I don't think there will be a discussion this year. Ime will win it and dedicate it to Silas for creating such a low baseline.
OKC coach should have won it last year Cleveland maybe fair but people had less expectations than the Rockets No mention of the Piston's coach? Rocket River
Sure, give it to JB Bickerstaff. Anybody but Ime Udoka. I don't want anything to do with the stench of a coach of the year award. Regardless of how much Ime's stubbornness may piss me off, I want him to be our coach for a very long time.
Kerr is the best coach in the league, but he won’t sniff coach of the year. I can’t stand the guy, but he is one of the best coaches of all time. Awards are worthless anyway. Ime deserves consideration and has a great job turning our culture around. He is a pretty bad in-game and offensive coach, but it is only his third year as a head coach. With a little humility he could become an all-time great, just think his ego will get in the way.
What has Kerr done this year to be a great coach? He acquired Butler cause they were straight near *ss before Jimi Rocket RIver
No chance against Atkinson. I think Udoka and Bickerstaff should be tied for 2nd. To put it in perspective Ime spent like $80m per year salary on FA's and he had lots of core young players that were going to - on average - take somewhat of a step up with or without him. A lot of the momentum in his favor is not him, though he's navigated it exceptionally well. Imagine if we won around 50 games again next season and Ime got fired. Then another coach comes in and without needing to add any players or make trades, that new coach pushed us to 60 wins with just tactical creativity. That's Kenny Atkinson. Atkinson came and took the exact same roster and turned them from a pretender to a contender. To put this in perspective, most of this board seems to think that tactical changes are just minor shuffling around of things which is really incredible to me. Atkinson came and took the job from the guy who's likely ALSO going to finish top 3 this year (Bickerstaff) and without anything but tactical changes (just moving Mobley to better spots, changing the shot diet, altering the strategy, ditch double bigs near the paint) he has bested the F out of Bickerstaff. He was not afraid to sacrifice a small amount of defense for a significant amount of offense. He was not afraid to tell the players which shots to stop taking and which ones to take more of. He understands the math on both sides of the ball and how they're linked. I don't put it past Ime to figure things like that out next season, but he's not there yet.
I believe that Atkinson, Bickerstaff and Daigneault will be the top 3 vote getters. Atkinson is likely the favorite but Bickerstaff could get it. Being the first team in league history to triple their win total from one year to the next is amazing.
I don't think so and as recently as 3 days ago he wasn't one of the favorites. Going from 50 to 60 is much harder than going from 40 to 50. That's what the coaches brought.
Back many years ago, there was a clown here that would argue coaches don't matter in the NBA. What Kenny Atkinson has done this year with the same player JB Bickerstaff had last year is incredible. He will be the runaway winner for COTY. JB will probably be #2. Udoka and Mark Daigneault (OKC) will finish #3/#4 in whatever order.
I don’t understand why he would be a “runaway”. Cavs have won around 50 games past 2 years making the playoffs last 3 years with 2 all stars. Udoka has taken a team of nobodies to great new heights each year he’s been here and into the playoffs this year. Why would this accomplishment not be as great as Atkinson’s? Winning a few more games with Atkinson means nothing unless they go past the semi finals.
Because taking a team from 48 wins to 62-67 wins is much harder than improving from 41 to 51-55 wins. What Udoka did last year has nothing to do with this season. It's a one-year award. Playoffs also have nothing to do with the COTY award.
