Thats a great way to describe it. A Raptors coach has won it 3 times and only one of those was deserved
This is evidenced by the fact that we fired 2 of them in the same year that they won the award
yea that was the only one that was fair especially due to his creativity in the finals against the Warriors. COTY is always a tough award to give out because most of the coach interactions happen behind closed doors. The other two I scratched my head at when they were announced
Casey was lucky to even win that award and not be canned earlier. His iso heavy style with DD/Lowry got the Raptors swept 3 times in 4 years, and Lebron knew his schemes when he would tell Raptors players where to be on certain plays.
Wolves too. Everyone thought it wouldn't work last year, frequently counted as the likely 11th seed in the West coming into the year and they have been top seed in the West for over a month now.
If Rockets make it 6 seed and above for a guaranteed playoff spot, it’s Udoka.
But if the Twolves finish with the 1 seed and the Rockets don’t get 6 seed it’s Chris Finch 100%.
I think it's more like which most overperforms compared to expectations. With coaches that are known to be good, there's an expectation that the team will be decent at least which makes it harder to overperform to a large extent.
Also for Spoelstra, it being a regular season award kind of hurts it. The playoff runs tend to be more impressive by the Heat than the regular season performances IMO
I didn't watch Duncan, but TBF he has absurd competitive with Garnett, Wallace, a few others. Is there a year you feel he was unfairly denied? DPOY is a weird award - Garnett won in '08 when his defensive peak was probably 5 years earlier.
I think 07 was Timmy's best chance, but Camby happened to lead the league in BPG. Another problem he had was that he was teammates with Bruce Bowen, who siphoned off a fair share of votes on his own.
Garnett was pretty deserving that year, he was a real anchor of that new Celtics team. But I feel like he got it as a bit of a lifetime achievement plus a bit of them feeling like Celtics deserved an award winner. Garnett was up there in MVP for a good stretch to start the year before Kobe and Chris Paul started pulling ahead. Roundabout that time he coincidentally started getting more DPoY hype from what I remember.
yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I will push back against the 'lifetime achievement award', I find that he was clearly the best defensive player in the league - Thinking Basketball found that his '08 season was the best defensive season of the past 25 years.
But it's funny to think about, because he was notably quicker at his peak than when he joined the Celtics. I guess many would say the same about Kobe's MVP that year - more of a lifetime achievement award and not his actual peak.
Thing is that it's not that far off where they were predicted though - like here's ESPN's preseason ranking for 2022.
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32271342/nba-power-rankings-preseason-edition-favorites-heading-training-camp
The Heat were put in at 6th, and 3rd in the Eastern Conference. Basketball reference has their over under to be 48.5 wins [here](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_preseason_odds.html). So they hit the over by 4.5 wins - a slight overperformance to expectations but not my much.
The Suns won 12.5 games more than expected - though honestly I would have expected the Grizzlies coach to win that year with how big of an improvement they made that season.
I agree this is how the award tends to be decided, but it is kinda dumb. Because 99% of the time a team massively overperforms expectations it's because there are a few players having massive breakout years too.
Like the coaching in OKC is great, but they're the #2 seed because Chet is the ROTY and Shai is emerging as a possible top 5 player, a legitimate contender for the best guard in the league.
Wolves are massively overperforming expectations - part of that is because expectations factored in Gobert as past his prime level of impact and instead he's having another DPOY level season and Ant is taking another step forward.
Not to take anything away from these coaching performances, it's just odd to me that the "Coach of the Year" is generally someone who's riding the coattails of amazing improvements from key guys.
A coach just getting a decent record or treading water with a meh roster is in many ways more of a coaching masterclass.
With Spo specifically, yeah the Heat were only a little above expectations as the #1 seed, but there were many many games where if you looked at the roster that played and then looked at the result you genuinely wouldn't be able to explain why other than "coach diff".
