What’s the criteria for the NBA’s Coach of the Year award? Like the MVP race this season — one arguably tighter than it has been in years — there’s a lot of narrative that supports a voter’s decision. But unlike choosing between James Harden and Russell Westbrook based on their scoring and defense, there’s no direct measure of a coaches’ impact on the game.
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The top candidates for this year’s COY award appear to be Golden State’s Steve Kerr or Atlanta’s Mike Budenholzer. They’ve guided each of their teams to the top of their respective conferences. But neither Kerr or Budenholzer has faced season-long adversity the way that Miami’s Erik Spoelstra has.
Starting off the season with the loss of LeBron James can’t be overlooked – the challenge to rebuild the team without one of the greatest singular talents in NBA history is pretty daunting.
Yet, despite Spoelstra’s admission that the team went through “madness” following James’ departure, the focus for the head coach was on the future, on the players that would be on the Heat roster and not the one that wasn’t.
Spoelstra immedately looked to build a team that employed some of the characteristics as Miami’s NBA Finals opponent, the San Antonio Spurs. With Josh McRoberts joining the team in a Boris Diaw-type role, at least one of the pieces was in place … until McRoberts would miss the start of the season and play in just 17 games.
Miami would typically grit their way through the loss of a key component and would surprise everyone with a strong start to the season…until a hamstring injury to Dwyane Wade would begin a seemingly endless string of injuries for the Heat.
Luol Deng, Chris Andersen and Chris Bosh would all miss time early in the season, wiping out any hope for consistency from the roster. Consider that the Heat have started 29 different lineups this season – so far – and are still just below .500 and currently holding on to seventh place in the Eastern Conference playoff race.
You can argue that at just 34-39 and not likely to finish the season with a winning record that Spoelstra shouldn’t be considered for the award…that Kerr and Budenholzer keep winning even as they dealt with injuries to key players.
But Golden State’s roster runs deep, and even losing a Stephen Curry or Klay Thompson still allows you to play a Draymond Green or Andre Iguodala (a substantial upgrade over key Heat reserves like Henry Walker or Udonis Haslem).
Atlanta’s system is perfectly suited for a roster considered lacking a “superstar” and yet they haven’t faced injury at anywhere near the same level that Miami has. Per the website mangameslost.com, the Hawks have missed a total of 332 team games, while the Heat have lost 435).
Many of the those lost Atlanta games were for fringe players and seven Hawks players have participated in 62 games or more this season.
Conversely, Miami has had just two players — Chalmers (72) and Deng (65) — play in that many games.
You can couple that constant roster juggling with larger personnel moves made this year – from the acquisition of Goran Dragic to incorporating the phenomenon of Hassan Whiteside. Through it all, Spoelstra has reshaped his team to a small-ball, pass-centric offense to a team with a legitimate point guard and low-post threat.
Consider that those two positions (point guard and center) were largely ignored during the “Big 3” era and you can see why Spoelstra’s ability to adapt this season merits some type of award.
Additionally, Spoelstra has kept players with historically-questionable attitudes (among them Whiteside, Walker and, of course, Michael Beasley) and you can see that Spo’s management goes beyond just making in-game adjustments.
When I predicted that Spoelstra would be challenged like never before this season, I had no idea that he’d face this type of constant adversity. Yet, here he is, getting the most of the players he has available and figuring out a way to win while putting his team in postseason contention.
Historically, the COY award has been given to coaches that had fine individual seasons but would be highly criticized for most of their careers — recent recipients include Mike Brown, Avery Johnson, Mike D’Antoni and Byron Scott. Meanwhile, Spoelstra has guided his team to the playoffs in each of his six years as a head coach and seems poised to do it again in his seventh.
Besides, there’s always this performance from former Heat player Shane Battier‘s recent karaoke-based charity event:
Can Kerr or Budenholzer pull that off?
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