2017-18 NBA Awards Watch: Final picks for MVP, ROY and more
Coach of the Year: Brad Stevens
Final ballot:
- Brad Stevens (Boston Celtics)
- Quin Snyder (Utah Jazz)
- Dwane Casey (Toronto Raptors)
The Coach of the Year race is stacked this year. Before we even get to our top three candidates, there are several honorable mentions you could easily make a case for.
Gregg Popovich is the LeBron James of this category — everyone knows he’s the best in the world, but the results don’t always reflect the dominance we need to see to earn this regular season award. What he’s done with these San Antonio Spurs heading for their 21st straight playoff berth — despite Kawhi Leonard missing all but nine games — is vintage Pop.
The reigning COY, Mike D’Antoni, wouldn’t be a very exciting option, but we should note not only how his system combined with James Harden to create one of the five greatest offenses in NBA history, but also how he seamlessly implemented another ball-dominant guard like Chris Paul for a Houston Rockets team that won a league-best 65 games.
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Brett Brown deserves credit for the work he’s done with this young Philadelphia 76ers team. Nate McMillan‘s Indiana Pacers are a surprising redemption story. Terry Stotts and Alvin Gentry have exceeded expectations as well.
However, the last three heavy-hitters are hard to top. Dwane Casey not only led the Toronto Raptors to a conference-best (and franchise-record) 59 wins, but he did so while revamping a stagnant, iso-heavy offense into a high-powered, 3-point shooting style. This, all while improving last year’s eighth-ranked defense to No. 5 this season.
Quin Snyder vs. Brad Stevens is almost too tight to call. The Utah Jazz were 19-28 and far from the playoff picture out West in late January, but rattled off 29 wins in their last 35 games games of the season to not only secure a playoff spot, but put themselves in position to snag the 3-seed on the last night of the regular season. That stifling defense, a drastically improved, more well-balanced offense and the team’s complete second-half turnaround are hard to overlook.
However, it’s hard to top what the Boston Celtics have done with so many notable injuries, regardless of how far they go in the playoffs. Losing Gordon Hayward on opening night should’ve ended the Celtics’ season then and there. After starting off 0-2, Boston responded to all that adversity with a completely unexpected 16-game win streak.
The hits kept on coming, but time and time again Stevens proved his resourcefulness by reaching deep into his bench and spinning yarn into gold. Despite Hayward (81 games), Kyrie Irving (22), Jaylen Brown (12), Marcus Smart (28), Marcus Morris (28), Al Horford (10) and Daniel Theis (19) all missing significant and overlapping time, the Celtics won 55 games and secured the 2-seed in the East.
That’s an unbelievable accomplishment, even if we ignore how quickly youngsters like Brown and Tatum stepped up on the wing to fill in for Hayward; how Marcus Morris and Terry Rozier turned into legitimate weapons; how new arrivals in Kyrie Irving, Greg Monroe and Morris were integrated; and how they wound up being the NBA’s most stifling defense. There are a lot of deserving candidates, but let’s not overthink this. The 2017-18 Coach of the Year is Brad Stevens.