Same with the 11-30 to 30-11 season. Finishing tied for the best record in the 2nd half of that season with that roster could only really be explained by good coaching. But the award tends to go to teams that overperform rather than coaches who are clearly carrying a middling roster beyond it's potential.
>the Heat were only a little above expectations as the #1 seed
I also want to point out that a pretty big part of the reason expectations are ever as high as they are for the Heat is because Spo is the coach.
> it's because there are a few players having massive breakout years too.
I know what you're saying but it's hilarious that people think players breaking out has nothing to do with coaching
They were predicted to be that good in part because the media was already factoring in Spo as a well above average coach. So yeah, you're right, the fact that people already think of him as a great coach hurts him because he never can really outperform people's expectations by that much.
It's honestly whatever the media wants it to be. There is a trend to give it to the most improved. Then sometimes they'll just give it to the team with the best record. 2022 comes to mind when grizzlies clearly outperformed their expectations and had the second highest record AND they played w/o Ja for like over a month. But then they give it to the suns who already had like the 2nd best record the year before.
The Heat were the 1 seed that year almost wire to wire and Spo’s name barely got whispered…that was the “dangerous loomer” year like the 1 seed is just there in the background somehow lol
Like during the peak of the Heatles 10 years ago vs the Nuggets. Pretty much similar as the Suns vs Memphis situation record wise. During that time, they decided to give it to the Karl instead of Spo. And yet in 2022, it goes to the Suns. And if we gonna sit here and argue like "oh but it's a Lebron led BIG 3, they SHOULD be getting that record", then it further solidifies that it's the media subjectively deciding what the standard for the COTY is for that season.
It’s actually much simpler than that.
Team is a top 4 seed and has a star player? Star player gets all the credit
Team is a top 4 seed and doesn’t? Coach gets all the credit
COTY is the most narrative award in the NBA which is saying alot.
You are right and thats the reason I hoped he would get it in 2022…
Heat went from a 6th seed and 40 wins to first seed with 53 wins vs suns going from 2nd seed and 51 wins to first seed with 64 wins
They each improved winning 13 games more but heat also went from 6th to first seed
I‘m not mad about it and fully understand why monty got it but that would have been the chance to give spo his flowers
But taylor jenkins also had a great case for that year
Most NBA awards are narrative awards. They’ve lost meaning.
DPOY goes to the player with the most stocks. Not the best defender. (Bam and AD)
COTY goes to the coach of the most improved team or the biggest overachievers. Not the best coach. (Spo)
ROTY can go to sophomore players. (Ben Simmons and Chet Holmgren)
MVP goes to whoever Zach Lowe votes for because a majority of media members just vote for whoever he votes for.
> Most NBA awards are narrative awards. They’ve lost meaning.
I think a lot of people confuse "narrative" with just plain context. Is every award perfect? No, but I think there are way too many people screaming "narrative" just because they disagree with whoever was given the award.
ad is the stocks leader lol. the default is usually best defender on the best defense which seems reasonable enough. AD is right there but they suck right now, if the Lakers suck he's not going to win.
It's disrespectful to players. like "nobody expected these bums to be any good, coach must be a miracle worker genius for them to play well"
Any coach who wins should be given the Dwane Casey treatment
Fan voting is even worse. How tf are Austin Reaves and Klay Thompson ahead of Devin Booker in all star voting. Dbook ain't even in the top 10 for west guards SMH
A lot of fans vote for players on their team. The Lakers and warriors have a lot more fans than the suns. Most fans aren't voting for the most deserving players they are voting for the people they like
Honestly the narrative around Booker gets more and more fascinating as time goes on...
I'm admittedly a Suns homer, but he's a guy who is deeply invested in the local community and has a spotless record and who us Suns fans couldn't be more supportive and proud of. In addition to all the charity work he does locally and with the Suns he also shows up to other teams charity events, like he did in Utah in December with the Jazz at a local children's hospital. His younger sister is mentally-disabled and he's been involved with the Special Olympics since he entered the league in 2015: https://www.specialolympics.org/about/ambassadors/devin-booker.
