Race for Coach of the Year

[RonnieBrewer (急凍人布魯爾)]

Race for Coach of the Year
By  Israel Gutierrez
for HOOPSWORLD.com
Mar 25, 2007, 02:00 

It usually becomes the more-with-less award, when a team has a surprisingly
good season despite an undermanned or injury-depleted roster.

Unless, of course, it becomes the best-with-more award, when a team that is
loaded goes on to sport a dominant record and runs away from the rest of the
league.

We're talking, of course, about the Coach of the Year award.

This season, there are candidates on both sides of the ledger, making it a
fairly difficult call.

On the more-with-less side there are Jeff Van Gundy, whose Rockets have
suffered key injuries and never missed a beat, Jerry Sloan, whose Jazz were
never supposed to be this good after a rather quite offseason, and Sam
Mitchell, who went from nearly losing his job to likely leading the Raptors
to a division title.

On the best-with-more side, there is Avery Johnson, whose Mavericks have had
the best record in the league almost all season despite starting off 0-4, and
Mike D'Antoni, whose Suns have been right behind Dallas and continue to win
with their unique style.

Truthfully, there should only be a handful of coaches eligible for this award
each season. The best coaches year-in and year-out are usually the same group
that include old favorites like Sloan, Don Nelson, Pat Riley, Phil Jackson
and Gregg Popovich, and relatively newer members like Van Gundy, D'Antoni,
Johnson and Rick Carlisle.

So for that reason, Mitchell immediately gets tossed off the list of
candidates for this season. As much as we'd like to give him credit for
guiding the Raptors to a nice season, it can't be a coincidence that his
success comes during the first season of Bryan Colangelo's tenure as
president and general manager. It was Colangelo, of course, who has gotten
the credit for building the current Suns group that has been brilliant for
the past three seasons.

It's not to say Mitchell, who was privately criticized by his players the
last two years before this season, can't improve as a coach. It's just hard
to believe he has improved this much this quickly. Maybe next year, Coach.

D'Antoni's next off the list, if only because his team doesn't have the
best record in the league, and because he got back a dominant force in Amare
Stoudemire and actually has to do less work than he did at any point last
season.

Sloan is difficult to dismiss, but it must be done. Even though he would be
entirely deserving if he does get it, it's not Sloan alone who has turned
around this Jazz team. Last year, the Jazz didn't even get half a season out
of Carlos Boozer, and this year he is playing like one of the best power
forwards in the league. Last season, Deron Williams had a disappointing
rookie season, and it took that disappointment to encourage him to get in
better shape and play like the point guard the Jazz drafted. And with the
help of those two guys, Mehmet Okur gets named an All-Star, even though he
is actually having a slightly worse overall season than he did last year.

Sloan is merely teaching what he has for decades in Utah. This isn't really
a magician's work.

The final knockout punch? That has to be thrown in the direction of Johnson.

Yes, the little man with the angry scowl has changed the culture of the
Mavericks team, turning them into a defensive team who can also score,
rather than an offensive team who must be prodded to play defense.

But Johnson's in-game adjustments remain questionable, and it is yet to be
proven just how taxing the demanding Johnson can be on his players. If the
Mavericks collapse in the postseason, it might just be because Johnson
doesn't have a lower gear. He is full throttle at all times, which can wear
on players.

So that leaves Van Gundy, who has also done a masterful job in making the
Rockets one of the best defensive teams in the league (the best in my book),
despite having a slow-footed center and a star guard who has never been
known for putting in the defensive effort until he arrived in Houston.

He has also managed to do it despite missing one of his two franchise players
for a total of 41 games. And his supposedly big free-agent signing, Bonzi
Wells, has played just 26 games because he basically refuses to get in shape.

So that settles it. This year, it's the more-with-less award. At least until
someone else wins it and makes me look silly.


                                http://www.hoopsworld.com/article_21364.shtml 

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→ RonnieBrewer:Since Sloan is one of the old favorites, how come
→ RonnieBrewer:he never won a COY award?
→ RonnieBrewer:上次不是有誰說 Sloan is a good teacher ?
→ RonnieBrewer: Boozer說的?
推 CarlosBoozer:Okur一對一說的
推 RonnieBrewer:Okur:  He's a great teacher
推 Actus:MehmtOkur: He's a great teacher，but I am g professor.
推 JerrySloan:VanGundy算哪根蔥
推 sam369:X教授?
推 hardaway:史龍的年度教練又飛了嗎　Ｔ.Ｔ
→ hardaway:                 要
→ hardaway:               要
→ CarlosBoozer:           命
推 sam369:X
推 nobody:山米邱跟節夫滿乾迪比較有可能..
→ TimChiu:8000