Heading into the 2017-18 NBA season, it’s time to make predictions for the league’s end-of-season awards. Here are the top 10 candidates for the Coach of the Year Award.
Being an NBA head coach is a harder job than anywhere else in the league. When the team is winning, it’s because of the talent and the players, while the coach’s contributions are usually overlooked. When the team is losing, the blame is almost always directed toward the coach.
It’s usually a thankless job, but luckily for the game’s greatest minds, one end-of-season award directly acknowledges their work throughout the year: The NBA’s Coach of the Year Award.
To be fair, the Coach of the Year Award doesn’t always mean much. No one will forget when George Karl earned the honor in 2013 and was quickly fired by the Denver Nuggets right after.
However, as much as head coaching jobs in the NBA can be like a carousel, there are several prominent names entrenched in their current situations that have proven themselves as some of the league’s premier basketball minds.
Heading into the 2017-18 NBA season, here are the top 10 candidates for the Coach of the Year Award.
Honorable Mentions: David Fizdale, Brett Brown, Dwane Casey, Tyronn Lue, Steve Clifford, Terry Stotts and Doc Rivers
10. Scott Brooks
With the Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics both potentially weakened by the Kyrie Irving trade, there’s an outside possibility the Washington Wizards could sneak in for a top-three — or possibly even top-two — seed in the East this year.
That possibility is what lands Scott Brooks, a former Coach of the Year winner, at No. 10. The Wizards already snagged the No. 4 seed last year despite a rough 3-9 start, and if the starting five stays as healthy as last year, Brooks could wind up being a dark horse in this category.
However, everyone’s attention will be out West, so even if the Wizards snagged the 1-seed (which is unlikely with a similarly ineffective bench and Markieff Morris already hurt) it might not be enough.
9. Erik Spoelstra
It’s amazing people never realized it back when the Miami Heat still had LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh, but Erik Spoelstra is a damn good coach. It wasn’t looking good when the team started 11-30 last season, but the adjustments Spo made as he grew more acquainted with his roster made their 30-11 close to the season less surprising.
Heading into 2017-18, the Heat will be hoping to carry forward that momentum in their second season without Wade around. The adjustment process was rough, but with Dion Waiters and James Johnson back, plus Kelly Olynyk brought on and Goran Dragic coming off a red-hot summer at EuroBasket, the team’s immediate outlook is positive.
It’d take the Heat snagging at least a top-four spot in the East for Spoelstra to even be considered, but it is a bit odd how long we’ve taken this two-time champion for granted. Without star names, he has a chance to prove himself as one of the league’s elite basketball minds once again.
8. Quin Snyder
With Gordon Hayward leaving the Utah Jazz this summer, no one is giving this 51-win team much of a chance to make the playoffs in 2017-18. What most of them don’t realize is the Jazz might have threatened to win 60 games if so many of their players hadn’t dealt with injury problems.
Yes, the Western Conference playoff field will be more of a bloodbath than it’s ever been, but if Quin Snyder is able to replace Gordon Hayward’s 21.9 points per game with stifling defense, a career year from Rodney Hood and a team built around Rudy Gobert as the new star, the Jazz should be in the hunt.
If Utah is able to defy the odds and climb near the 5- or 6-seed in the West, Snyder will be deserving of a few Coach of the Year votes. He’s one of the most underrated coaches in the league, but 2017-18 will represent his greatest challenge yet.
7. Jason Kidd
Having a player like Giannis Antetokounmpo certainly helps, but the top of the East is pretty much open season right now. The Milwaukee Bucks probably aren’t going to go from a 42-win team to the No. 1 seed, but with a healthy Khris Middleton and another leap from the Greek Freak, perhaps we shouldn’t sleep on Jason Kidd conjuring up some Coach of the Year talk.
If Antetokounmpo throws his name into the MVP conversation, Middleton shakes off the injury rust, Tony Snell continues to thrive, Thon Maker makes more progress and Jabari Parker comes back before the end of the season, it’s entirely possible Kidd will get some credit for a team that exceeds expectations.
If the Bucks shock the world and work their way into a top-three seed in the East, this exciting and young team could be too fun of a story to ignore during awards season.
6. Steve Kerr
The Coach of the Year Award usually goes to the coach of a team with one of the best records in the NBA. If it were as cut-and-dry as going to the coach with the best record, Steve Kerr would be a three-time winner. Instead, the two-time champion won the award in 2015-16, when the team won an NBA-record 73 games during the regular season.
Apparently 67-win seasons weren’t quite enough, both in 2014-15 and in 2016-17. But with the Golden State Warriors possibly even better in 2017-18 and 70-plus wins in play, we can’t rule Kerr out of this race as one of the early front-runners.