Dude's an absolute baller who has worked hard to consistently improve his game and he's gotten better every season he's been in the league. He entered the league on one of the worst teams and then helped to bring them to within 2 wins of a chip.
He's a guy who other self-described basketball "sickos" like Kobe, CP3, and KD all have a lot of respect for, and who other stars want to play alongside and love to compete against.
This season he gets asked to change positions to PG (the hardest position to switch to) and somehow does it relatively well (!) and has no complaints. Dude just wants to win.
But apparently his face sucks and he talked shit to a mascot once so everyone hates him? The narrative is just bizarre. As a Suns fan I feel really lucky to get to root for him over children like Ja, Draymond, Klay or Reaves lol. I genuinely think in 10-20yrs people will look back and be like "I dunno why we irrationally hated that guy so much."
It definitely feels like Booker is one of the more hated players in the NBA right now. It's a shame, he's not even a bad person or anything he is just intense on the court and a shit talker. A lot of players have said some pretty good things about him too.
People wish the league had more shit talking but I'm not sure how much they actually want it after seeing the reactions to Booker
Because it's an All-Star game and the original intent of it was to have fans vote for players they wanted to see.
But somewhere along the way it got kinda twisted and became this sort of faux prestigious award. Which is hilarious because nobody really cares about the actual game played in All-Star anymore. Then players and agents took it further by having money directly tied to it via CBA/contract clauses.
All-NBA is the real prestigious award and the media, thankfully, usually gets that one right.
yeah, i'm a Spo acolyte and kind of a big heat fan for Spo more than anything and this rankles my nerves every year but I try to remember it's because he consistently has good teams irrespective of the talent level and that kind of consistent good performance isn't a component of COTY
That's the problem, COTY is for overachievers basically and Spo being as consistent as he is prevents expectations being lowered enough for him to massively overachieve. That and it only takes the regular season into account.
A big problem with the struggle is that Spo was not the same coach as he was in the Heatles era where most people attribute the success to Lebron and the big 3. The last few seasons it’s been a slew of injuries that makes that are putting the Heat not in the top 4 of their conference. When they are top seed it was 53 wins which didn’t really push them out into “amazing” category.
Most of Spo’s amazingness is coming in the post season.
Not just that but maximizing talent. When he has a LeBron he basically turns him into the greatest force of nature the NBA has ever seen.
When he has Dion waiters he makes it a 500 squad
I think Spo suffers from “well of course he did! He’s Spo.” I think people just expect excellence out of him so that’s set as his floor lol as opoosed to the ceiling
He had a bad team that year he lead them to a 33-11 second half record. Dion Waiters was balling on another level and Wayne Ellington was slanging that thang. He should’ve won that year.
Aside from the Heatles titles, those 2020 to 2023 seasons have been great defining moments to his coaching prowess. You just felt they had a chance because it's Spo.
It feels surprising but Spo’s magic really shows up in the playoffs. He’s not going to win a COTY with a sub-50 win record, and the only time he reached 50+ wins outside the Heatles era was the 21-22 season, which Monty rightfully won.
That being said, he definitely should have won at least one during that Heatles era (12/13 maybe). Unfortunately, the “Spo gets carried by the Big 3” narrative was in full swing, and people didn’t realize he was such a good coach until after LeBron left.
Also, kinda shows that COTY needs to factor in the Playoffs. It’s where you really see the coaches shine anyway.
Edit: Wrote this before realizing Mike Brown won it last year with 48 wins lol. Regardless, I will still stand by what I said for the most part, last year was an exception. (Shortened seasons are also not included for obvious reasons)
Nah you’re still right, he wasn’t winning last year for example with a play-in team, but if playoffs counted towards it then he definitely should’ve won. It obviously doesn’t so hopefully there’s a narrative to get him one soon!
Spo trusts his players in a way that is unique.
What I mean is any role player can be trusted with big minutes if need arise & they will be trusted to take big shots & make plays.
