Voting on the top-five for the most valuable player in the NBA this season will be easy compared to figuring out how to pare down to the top three coaches.
In the Western Conference alone there are at least eight great candidates, and three more in the East. Trying to squeeze 11 guys into three spots isn't going to be easy.
But we will go about this unenviable task over the next month and start thinking about it seriously right now. Since the East has only a few contenders, let’s start there with the best one -- Doc Rivers of the Celtics. Rivers is proof positive how much better a coach can be the second time around, and with this team he has been magnificent. Sure, he was handed Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen on a silver platter by general manager Danny Ainge, who is a lock to be executive of the year. Ainge even did a brilliant job of filling in the blanks with veterans to augment what Garnett, Allen and incumbent All-Star Paul Pierce do. Let’s not forget the development of youngsters Rajon Rondo, Kendrick Perkins, Leon Powe and Glen Davis by the coaching staff either.
But what we couldn’t know is that they would become the best defensive team in the league. Not only do they have the best scoring differential, but they are leading the league in fewest points allowed, lowest field goal percentage and lowest 3-point percentage, while ranking third in offensive field goal percentage and ninth in scoring. That translates into the team sticking to the game plan, rotating and closing out, and most importantly, really playing hard. Some of that comes from the great leadership of Garnett, et al, but Rivers has put it all together. With already 30 more wins than last season, they will shatter the all-time turnaround record.
Stan Van Gundy has coaxed the Orlando Magic to an entirely different level, too. He’s got evolving Superman Dwight Howard to dominate, but he has also pushed Hedo Turkoglu to playing at All-Star status, even if he didn’t get picked, and integrated Rashard Lewis to create the best frontcourt in either conference. They don’t have the goods to go anywhere in the playoffs, but he has managed to have the second best road record in the league and at least stay in shouting distance of the Pistons for the second best record in the conference despite very pedestrian point guard play.
Speaking of the Pistons, we have to mention Flip Saunders attempting to get the Pistons to a record sixth consecutive Eastern Conference final, as he and management have figured out how to develop a bench this season. Too bad they haven’t figured out how not to be so dependent on mercurial Rasheed Wallace to win a playoff series.
Let’s throw kudos to Eddie Jordan for preventing the thin Wizards from falling apart despite not having Gilbert Arenas for virtually the entire season and losing Caron Butler for the bulk of the second half as well. And only a pure cynic would overlook the job Mo Cheeks has done prodding the young Sixers back to not only respectability but into the seventh seed in the East and on their way up.
Cross the Rockies and this coach of the year stuff is much more complicated, with 2.5 games separating the top seven teams, 4.5 the top eight and 6.0 the top nine.
Consequently, we’re start from the top, with the Rockets and Lakers tied. It’s impossible not to be overwhelmed by the job Rick Adelman has done in Houston, coaching the Rockets to an amazing 22-game winning streak in his first season -- reeling off the last 10 without All-Star center Yao Ming. They’ve done it with a great synergy on defense and on the offensive end. It’s hard to know how they’ll respond from Tuesday’s loss to the Celtics and finishing the season with 10 of 15 on the road could cause them to drop like a rock in this tight race. But that doesn’t minimize the second longest streak in the history of the league.
Hanging at or near the top all season have been the Lakers, and the way coach Phil Jackson has kept them together may ultimately make this the best coaching job of his career. He had to compartmentalize the Kobe Bryant trade demand and sit him out of training camp for a while, develop youngsters Andrew Bynum and Jordan Farmar, re-integrate Derek Fisher into the starting lineup and then take it to another level with the theft of Pau Gasol from Memphis. As if that wasn’t enough, Bynum has been out for months with a knee injury and won’t play until the playoffs and Gasol may not either with a high ankle sprain. Of course, Bryant makes all of this easier … but Jackson makes it all hum.
On the other hand, nobody has done a better job than Byron Scott has with the Hornets, which oddly enough seems almost like a secret. They’ve been hanging out near or at the top of the conference and the rugged Southwest Division all season. Budding superstar point guard Chris Paul has had plenty to do with it, as has young All-Star forward David West and rapidly developing center Tyson Chandler. But Scott, like Rivers, is proving that a lot of the criticism from his first job has paid off in the second one, and the Hornets – despite a lack of depth – are legit challengers in the West. Having won two conference titles in the East as coach of the Nets plus his three championship rings playing for Pat Riley on the Lakers make him eminently qualified to compete with anybody.
Always overlooked in the balloting, but constantly in the discussion is Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who now has coached the Jazz 20 seasons, the longest tenure in league history. Their 29-3 home record is the best in the NBA and will be the best in franchise history, built around Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams, a second generation Stockton and Malone.
Despite winning just 32 games last season and losing top overall pick Greg Oden for the season to knee surgery before training camp even began, Nate McMillan has develop the Trail Blazers into a legit team above .500 in the West. They won’t make the playoffs, but that’s not the point. After a 5-12 start, they won 18 of 20, including 13 in a row and he has developed youngsters Brandon Roy, LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw into explosive young players. They all defend every night and they’ll be scary next year with Oden in the middle of that lineup.
Of course, Gregg Popovich has once again done a stellar job keeping the defending champion Spurs in contention and the same goes for Avery Johnson, despite the exaggerated criticism he gets even with the Mavericks always in the mix. And it’s great to know the howling has stopped around Suns coach Mike D’Antoni now that they’ve won five in a row while assimilating the huge round peg – Shaquille O’Neal – into a quite small square hole in their lineup.
It also would be wrong not to mention how well last season’s darling Warriors have hung on for Don Nelson and the bizarre possibility the Nuggets could win 50 games for George Karl and still not make the playoffs – but the latter two carry asterisks because both teams have the fatal flaw of not playing a lick of defense.
Now that we’ve gone through the exercise, it’s time for the top three, with the caveat that I still have a month to change my mind on the second two – particularly if the Rockets and/or Hornets crash:
