The Golden State Warriors have had a tremendous season so far. This is easily illustrated by the fact that a case can be made for a member of the Warriors organization winning almost every major award. Case in point:
- Stephen Curry could be the MVP.
- Either Andrew Bogut or Draymond Green deserve to be the Defensive Player of the Year.
- Green can also be a strong candidate for Most Improved Player of the Year and Klay Thompson has done some improving of his own
- Marreese Speights has been a valuable contributor off the bench in the Sixth Man role.
- Steve Kerr is one of the favorites for Coach of the Year.
More from Golden State Warriors
- Grade the Trade: Warriors become title-favs in proposed deal with Raptors
- 5 NBA players everyone should be keeping a close eye on in 2023-24
- New detail about title-costing mistake reopens old wounds for Warriors
- 5 NBA players facing do-or-die 2023–2024 seasons
- 7 Harsh realities of the Golden State Warriors offseason
Amazingly, the only significant award a Warrior isn’t going to get serious consideration for is Rookie of the Year. Heck, if Kerr doesn’t win Coach of the Year, maybe he should win Rookie of the Year for being a rookie coach while leading his team to championship favorite status.
To top it all off, the Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers can make a strong argument for Executive of the Year. He, along with the rest of the front office staff, ownership, and the coaching staff, have put the Warriors in position to succeed on the level that they have this season.
It is a collective effort to be sure and just like any of the above individual awards, winning Executive of the Year would be a stamp of approval for the entire organization as well as the players that have made the most of their opportunities.
There are a number of worthy candidates for the award this year, but first looking at who has won the award in the past and why will give a clearer indication of what might happen this year.
Past Precedent
I created a spreadsheet of all of the past winners, their team’s performance during the year they won, the year previous to winning the award as well as the difference between the two. You can view it in its entirety here.
Including the ABA, there have been 47 awards given out in 42 years. From 1972-76–€”the first four years of the award–the ABA and NBA seasons overlapped and in 2010-11 both Gar Forman of the Chicago Bulls and Pat Riley of the Miami Heat won the award. That is how there have been more awards than years.
Looking over the history of the award, a few things become apparent. The biggest one is that it is mainly an acknowledgement of team improvement that is thought to be the product of roster management.
While that may seem obvious, the numbers spell it out plainly. Only four of the 47 awards were given out in which the team did not improve either by number of wins or where the team’s record ranked against the rest of the league. All four of those situations were unique in some way.
2002-03 Detroit Pistons, Joe Dumars
The Pistons record from 2001-02 to 2002-03 was same, 50-32. However, they drafted Tayshaun Prince, signed Chauncey Billups and traded for Richard Hamilton as well. The Pistons already had Ben Wallace at center and would add Rasheed Wallace to round out the starting five that would go on to win the 2004 NBA Finals.
Their record may have not been different, but where the team was headed certainly was.
1999-2000 Orlando Magic, John Gabriel
The Magic had lost in the Finals in 1995 to the Houston Rockets. In 1996, they lost to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference Finals. Following that season, Shaquille O’Neal left for the Los Angeles Lakers.After winning 60 games in the 1996 season, the Magic’s win total dropped to 45 in 1997 and 41 in 1998.
They enjoyed a slightly better winning percentage during the lockout in 1999, but the writing was on the wall and Anfernee Hardaway was traded to the Phoenix Suns as the Magic went into full rebuild mode during the 1999-00 season. GM John Gabriel would go on to make 37 player transactions and stockpile nine draft picks as well as improve their cap flexibility.
1982-83 Seattle SuperSonics, Zollie Volchok
Volchock might have won his award a year late. The 1980-81 SuperSonics finished the season 34-48. During the 1981-82 season they improved to 52-30 before going 48-34 during the 1982-83, the season in which Volchock won the award. Volchock had also been the GM for the Sonics lone championship team in 1979, so it might have been a bit of a lifetime achievement award.
If he didn’t win it late, he may have won it for what he did on the business and entertainment side of things before the NBA was a billion dollar enterprise. According to Percy Allen of the Seattle Times, the Sonics were one of the first teams to make use of halftime shows and Volchock “understood the entertainment element of professional basketball better than anyone at the time.”
1975-76 Denver Nuggets ABA, Carl Scheer
During the last ABA season ever, the Denver Nuggets won 60 games and had the best record in the ABA. The season before the Nuggets also had the best record in the league, but had managed to win 65 games. Scheer had also won the award that year, making him one of only two people to win the award back-to-back–€”Stan Kasten of the Atlanta Hawks is the other one.
By its last season, the ABA only had nine teams left playing each other 84 times (not 82, 84). It was a sad end for the league and Scheer’s Nuggets were the best team during the regular season, even though they weren’t quite as good as the year before.
This season there is a unique case that could fit among these other four. Sam Presti of the Oklahoma City Thunder has had to make a few moves to shore up a team that has had major injuries to all three of its top players. The Thunder have taken a big step back record wise this year, dropping from 59-23 to 42-32.
However, were it not for Presti’s wheeling and dealing at the deadline, they might not have had enough firepower to make the playoffs. Even with Russell Westbrook impersonating Oscar Robertson, he still needs some help.
While Presti is not a favorite for the award, there is chance he gets some votes for the bold moves he made and the way he helped keep the Thunder afloat.