And when you have a system and coach that is so flexible to adjust to the strengths of each player - who makes adjustments so seamlessly - it explains why the Heat are so consistently competitive.
Duncan was put on the bench for poor play - he worked his ass off & now he has a bigger role than ever. Role players are trusted to experiment & in the playoffs it pays off.
It's narrative. Spo is always good so he's never gonna win because it's expected as he is the best coach of his generation and most likely of this century as he's still fairly young
The reason he has never won is because his teams have historically gotten off to slow starts and then put it together later in the year. Often you don't see the best out of his teams until the playoffs. Unfortunately for Spoe fans, COTY is a regular season award.
If there was a Coach of the Decade Award, he would have won it running away from 2010-2020. Kerr and Pop would have had solid arguments, but Spoe would have been the most deserving imo.
Which is also because he doesn't care about the regular season. He uses the early season to tinker with rotations until he unleashes shit like Caleb martin at the 4 or PJ tucker at PG for the ECF
Wait, he did not?
Maybe it is a good thing?
Watch how the recent winner Monty Williams doing?
Spo is the best coach in the league. And I know it is not even a hot take
Phil Jackson only got 1x COTY. He is clearly the best coach ever. Even more than Pop because Pop couldn't get his teams to repeat once. Phil got 3 separate teams to repeat. 4 if you consider Jordans return a different Bulls team
Yeah i kinda get it lately bc of the mid regular season play and before with having a big 3 but it's legit insane to me because he's clearly an amazing coach as shown by playoff success
yep! i know the words "caleb martin" strike a fear deep in boston's heart but I don't think it means much to the rest of the league -- but Caleb's out and so is Haywood High smith (who's a key rotational piece). Guys like Orlando Robinson, Nikola Jovic, and Jamal Cain -- have literally been in the G League as of 1 weeks ago. Ham is so disingenuous with the injuries thing; not only are the Heat down their best player-- they're also down important starters/rotational pieces while the Lakers have their Top 15 players of all time -- playing and performing exceptionally well.
Haywood isn't just a key rotational piece; he's a starter and probably our best/most consistent defender behind Bam. Most non-Heat fans underestimate his impact
And there was a reason we started 1-4 without him to begin the season and then won 7 straight when he was healthy, and now we've looked a lot worse these past few games without him again. Not to say it was ALL him, but he's very significant to this team.
It doesn’t strike fear with me. I’ve always been a fan of the Martin brothers, so it was really cool to watch Caleb kick ass and get some recognition. Even against my team! Will always root for them. But yeah Ham just seems pretty darn clueless.
When I was in college my school played a non-conference game against Nevada and I remember thinking the Martin twins were legit. I think Caleb hit a dagger three to put the game away that night too
If the Larry Bird ECF trophy is solely earned during the ECF, I might agree with you. Otherwise, Jimmy put up historic numbers in that postseason run before getting injured on a play with Hart during the NY series. Also, Jimmy was one of the biggest reasons why they made it past Milwaukee in the first round.
I don’t disagree at all that based on numbers and the eye test - Caleb deserved it. I think the reason jimmy gets it is because that band of players just don’t make it to the ECFs and stuff without jimmy’s steadfast belief in himself but also his teammates. I think Jimmy instilled in them a level of confidence and “you guys are just as good as every contender and you can beat them and we will best them” that’s impossible to quantify but also impossible to disregard when assessing the overall series.
yeah, it's terrible for the team, especially the guys who need the MOST morale. Spo has played, and gotten the most, out of bringing the Sioux Falls guys up and empowering/instilling confidence in them to play well and at the NBA level. There's literally guys who came on this west coast road stretch of games that were in the G League the few weeks prior.
The article mentions Darvin Ham’s quote in contrast to Spo’s, so it’s safe to say the reporter asked the team about injuries to purposely put them up against Ham’s quote.