What hurts Kerr’s case is people are already over the culture change he implemented for the Dubs. At this point, their success is just going to be chalked up to an insane amount of talent, which is fair. Kerr built the machine, but at this point, it’s well-oiled enough to be running on its own. That hurts his case here, unless the Dubs go and win 73-74 games or something like that.
5. Gregg Popovich
With the Warriors being the Warriors and so many teams in the Western Conference making power moves this summer, the undying San Antonio Spurs might actually be overlooked. After years of learning better, we’re not making that mistake with Gregg Popovich and company.
True enough, the Houston Rockets may have leapfrogged San Antonio as the biggest threat to Golden State this season. The Spurs mostly got older, Tony Parker will miss most of the season and the team lost two important defenders in Jonathon Simmons and Dewayne Dedmon.
However, a three-time Coach of the Year Award winner can never be counted out in this conversation, and as long as Kawhi Leonard stays healthy, this team is a threat to win 60-plus games. If no one else makes a compelling case, voting for Pop out of principle isn’t the worst strategy.
4. Brad Stevens
It didn’t take long for Brad Stevens to develop a reputation as one of the NBA’s brightest head coaches. After all the roster turnover for the Boston Celtics this summer, another finish atop the Eastern Conference standings could garner him serious consideration for Coach of the Year.
Having stars like Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward obviously helps there, but if the Celtics challenge for Eastern supremacy with such a young supporting cast like Marcus Smart, Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum, it’ll be a testament to Stevens’ prowess as a head coach.
It’s not often that a team can lose 11 players from its roster the season before and still contend at the top of the conference, but if an almost entirely new Celtics team develops the chemistry to make noise in the East, Stevens will have to be acknowledged with considerable COY votes.
3. Mike D’Antoni
Don’t count out the reigning Coach of the Year just yet. The Houston Rockets came dangerously close to becoming a one-year novelty after their disappointing second round playoff flameout, but they immediately breathed new life into Mike D’Antoni‘s high-powered offense with a strong offseason.
No one knows how it’ll work with two ball-dominant guards like James Harden and Chris Paul sharing the backcourt (outside of their plan to stagger their minutes), but there’s too much skill, talent and high basketball IQ for it to not eventually come together.
When it does, and the Rockets once again shatter records for 3-point makes while also possibly fielding a top-10 defense, you can be guaranteed Mike D will be in the Coach of the Year conversation again…especially if they surpass the Spurs in the standings and emerge as Golden State’s biggest threat out West.
2. Billy Donovan
Billy Donovan‘s first season on the job saw him grapple with the overwhelming pressure of fielding a contender in what would prove to be Kevin Durant‘s last season with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Last season was much simpler, with expectations lowered and OKC’s entire team concept revolving around Russell Westbrook doing triple-doubley, MVP things.
This year will bring the immense pressure back into Donovan’s life, not only because Westbrook has yet to sign a contract extension, but because new arrivals Paul George and Carmelo Anthony heighten expectations…and could raise the devastation to unprecedented levels if a disappointing finish leads all three stars leave in free agency next summer.
Donovan has the difficult task of reining in a player who just averaged a triple-double, and getting him to abandon the hero ball that won’t fly with PG-13 and Melo onboard. There’s only one ball to go around, but the Thunder have a stacked roster after a tremendous summer from GM Sam Presti. If they finish with a top-three seed in the West, you can be guaranteed his work with this talented, new-look roster will earn him significant Coach of the Year votes.
1. Tom Thibodeau
After winning 31 games last season, the Minnesota Timberwolves are poised to make as large a leap in the Western Conference standings as anyone. If they go from 13th in the West to a top-four team with home-court advantage in the first round, or even a 5-seed, you can be guaranteed the Tom Thibodeau redemption story will come full circle with his second COY Award.
His first year in charge of the T-Wolves made for a disappointing start, but with career years coming from Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins, not to mention Jimmy Butler entering the fold, Minnesota is ready to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2004.
It’ll take a top-four or top-five finish for Thibs to win Coach of the Year in a stacked 2017-18 race, but that’s the expectation for the Wolves at this point. People want to see this Chicago Bulls cast-off succeed, and now that he’s reunited with several of his former players, the narrative here is strong.
Next: Top 5 candidates for 2017-18 Executive of the Year Award
It takes more than a good storyline to win awards, but it’s an undeniable factor. If the Wolves finish above the Thunder in the standings, the CP3 experiment underwhelms in Houston and people tire of voting for Kerr and Pop at the top of the West, Thibodeau will be the clear frontrunner.