2011-12 Regular Season Awards: Coach of the Year

With the regular season winding down, it’s almost Christmas morning in the NBA.  Some teams are the forgotten middle child, not getting any team or individual accolades.  Others are the spoiled bratty kid, rewarded with the top draft picks after doing nothing all year to deserve them.  And a few are the good children who worked their butts off to position their teams for a chance to win the Championship, the Holy Grail of the NBA season.  Most of those teams wouldn’t have that opportunity without the man behind the clipboard, so let’s see who the top candidates for Coach of the Year are…

3.  Gregg Popovich.

Has there been a more overlooked team this season than the San Antonio Spurs?  After a horrendous playoff appearance in the 2010-11 NBA postseason (where they locked up the best record in the Western Conference and lost to the 8^th seeded Memphis Grizzlies), the Spurs have played one of their best seasons which has gone unnoticed.  I mean more people are up to date with the turnstile that is Kim Kardashian’s relationship status than what Popovich is accomplishing in San Antonio.

Having a roster of aging veterans meshed with young talent, Popovich has been able to guide this team to a 45-16 record, which is the best in the Western Conference.  Popovich knew in this condensed season, with games coming more frequently than ever before, he would have to coach in an unorthodox manner.  While other coaches have managed their rosters to deal with the season as a sprint, Popovich has taken the marathon route due in part to the team he has.

On two separate occasions the Spurs have gone on an 11 game winning streak. Popovich benched his three all stars in the 12^th game electing to give them rest instead of pushing for an extra win.  He has even gone as far as to hold Tim Duncan out of a game—the reason given on the injury report was “Old.”  Having won the last shortened lockout season in 1998-99, Popovich might know something the rest of the coaches don’t, but whatever the case, he has gotten his team into prime position to make a big playoff run.

2.  Doc Rivers

Rivers has shown us this season why he’s the highest paid coach in the league.  Rivers has had to use a different route than Popovich through this truncated season.  Throughout the season, the Celtics have gone from a possible lottery team to a Championship contender. 

Before the All Star game, everyone had written off the Celtics, who had a woeful 15-17 record and were barely clinging to the 8^th seed for the playoffs.  Even the fans started to turn on the team, and this is a fan base that isn’t easy to appease.  Boston’s fans were the ones that turned on Tom Brady after a loss in the Super Bowl, a future first ballot Hall of Fame quarterback!  Keeping this fan base happy is harder than keeping the cast of Jersey Shore sober.  These fans were clamoring to blow up the team and get the most possible for assets that were on the roster.

Speculations ran rampant on having a fire sale, trading the franchise cornerstones Paul Pierce and Rajon Rando, or any and every asset in attempts to rebuild the team. Heck, I wouldn’t have been surprised if Lucky the Leprechaun was on the trading block.  However, Doc Rivers knew there was no reason to panic. Like with a great race horse, he knew he had bided his time and it was time to break for the finish.  The Celtics have pulled off a 22-9 record since the All Star break leading them to the best record in the Atlantic Division and 4^th seed in the Eastern Conference.

Rivers couldn’t ride this team hard every game because his best players are only a shell of their old selves.  However, he has known exactly how to motivate each one and help maximize what each player could offer.  For example, whenever Rivers would run into Garnett he never called him by name. Instead, he referred to him as “20 and 10”—the points and rebounds he knew Garnett could average this season.  Rivers has also been unconventional managing his roster.  He moved Ray Allen from the starting line up to the bench (which Allen hasn’t been on in the last 9 seasons), in favor of starting second year player Avery Bradley.  Another aspect that has been overlooked is the team losing its 6^th man, Jeff Green, before the season started.  Despite all this, Boston has become a playoff landmine that most teams pray to avoid.

Rivers masterful coaching of the Celtics roster and being forced to make tough adjustments is exactly what the best coach of the season is expected to do, however he has been slightly outdone by his former assistant.

1.  Tom Thibodeau

I’m sure many will claim my number one pick is me just being a Chicago homer, but Thibodeau has proved 

he’s the head and shoulders for Coach of the Year.  The Chicago Bulls currently have the best record in the league at 47-16, despite dealing with significant injuries to key players.  Derrick Rose, the reigning Most Valuable Player, has missed 26 games.  Richard Hamilton, the Bulls starting shooting guard and key addition in the off-season, has been sidelined 39 games.  In fact, the only starter to not miss a game all season has been Carlos Boozer. The starting lineup has only played 13 games together so far.  But even with being snake bit, the team hasn’t missed a beat.

No coaching move to Thibodeau is out of bounds.  He sees players and games in X’s and O’s instead of salaries and egos as other coaches around the league do.  There are games when you see the $25 million worth of Joakim Noah and Carlos Boozer being benched in favor of playing the $3 million combo of Omer Asik and Taj Gibson.  Even in the most important game of the season so far, and I’m sure Thibodeau would argue no one game is more important than another, Rose was benched late against the Heat for C.J. Watson due to ineffective play.  The result of that move: Watson hit a game tying 3-pointer in regulation and helped power the Bulls to the win.

Thibodeau has coached his heart out this season and made sure the other 29 franchises realize how big of a mistake they made by overlooking him to coach their teams for the past 20 years.  Thibodeau coaches every regular season game as if it’s game seven of the NBA Finals.  He became the fastest coach to 100 wins, despite the use of his most vital players.  Compared to the rest of the league, the Bulls don’t have the most talented roster, but Thibodeau has been able to get every ounce of effort from every one of his players and pushed them to the best record in the league.

In the 49 year history of the Coach of the Year award there has never been a coach to win the accolade in back to back seasons.  Thibodeau has made it next to impossible to not be the first.