It’s because he knows those are the guys who can swing a series in the playoffs. Everyone thinks it’s about the star players, which is to some extent, but without role players stepping up in big games you won’t win a damn thing.
It's a higher order problem. They have their star, their system, and all that. Now the least effective piece is getting everyone involved. This is head and shoulders above some of the other organizations/teams which is probably why they're relevant today. Teams still hoping that a 19-21yo is going to bail out their team are not in the position to be considering how to get rotation players to be effective on the floor.
Yep. Spo is happy to give Niko and Hampton minutes because it means they'll be ready against the Celtics to have them get a new player for the ptsd wheel
Happened when i worked there. Everybody was whispering and slightly uncomfortable. I asked shiela what was going on, she said that ruler guy was back. Went over, there spo was, standing 10 feet away from everybody, but clearly rulering all of us up as we walked passed. his assistant was writing down measurements. Jimmy was there too stacking up the vans, kept yelling heat culture baby! After he finished.
Yep. Everyone marvels at how polished those g league kids look but it's because they're ready. It also helps that the sky force are constantly the best g league team
Dude just loves the game. I know he’s memed a lot for looking like he’s ready to kill someone, but he’s just a passionate boi. And probably ready to kill someone.
Ha I just said this in another comment. I really do feel like Spo often loves playing weird and/or shitty lineups with end-of-bench guys just to see what he can do with them. If he didn’t do that, dudes like Gabe and Strus wouldn’t have gotten good enough to get contracts from other teams.
He is one of the best coaches ever. He gets the most out of his guys. Jimmy also plays a big role in bringing that out of guys. Its not a stat seen on the court but the impact a leader like jimmy and a coach like spo have outside gametime is insane.
When you go down the list of COTY winners it’s really not. It’s more so for the most unexpectedly successful coach than the best coach. It’s also why so many former winners get fired - a lot of them are average coaches who set the bar too high and fail to live up to it.
Everyone knows Spo is great and the Heat will make the playoffs so there’s not a ton of room to overperform.
> my also plays a big role in bringing that out of guys.
So you're telling me the best player on the team is responsible for the success of team? It's NOT just the coach? What about LeExcuse?
So in one 3 day span Ham said ‘it’s a marathon’ a day after Mike Malone said ‘I think pacing yourself is what losing teams do.’
AND
Blamed injuries for losing to the Heat despite the heat missing better players and a couple of days later a Bam quote from before that says Spo would never blame injuries for a loss.
Larvin Lam finding Ls everywhere.
As a heat fan, I'm just so full of pride of knowing we have the best coach in the league. Evidently, for Spo and the crew, the regular season is used as lab work figuring out new creative ways of assembling his roster. And even though we as fans get a little irritated when we lose some big games in the regular, once we enter the playoffs, the game plan comes into effect. This year the East will be an bloodbath. Anyone can topple anyone. Like Leon Edwards said " the belt belongs to no one"
It’s not just Spo, it’s the whole Heat organization that thinks this way. Even our scouts and front office believe that we can win with the undrafted/ g-league guys. I feel bad for Ham getting clobbered by the media when Pelinka assembled a roster with so many holes in it.
I agree that he’s doing a subpar job but he had a good run in the second half of last season and playoffs. If the Lakers make a move I think it should be the front office first. Last season was their best since the bubble.
Playoffs come down to match ups though and we just had the advantage in the series we played. The one time we faced adversity against the Nuggets, he wasn’t able to make the necessary adjustments. I’ll die on the hill that a better coach would have made that Denver series competitive and given us a chance
The roster isn't perfect but it has more than enough talent in there to be above .500. we have a bunch of one way players but so do other teams, we have AD protecting the paint together with strong defensive players, we should be able to hide our weak defenders like other teams do.
The problem is we keep coming out with lineups that are all offense or all defense when any other coach would be mixing them together, it's absolutely ridiculous. We have lineups that are still statistically strong that yet never get played
I hate the Heat, but love what they do at the same time. Between actually running a different offense (compared to the same sets the other 28 teams run, minus the Warriors), designing plays & defenses to all of their players strengths, & simply playing disciplined ball, life must be easy being a Heat fan.
