If you haven’t read who we think the Executive of the Year is, give it a read. What an executive does in terms of acquiring or keeping pieces that lead to a franchise’s success or failure is something different from what a coach does. Coaches are basically working with what they’ve got. They have the important task of guiding players and getting as much production on the court as they can. Adjusting to player’s skill sets and ability, changing schemes and pregame plans during the game, massaging several egos, and fortifying the team’s culture are just a few of the things that a coach has to do to navigate his team to a victory. And it happens at least 82 times a season for a good coach. So, who stood out in 2019-20? Check the names below.
Keep an eye on the below list of awards, which will be updated as we push forward.
Executive of the Year | Coach of the Year | Most Improved Player | Sixth Man of the Year | Defensive Player of the Year | Rookie of the Year | Most Valuable Player
Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee Bucks
Since the inception of this award for the 1962-63 season when Harry Gallatin of the St. Louis Hawks won, no coach has ever won this award in back-to-back seasons. Could Budenholzer achieve the feat? It’s very possible. Budenholzer, a two-time winner, winning his first in 2014-15 with the Atlanta Hawks, won last season for leading the Bucks to the best record in the league at 60-22 (.732 win percentage). This season’s Bucks were on pace to better that record, finishing the season at 53-12 (.815 win percentage), so considering Budenholzer for the award is a no-brainer here.
But what goes against him is that the core players of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton, Eric Bledsoe, and Brook Lopez remained the same. No Malcolm Brogdon, but the additions of veterans George Hill and Wes Matthews make up for that loss. Also, without Brogdon, Donte DiVincenzo has been allowed to shine. That said, what is also the same is that you have to play the game, and no one has been better at coaching and winning than Budenholzer and his Bucks during the regular season the past two seasons.
Nick Nurse, Toronto Raptors
Last season, the Raptors were the second-best team during the regular season in the NBA after the Bucks. They finished 58-24, a record that no one saw happening before the season. For that success, Nurse got two whole third-place votes. That’s it. Well, I’m pretty sure he’d rather have the NBA title than the Coach of the Year award, easily.
Currently, the Raptors are 46-18, once again second-best in the East, but third-best overall. Again, no one saw this coming. Kawhi Leonard and Danny Green left; injuries abounded with Pascal Siakam, Fred VanVleet, Kyle Lowry, Serge Ibaka, and Marc Gasol, specifically; Terence Davis, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, and Chris Boucher had to have become important players and did; and the Raptors own the second-best defense in the league.
Do you think Nick Nurse will get more love this year in the voting? Absolutely. But, would he rather have a chance to defend the title? Absolutely. Considering the pandemic and timelines for several elements - players to get back into shape and scheduling events at the various arenas, for example - Nurse may only be able to shine, at best, one award this season.
Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat
Spoelstra is widely loved across the league, but hasn’t gotten enough love for what he’s done as the Heat’s coach relative to winning this award. A lot of credit usually goes to the players - Dwyane Wade, LeBron James, et al. - and it should, but also some of that praise goes to Pat Riley for getting the pieces for Spo on the chessboard. All valid. However, someone still needs to lead them on the court, and considering all of the Heat’s success, Spoelstra has been phenomenal. Unless you’re a Heat fan or a deep-diving fanatic of the NBA, you may not know how good he’s been.
Some history here if you’d amuse me. Spoelstra was an assistant coach when the Heat won their first NBA title in 2005-06, and had been in that role since the 1997-98 season. Since taking over head coaching duties in 2008-09, he owns a regular season record of 564-387 (.593 win percentage) and postseason record of 71-47 (.602 win percentage), winning the NBA title twice in his head coaching career. He’s only had two under .500 seasons, going 37-45 (2014-15) and 39-43 (2018-19).
Yes, he’s had multiple superstars on his teams, but this season, he’s only really had one, Jimmy Butler. And the thing about that, Spo had to integrate him as his top dog. There was no Wade to help LeBron and Chris Bosh integrate, no one to help Spo fit Butler in, just Spo. This season, the Heat owned a 41-24 record, which was better than expected considering the moving pieces of Butler, Tyler Herro, and Andre Iguodala coming in, Hassan Whiteside and Justise Winslow going out, and helping the emergence of Bam Adebayo, Kendrick Nunn, and Duncan Robinson. From all of these lumps of clay that Riley laid down before him, Spo has been able to shape this team to succeed.
Frank Vogel, Los Angeles Lakers
If we kept it simple, we can just say that Vogel has led his Lakers to the best record in the West at 49-15 with a comfortable 5.5 game lead over the second-place Los Angeles Clippers. Boom, that’s it, that’s why he’s under consideration. Isn’t it that easy? Well, no.
Vogel came in knowing that he was the Lakers’ third choice (at best) after Monty Williams and Tyronn Lue, both veteran coaches with NBA playing experience that had instant credibility with NBA players. And, with Lue, he won two championships with the Lakers in 1999 and 2000 as a player, and additionally, as a head coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron in 2016. Vogel, had no such NBA playing experience or any connections to Los Angeles.
What made it worse, Vogel had to accept how the Lakers filled out his coaching bench, specifically, working with Jason Kidd, who also interviewed for the head coaching job. When the hires were announced, many people thought that Kidd would be the eventual coach of the team and Vogel was just the sacrificial lamb. Add former head coach, Lionel Hollins, and a rising star in Phil Handy, who has coached in five of the last NBA Finals, winning a ring last year with the Raptors and in 2016 with the Cavs, and a former Lakers assistant coach (2011-13), and you can see how Vogel wouldn’t be able to survive any misstep, breakdown in communication, or survive any controversy. And, speaking of controversy, he came in during the firestorm of Magic Johnson publicly throwing GM Rob Pelinka under the bus, and Vogel had to deal with that with the media, which is a natural distraction to coaching.
The front office and bench aside, Vogel also had to deal with coaching not one, but two superstars in LeBron James and Anthony Davis. And as most of us have been seeing with the documentary, The Last Dance, it isn’t always easy to coach superstars because you still need to have the respect of the last man on the bench, and have equal accountability for all players. Yes, communicate with players as individuals, but still know how to make those pieces work as one, like five fingers on one hand ready to punch. Vogel has been masterful with his lineups and figuring out player’s roles and helping them maximize their production for the team on the court. To throw it back to something earlier, Vogel has had to be able to be light on his feet and adapt and adjust, and with the way he’s coached this Lakers team, this most assuredly won’t be his last year with Los Angeles.
WINNER
Giving it to Budenholzer wouldn’t be too surprising, but neither would it be if he didn’t get the award. The standard of excellence has already been set and the team has Giannis and others from last season’s successful team, so this year is no surprise. Nurse may get it because he should have gotten more respect in last season’s voting, plus voters still have fresh in their minds that he won the title last year, which is the ultimate Nelson Muntz “HA! HA!’ However, the Raptors haven’t been the best when playing against winning teams, so that may diminish his chances, although it shouldn’t. Spoelstra will likely remain one of those coaches that’s regarded as excellent his whole career, but we won’t really know until he retires, and his Heat didn’t really slap like that this season, so he probably won’t get it. So, I’m going with Vogel here because of everything he’s had to deal with off the court, in order to flourish on the court.