Detroit Pistons: Best candidates for 2018-19 NBA awards
By Amaar Burton
Coach of the Year: Dwane Casey
The NBA has been giving out Coach of the Year since 1963, and there has never been a back-to-back winner. Meanwhile, there have been 11 players that have won consecutive MVP awards.
Why the discrepancy?
I think it’s because the criteria for COY is even more complicated and narrative-driven than the criteria for MVP.
Recognizing the league’s best coach has seemingly turned into a practice of the media (who votes for the award) excusing their own miscalculations. When a team is generally predicted to be not so good due to a perceived lack of talent, but then that team exceeds expectations, the coach automatically becomes a Coach of the Year candidate. Rather than admit we were wrong and underrated the players, it’s better to argue that the coach worked some kind of wizardry with that roster.
That’s why a lot of COY winners come from underdog teams. Of course, winning the award then sets the bar at a higher level the following season. So in order for the coach to repeat, the team would have to exceed expectations again. That’s rare, which is why I don’t think we’ve seen anyone win Coach of the Year in two straight years.
Dwane Casey might be the first.
Casey won 2017-18 Coach of the Year after leading the Toronto Raptors — who had been embarrassed in the 2017 NBA Playoffs and written off as a serious contender — to a franchise-record 59 wins in the regular season and the No. 1 seed in the East.
But then the Raptors were embarrassed again the 2018 NBA Playoffs, and Casey was fired. He was soon hired by the Pistons, who missed the playoffs last season.
Taking over a lottery team that now has a playoff-caliber roster, Casey is in as good a position as anyone ever has been to repeat as Coach of the Year.
The national media and fans still appear to have low expectations for the Pistons for the upcoming season. If Casey guides Detroit to drastic improvement on last season’s 39-43 record, he’ll be right in the Coach of the Year conversation.
Odds: Pretty good