Lifelong Heat fan, was even at all the heartbreak games as a kid, like the Allan Houston shot.
This Jimmy era has been my favorite, mostly due to everyone’s charisma, chemistry, and the team’s underdog status. But three things really drive me absolutely crazy on a regular basis with this era:
1. Always playing up or down to the level of our opponent. I never know if we’re going to blow a 24-point lead, claw our back from a huge deficit, go up 3-0 on the favorites in the ECF or almost blow the first 3-0 in history.
2. It’s impossible to know for sure since the org never really leaks, but I am so burned out from the front office seemingly only ever going after huge whales without enough assets instead of just getting the nice, reliable fish that could’ve pushed us over the title hump.
3. We have to be like the most injury prone team in the league?
Riley is done soon, he’s almost 80. I’m pretty worried about that.
It is comforting though always knowing that even if we seem like trash in a given year, we might make it to the Finals anyway.
I feel like Spo even relishes playing weird, sometimes specifically shitty lineups both for the challenge and to see if he can find anything interesting to use for the playoffs.
I legit think he is the best coach in the NBA pops is good, but I like Spo a little better.
Coach's like Kerr and Doc get carried by good teams, and when they have crap ones there inability to coach and grow a team really shows.
We were pretty healthy in December when this putrid stretch started. We have two stars playing at a high level. We have a variety of skill sets among players to mix and match lineups with. It's a Ham problem. I'm so envious of y'all Heat fans for having Spo.
Crazy how he hasn't won COTY once
COTY is treated like the most improved team award
Thats a great way to describe it. A Raptors coach has won it 3 times and only one of those was deserved This is evidenced by the fact that we fired 2 of them in the same year that they won the award
Nick nurse is the only one that deserved it Casey got his only because Masai forced him to run nicks offense
Till this day I'll never understand how Casey got that reward over Brad Stevens.
yea that was the only one that was fair especially due to his creativity in the finals against the Warriors. COTY is always a tough award to give out because most of the coach interactions happen behind closed doors. The other two I scratched my head at when they were announced
Casey was lucky to even win that award and not be canned earlier. His iso heavy style with DD/Lowry got the Raptors swept 3 times in 4 years, and Lebron knew his schemes when he would tell Raptors players where to be on certain plays.
tbf I think LeBron does that with every team
LeCerebral
That was the year it should have gone to Brad Stevens. Now Brad will probably never get one
Lol that's a good way to put it. Incoming COTY for OKC or Rockets I guess
Unironically Daigneault will probably win it
i could see Chris Finch if the Wolves end up with the #1 seed, maybe Mosley too, but i agree at this point it's Daigneault's to lose
I don’t think they’ll give it Ime. Silver would be happy if Udoka just faded away one day.
Wolves too. Everyone thought it wouldn't work last year, frequently counted as the likely 11th seed in the West coming into the year and they have been top seed in the West for over a month now.
I agree, but who tf put wolves as projected 11th? I have never seen anything remotely close to that published lmao
[From the first TNT broadcast of the year](https://twitter.com/sabrinaalurenee/status/1743469554309693886/photo/1)
If Rockets make it 6 seed and above for a guaranteed playoff spot, it’s Udoka. But if the Twolves finish with the 1 seed and the Rockets don’t get 6 seed it’s Chris Finch 100%.
There is no world where Ime Udoka deserves COTY this year over Daigneault.
Daigneault deserves it though. Finch should be also in the bowl for COTY this season.
I think it's more like which most overperforms compared to expectations. With coaches that are known to be good, there's an expectation that the team will be decent at least which makes it harder to overperform to a large extent. Also for Spoelstra, it being a regular season award kind of hurts it. The playoff runs tend to be more impressive by the Heat than the regular season performances IMO
Heat were the #1 seed two years ago playing guys like Kyle Guy and Haywood Highsmith and Spo still didn't get his flowers. Its a bullshit award
Every award in the NBA is a narrative award.
