Selecting the NBA’s Coach of the Year is always tough, but it’s going to be particularly hard this year.
Three main candidates have emerged from the thicket of sideline-stalkers: Mike D’Antoni of the Houston Rockets; Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat; and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs.
For his money, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, last year’s winner, would give it to D’Antoni, per the Houston Chronicle‘s Jonathan Feigen and Jenny Dial Creech:
“Mike deserves it,” Kerr said. “There’s probably a couple guys you can make a strong case for. Erik Spoelstra’s done an amazing job. Pop (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich,) you just give it to Pop every year. I think Mike has been brilliant. You look at where the team is now compared to where they were at the end of last season.
“What he’s so good at is really giving his players confidence and belief in what they’re doing. They’re obviously believing. Mike guess is Mike will get the trophy. He’s earned it.”
Coach Spo is going to be a sneaky pick. His Heat have the NBA’s best record since Jan. 17 and are entering the Eastern Conference playoff fray during a season in which they’re supposed to be rebuilding. And, as Kerr says, you could always give the honor to Pop—particularly this year, when he has the Spurs tracking toward 60-plus victories with an aging and, to some, rather unimpressive supporting cast.
But the Rockets are on pace to win between 56 and 57 games one year after imploding. James Harden has morphed into perhaps the league’s best point guard under D’Antoni, and the Rockets, arguably, are the closest any team will ever come to beating the Warriors at their own game.
There is no wrong pick here. Anyone of these three candidates deserves the nod. But if we’re looking at which head honcho has outperformed expectations the most, D’Antoni wins that battle, comfortably so, over Pop and Spo.