Those four special circumstances aside, and possibly the Thunder, every award has gone to a team that has improved in some way. There are basically two levels of team improvement that win front offices the recognition needed to receive the award. Either a team goes from awful and missing the playoffs or a playoff team takes the step from good to great.
Offseason To Postseason
The most common way to win the award is to take a team that was bad enough to miss the playoffs–more than half (16 of 30) the teams make the playoffs–€”and lead it toward respectability. Twenty-four of the 47 awards have gone to a team that missed the playoffs the previous year and then made it the next.
John Hammond of the Milwaukee Bucks fits this profile. Last year, the Bucks finished with the worst record in the NBA at 15-67.
This year, they are currently in the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference with a record of 36-38. That is already an improvement of 21 games with eight chances remaining to boost their win total.
How much that has to do with the front office or Jason Kidd‘s coaching is a debatable topic. In all likelihood, it is a combination of both, but with Larry Sanders leaving the team and Jabari Parker tearing his ACL, it would seem Kidd has played the bigger role.
The other team that fits this description is the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Last year, the Cavs missed the playoffs with a record of 33-49. They then lucked into the top draft pick and LeBron James decided to return home.
While Cavs GM David Griffin may not be directly responsible for either of those two events, he did engineer two key midseason trades that acquired J.R. Smith, Iman Shumpert and Timofey Mozgov that filled a lot of gaps on the team.
Trading Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love has been a mixed bag, but Cleveland is sitting at second in the East with a record of 48-27, which happens to be 15 games better than last year’s overall record.
Some teams do make the jump from missing the playoffs all the way to contending for a title. The 2007-08 Boston Celtics are one of the more extreme examples. Danny Ainge‘s offseason moves helped the Celtics win 42 games more than the previous season as well as jump from the 28th-worst record in the NBA to the very best.
Cleveland’s turnaround hasn’t been quite as dramatic, but missing the playoffs one year and fighting for a possible chance to go to the Finals the next is a pretty decent improvement. If someone from Cleveland wins the award, maybe Griffin and James would need to split it.
Good To Great
Calling the Hawks good last year is a bit of a stretch. They squeaked into the playoffs with a record of 38-44, which happened to be the 18th-worst record in the league. They have flown up the standings this year, compiling a mark of 56-18 with a chance to improve their record over last year by 20 or more games before the season is over.
That 18th-worst record has turned into 2nd-best in the league.
Blue Man Hoop
Danny Ferry, the GM of the Hawks, has made a great success story a little murkier by his racially insensitive remark about Luol Deng. Our own Adam McGee has done a fine job delving into Danny Ferry’s role in building this team as well as addressing Ferry’s racially insensitive mistake and the process of reconciliation.
The most uplifting part of the situation has been the amount of forgiveness show to Ferry by those in and out of the NBA community. While it seems a lot of good has come out of the situation and Ferry has grown personally, it puts him in an awkward light with the team he built performing so well while he is away.
Gar Forman along with John Paxson of the Chicago Bulls have also done a noteworthy job. Adding Pau Gasol, Nikola Mirotic and Aaron Brooks to a solid core has given the Bulls a lift and put them on the fringes of contention, held back only by poor health. If they had built up the depth of this team, it would not have been able to weather the storm of injuries it has had to deal with.
The Golden State Warriors fit this description better than either the Hawks (who weren’t so “good”) or the Bulls (who aren’t really “great” yet). Last year, the Warriors finished the regular season at 51-31, a respectable eighth overall.
During the offseason, the Warriors added a few role players. The most important has been the versatile point guard Shaun Livingston, whose height and length make him an ideal fit on the league’s best defensive team.
Aside from small moves and internal development, the Warriors biggest move was the one they didn’t make. There was a lot of discussion about a potential trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves centered on Klay Thompson and Kevin Love. The Warriors opted to keep Thompson and it has “apparently” worked out.
This season, the Warriors own the best record in the league, have won 60 games and have improved by almost 10 wins with nine games remaining. As of now, the Warriors have the sixth-best winning percentage of all-time, per Basketball-Refernence.com.
So Who Will It Be?
With a number of strong candidates, no one will run away with this award. Aside from what has already been mentioned, another strong indicator of who might win is where the team’s overall record ranks in comparison to the rest of the league.
Only six times has the Executive of the Year award gone to a team that had a record outside of the top 10. Twenty-nine times it was one of the top five and 14 times it was the best record in the league.
As of now, the Bulls are tied for the ninth-best record and the Cavs are sitting in sixth. The Bucks are a lowly 16th in overall record. The special-case Thunder might still be hampered by the poor decision to trade James Harden in the eyes of many and only have the 13th-best record.
It basically comes down to the Hawks and the Warriors. The two best records in the NBA. Which team a voter chooses will depend on whose improvement is more impressive to them. Is the jump from barely making the playoffs to contending better than going from pretty good to historic?
The Warriors won’t win MVP, DPOY, MIP, Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year. They’ll get votes for all of them, but only win a few. One of the awards that they should probably win is Executive of the Year.
If Myers were to win Exec of the Year, he would join Dick Vertlieb as the only other Warrior to win it. What happened after Vertlieb won the award back in 1974-75? It was the last time the Warriors won a championship.
Sometimes history has a way of repeating itself.
Next: Every NBA Team's Signature Season
More from Hoops Habit
- The 5 most dominant NBA players who never won a championship
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout