ESPN's Tolbert: Top 5 Coaching Performances This Season

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=tolbert_tom&id=1682295

Floyd tops Top 5 coaches list

By Tom Tolbert
Special to ESPN.com

To win an NBA championship, a coach needs talented players. But it's also true that for a team to advance in the playoffs and get to the Finals, it needs a quality coach. There's no question that coaches make a difference. With that in mind, here's my Top 5 list of the best NBA coaches at the one-quarter mark this season:



1. TIM FLOYD | New Orleans Hornets
When Floyd was hired after last season, the reaction of many NBA observers was, "Why is he getting a job?" After all, Floyd had coached the Chicago Bulls for three-plus seasons from 1998-2001, never winning more than 17 games in a season.


Floyd
But how can you judge Floyd on his record in Chicago? I don't care who was the coach of the post-Michael Jordan Bulls -- anyone who inherited that team would have failed miserably.

A coach can only do so much. Floyd's Chicago experience proves that a coach needs players to win.

Under Floyd, the Hornets (15-7) have excelled without injured forward Jamal Mashburn, who has yet to play this season. Mashburn is the team's second-best player after point guard Baron Davis.

I'm glad Floyd got a second chance. To all those who questioned whether he should have gotten the New Orleans job, he's showing them that he deserves to be an NBA coach.



2. JEFF BZDELIK | Denver Nuggets
The Nuggets are tied for first place with the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference's Midwest Division. Who would have thunk it? At 13-7, they're four wins away from last year's season win total of 17! The old Nuggets were bad ... they couldn't score to save their lives.

Bzdelik gets his guys to play hard. He's a good coach who didn't get his due last year because Denver wasn't winning. Now the Nuggets play an exciting brand of up-and-down-the-court basketball. They play hard and they have better talent.

GM Kiki Vandeweghe deserves credit for drafting forward Carmelo Anthony and for bringing in guards Earl Boykins, Jon Barry and Voshon Lenard. Big man Nene Hilario has played well in his second year. Plus, center Marcus Camby is healthy after missing 53 games last season. So the Nuggets have a completely different team on the court this season.

Still, Vandeweghe didn't add a bunch of All-Stars. Bzdelik has achieved success with a rookie (Anthony) and some role players who know how to play the game the right way. Given that roster, no one I know predicted that Denver would be anywhere near first place one-quarter of the way through the season.



3. JEFF VAN GUNDY | Houston Rockets
Van Gundy has reshaped the Rockets in his image -- as a defensive team. Houston (12-7) reminds me now of Van Gundy's Knicks. This a definite change from last season, when the Rockets could score, led by Steve Francis and Cuttino Mobley (though their offense wasn't especially high-powered).

Van Gundy wants a grinding, hard-nosed group that will battle on the defensive end and keep the score low. They make you earn every basket. They're not my favorite team to watch, because 83-80 games aren't my cup of tea. But they're getting results in the win column.

Van Gundy's success doesn't surprise me, because he's a very good coach. I expected the Rockets to take on his personality. It isn't easy to get young guys like Francis and Mobley to change their approach, but Van Gundy has pulled it off.



4. PHIL JACKSON | Los Angeles Lakers
I didn't expect the Lakers to get off to an NBA-best 17-3 start. I thought it would take them much longer to gel. And the scary thing for the rest of the league is that they'll get even better.

Coaches who win never seem to get enough credit. People say, "Well, it's easy with the talent he has." But remember, Shaq's Lakers didn't win any championships before Jackson arrived -- just as Jordan's Bulls didn't win any championships before Jackson arrived. With six in Chicago and three in LA, Jackson has nine rings overall.

Yes, coaches need players -- and man, does Jackson have players this season with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal, Gary Payton and Karl Malone. But that's a bunch of egos for a coach to deal with day in and day out. Yet all these superstars have bought into the team concept.

Shots per game are down for all four, but they've accepted reduced offensive roles because as a team they're focusing on winning a championship. It takes a special coach to be able handle that many egos deftly, knowing what buttons to push and when to push them.

Another challenge for Jackson this year was the Kobe-Shaq feud that erupted in the preseason. Jackson's biggest strength is letting players figure things out on their own. He's skilled at letting guys sort through their own problems until he really has to step in.

Plus, the Lakers have been forced to deal with Kobe's pending court case (in which he's accused of sexual assault). Despite all of these potentially focus-diverting issues, Jackson has been steady at the helm.

He could easily have won five or more coach-of-the-year awards already. Because he has the talent, though, he's expected to win. But how can you do a better job as a coach than win the NBA championship?



5. JERRY SLOAN | Utah Jazz
I watched the Jazz cut a 21-point deficit to four vs. the Lakers on Sunday night (Utah ended up losing 94-92). As they rallied, I kept asking myself, "Who are these guys?"

It's amazing. Sloan lost two Hall of Famers -- John Stockton to retirement and Karl Malone to free agency -- but has his no-name team at 11-9. It's true that Stockton and Malone were at the end of their careers, but they could still play.

The new-look Jazz are showing they have decent talent -- such as forward Matt Harpring -- but I'll be honest: I don't know who some of these guys are. I had no idea third-year guard Carlos Arroyo, from Florida International University, would be this good (15.5 ppg, 6.1 apg).

And with the players I do know, I still wonder, "How in the world are these guys winning?" Utah's roster includes rookie guard Maurice Williams, forward Andrei Kirilenko and guard Raja Bell (another Florida International product).

The Jazz have struggled on the road (1-7) but have been stellar at home (10-2). Sloan can coach -- he's a hard-nosed bad-ass who gets his team to execute and play hard. Utah has been one of the best teams (if not the best) at executing its offensive sets.

You know what they'll run, and the Jazz know that you know what they'll run -- and they still score.

Without Stockton and Malone, some observers thought the Jazz would be the worst team in the Western Conference. But they based that on the roster they saw preseason, not on the coach. Under Sloan, the Jazz have shown that they'll battle every game -- no team can relax against a Sloan-coached team (as the Lakers discovered Sunday night).

Under a less capable coach, I could see the Jazz being horrible this season, winning maybe 16-18 games. But under Sloan, it's hard to imagine that happening.



Honorable Mention:
Larry Brown | Detroit Pistons
Rick Carlisle | Indiana Pacers
Maurice Cheeks | Portland Trail Blazers

 

First, I dont know how ANYONE could not have Sloan #1.

Second, I admit that I am somewhat impressed with the job Floyd has done. However, he has legit talent there, even without Mashburn.

Don't know if Phil belongs on that list either.

Here is how I rank em:

1) Sloan
2) Bldedzkik
3) Hubie Brown
4) Rick Carlisle
5) JVG

My top 5 disappointments:

1) Doc Rivers - NO excuses. This team has a ton of talent.
2) Frank Johnson - Ditto.
3) Byron Scott
4) Flip Saunders
5) Paul Silas - Has talent in a weak conference but is only 5-16.