Yesterday, coach Mike Budenholzer of the Atlanta Hawks was announced as the NBA Coach of the Year for the 2014-15 season.
Steve Kerr, the first-year coach for the Golden State Warriors, should have been honoured. Instead, he finished second in voting with 417 total points, behind Budenholzer’s 513.
The race was always between Budenholzer and Kerr, and Budenholzer is no doubt a worthy winner. In his second year as a head coach, Budenholzer guided the Hawks to a franchise best 60-22 record, winning the Hawks first division title since 1994 and locking up a No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. His 17-0 undefeated streak in January is the best unbeaten month in NBA history, and four of his players were named All-Stars – Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and Al Horford.
Despite all this, he doesn’t deserve Coach of the Year. Everyone knows the Eastern Conference is woeful, and if LeBron and D-Rose weren’t injured for stretches of the season, the Cavaliers or the Bulls could easily be the No. 1 seed.
Is putting together a 60-win season impressive? Of course. But when you’re in a conference where only a third of the teams can manage to break .500, it’s not as good as it appears.
Let’s look at Golden State. In Steve Kerr’s first season, he was the first rookie coach to win 19 of his first 21 games, and eight games into his coaching career, he went on a 16-game winning streak. He gave the Warriors their first division title since 1976, finishing with an NBA best 67-15 record, setting franchise records for wins with a .817 win percentage. Golden State finished their season 38-2 at home.
People will be quick to point out that the Hawks don’t have a ‘superstar’ like the Warriors do, as if Budenholzer had to win 60 games with a bunch of D-Leaguers and subpar players. The Hawks aren’t playing with a bunch of scrubs – not only did they have their four All-Stars (2 more than GSW) in Jeff Teague, Kyle Korver, Paul Millsap and Al Horford, they also had key role players in DeMarre Carroll and Dennis Schroder.
The crux of the matter is this – the Warriors recent seasons mean they expect great success. Kerr’s predicament reminds me of a team across the Bay from Golden State – the San Francisco 49ers. Both the 49ers and the Warriors fired their highly successful coaches in Mark Jackson and Jim Harbaugh respectively because of a clash of personalities between the coach and front office.
Both coaches had led their team to the playoffs, with Harbaugh even getting to a Super Bowl in 2012.
Kerr faced a similar problem as Jim Tomsula faces now. Kerr had to come in after a winning coach and maintain that success. He didn’t just maintain it though – he elevated the team to new heights and achieved more than anyone thought possible.
Just a reminder, Steve Kerr has no formal coaching experience. He was a prolific three-point shooter in his playing days, notching five NBA rings with the Bulls and the Spurs, but he had a disastrous three-year run as GM in Phoenix from 2007-2010.
Budenholzer, on the other hand, was an assistant coach with the Spurs from 1996-2013, winning four NBA championships – two of which Kerr was a part of as a player. Budenholzer was schooled by the great Gregg Popovich, perhaps the most outstanding coach of our time, and learnt under a system designed for success.
Budenholzer had all the tools to become a 60-game-winning head coach when hired by the Hawks two years ago, because he’d learnt from a future Hall-of-Famer himself.
The question comes down to this – what is it harder to do? Is it harder to ‘turn a team around’, like Budenholzer did, or is it harder to come in as a new coach and maintain the level of success your predecessor set before you? I believe that a rookie coach achieving 67 wins in a season is worthy of an award, especially when combined with the pressure of having to best Jackson’s previous record of 51-31.
Budenholzer can have the award this year. It’s rare for a team in the East that doesn’t have a guy named LeBron on their roster to achieve that level of success. Just know that if Kerr can repeat the success he had this season in the future, then I suspect plenty more Coach of the Year awards to be heading out to Oakland.
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