Raptors would overacheive and as a result I thought Dwayne Casey would be a popular pick for Coach of the Year by this time.  4th place is nice but its not a sign of a great season.  Casey not in my top ten for Coach of the Year.

Wizards: Like the Raptors, I thought the Wizards would be a good regular season team that could be really dangerous come playoff time; and in that scenario, Randy Whittman would emerge a great candidate for Coach of the Year.  But the Wizards have mostly floundered along and the team itself seems raggedy and unbrotherly; whereas last year the Wizards were playing their best basketball going into the playoffs (where they easily smacked down the overacheiving Bulls), this year they seem spent and they haven't even started.  There could be a locker room cancer at work lowering the morale, but no one seems to fit that role.  Only conclusion: the coach is weak, nobody likes him, he doesn't know what he's doing, he's unable to provide cohesion for his squad.  Maybe details will emerge but until then the disappointing look and feel of this team falls squarely on the coach.  Whittman is not in my top 20.

Bucks: At the beginning of the year, Jason Kidd was one of the many question marks about the Bucks.  The Bucks were awful last year but not really that bad, that roster was more ready to compete than a #1 pick kinda team usually is, so I'm not surprised they were much better this year.  But the emergence of Antetokounpo, Middleton and Dudley, getting the most out of Knight, easing MCW into the framework, letting go of Larry Sanders, getting over the loss of Jabari, all examples of what a tumultuous year this was for the Bucks.  There was a lot going on there and they responded with their best finish in ages.  This is an obvious one: if Kidd was a bad coach, this year would've been a mess thus he must be a good coach because most things worked out pretty good.  Kidd is a top 5 choice for Coach of the Year.

Celtics: I thought the Celtics would be a dumpster fire this year.  Rondo and Green loomed over the team, neither promising a happy finish.  The team seemed primed for a tank job.  But Stevens is a hell of a coach, man.  He keeps them falling out of games, he keeps the team competitive.  Purging Rondo and Green was a boon for the team and giving Coach Stevens players like Isiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Marcus Smart leads to hustle and productivity.  I like Stevens, he's the real star of the team, Stevens is the guy that'll lure free agents for the next few years.  The fact that a coach can will a bad team to be a pretty good (or at least 'promising') team is impressive.  Stevens is a top 5 choice for Coach of the Year.

Nets: The Nets have made the playoffs 3 straight years with 3 different coaches...yet we all know that the Nets suck, have for years, and will for years.  Shouldn't we think that Hollins did a good job of taking a low morale, low efficiency team and getting them into the playoffs.  Isn't that a Disney narrative there for us to latch on to?  Why aren't we latching on?  (Shouldn't we retroactively give Jason Kidd consideration for last year's Coach of the Year award?)  Sitting on my couch, looking over the box scores, that feels like a squad of guys getting paychecks instead playing basketball.  Hollins seems like one of those guys too.

Pacers: At the start of the year to me there were two ways the Pacers could go: flame out horribly and play for ping pong balls or they can buckle down, play with veteran intensity and figure out how to win games.  I figured they were more likely to go the former route rather than the latter because even buckling down and playing smart didn't look like it would generate enough offense to win games.  They struggled to score last year with Paul George and Lance Stephenson, I just assumed that without them there was not enough defense to counter that lack of offense.  But the Pacers really did compete night and night, held together, bunker-style, got a wildly underappreciated season out of Rodney Stuckey (my #2 choice for 6th Man of the Year), and held their identity right down to the final day of the season.  Hey, man, I'm impressed.  I credit Larry Bird for not panicking and Frank Vogel for keeping the guys playing professional basketball.  If they'd made the playoffs, Vogel would be in my top 5, but he's easily top 10.

Heat: The world waited breathlessly to see how Coach Spo would adjust to being Lebron-less.  They lost McRoberts early on, lost Bosh later on, Wade played his usual in and out of the lineup maneuver, and though they didn't really exploit Goran Dragin, they can herald the emergence of Hassan Whiteside and a promising rookie season from Shabazz Napier. Next year the Heat look like they should be pretty good (starting five: Dragic, Wade, McRoberts, Bosh, Whiteside), we'll get a better look at Coach Spo then.  This year Spoelstra did well to hold it together.  (I bet next year he'll get more votes for Coach of the Year)

Hornets: I wasn't sold on the Hornets last year, I thought losing McRoberts was going to hurt, wasn't too impressed with the signings of Marvin Williams and Lance Stephenson, not sure why I thought the team would improve.  They didn't improve, they were pretty bad really.  Kemba looks lost, Big Al did not repeat his prior good year, neither MKG nor Zeller took a step forward, Noah Vonleh did not shine out this year, Lance was a disaster, Marvin Williams was not a good signing.  I don't like anything about this team and while I think the GM is really the problem, I can't say as I have much faith in the coach either.  Coach ? is not in my top 20.

Pistons: Stan Van Gundy has tough task ahead of him.  Good year?  I dunno.  I don't know how we could know.  Detroit is a town that with an NBA legacy so you hope that school spirit can help the Pistons rise from the ashes.  But, man, that roster is a mess, it'll still be a mess next year, maybe in two years we'll see something out of the Pistons.  Stan Van a good coach?  I'd like to think so but not this year.

Magic: Here's what the Magic hoped to get out of this season: fine rookie seasons out of Gordon and Payton, good maturation years out of Oladipo, Harris and Vucevic, see if Harkless, Fournier are keepers, and hope the Frye, Ben Gordon, Ridenour signings look stupid.  Notice that making the playoffs was not one of the milestones Orlando even hoped to achieve this year.  Payton had a hell of a season and its clear he can play with Oladipo, Vucevic is a good candidate for Most Improved, Tobias Harris needs to be signed, Frye is okay (Gordon and Ridenour should both be put of my misery), Aaron Gordon had some injuries but seems like he's gonna be fine.  Harkless, Dedmon and Fournier look like keepers...so did the Magic have a bad season?  No.  They had a great season!  All of the above and they saved money and ended up with a top 5 pick!  Great season!  So how do we measure the contributions of the Vaughn/Borrego tandem?  I dunno.  But neither of those guys can finish in the top 20 can they?

Sixers: The Sixers are designed to lose games but bring young players along.  Coach Brown seems like he knows what he's doing, I hope that when they are finally capable of success that Brown is still there to get some of the spoils too.  How do you rank a coach like Brown?  Easily in my top 20, maybe my top 10.

Knicks: The Knicks are terrible, nothing but terrible, nothing good happened this year.  Don't want to blame new coach Derek Fisher but can't credit him with anything either.  Fisher is not in my top 20.