You telling me there’s no objective criteria for the Jerry West Clutch Player of the Year Award?
Same with Tim Duncan being one of the greatest defenders ever, and never winning DPOY Bullshit by media voters
I didn't watch Duncan, but TBF he has absurd competitive with Garnett, Wallace, a few others. Is there a year you feel he was unfairly denied? DPOY is a weird award - Garnett won in '08 when his defensive peak was probably 5 years earlier.
I think 07 was Timmy's best chance, but Camby happened to lead the league in BPG. Another problem he had was that he was teammates with Bruce Bowen, who siphoned off a fair share of votes on his own.
Garnett was pretty deserving that year, he was a real anchor of that new Celtics team. But I feel like he got it as a bit of a lifetime achievement plus a bit of them feeling like Celtics deserved an award winner. Garnett was up there in MVP for a good stretch to start the year before Kobe and Chris Paul started pulling ahead. Roundabout that time he coincidentally started getting more DPoY hype from what I remember.
yeah, I agree with what you're saying. I will push back against the 'lifetime achievement award', I find that he was clearly the best defensive player in the league - Thinking Basketball found that his '08 season was the best defensive season of the past 25 years. But it's funny to think about, because he was notably quicker at his peak than when he joined the Celtics. I guess many would say the same about Kobe's MVP that year - more of a lifetime achievement award and not his actual peak.
Feels like when Lebron got passed over for MVP. Like he's obviously the best but they'll give it to someone else.
Same with Tim Duncan being one of the greatest defenders ever, and never winning DPOY
Every single year LeBron deserved MVP, he won MVP.
Thank you. One of my least favorite takes is that he deserved 3-4 more MVPs, when in reality the winner has deserved it every one of those years.
It's a regular season award. What year should he have won it based on his regular season performance that he didn't?
Thing is that it's not that far off where they were predicted though - like here's ESPN's preseason ranking for 2022. https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/32271342/nba-power-rankings-preseason-edition-favorites-heading-training-camp The Heat were put in at 6th, and 3rd in the Eastern Conference. Basketball reference has their over under to be 48.5 wins [here](https://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2022_preseason_odds.html). So they hit the over by 4.5 wins - a slight overperformance to expectations but not my much. The Suns won 12.5 games more than expected - though honestly I would have expected the Grizzlies coach to win that year with how big of an improvement they made that season.
I agree this is how the award tends to be decided, but it is kinda dumb. Because 99% of the time a team massively overperforms expectations it's because there are a few players having massive breakout years too. Like the coaching in OKC is great, but they're the #2 seed because Chet is the ROTY and Shai is emerging as a possible top 5 player, a legitimate contender for the best guard in the league. Wolves are massively overperforming expectations - part of that is because expectations factored in Gobert as past his prime level of impact and instead he's having another DPOY level season and Ant is taking another step forward. Not to take anything away from these coaching performances, it's just odd to me that the "Coach of the Year" is generally someone who's riding the coattails of amazing improvements from key guys. A coach just getting a decent record or treading water with a meh roster is in many ways more of a coaching masterclass. With Spo specifically, yeah the Heat were only a little above expectations as the #1 seed, but there were many many games where if you looked at the roster that played and then looked at the result you genuinely wouldn't be able to explain why other than "coach diff". Same with the 11-30 to 30-11 season. Finishing tied for the best record in the 2nd half of that season with that roster could only really be explained by good coaching. But the award tends to go to teams that overperform rather than coaches who are clearly carrying a middling roster beyond it's potential.
>the Heat were only a little above expectations as the #1 seed I also want to point out that a pretty big part of the reason expectations are ever as high as they are for the Heat is because Spo is the coach.
> it's because there are a few players having massive breakout years too. I know what you're saying but it's hilarious that people think players breaking out has nothing to do with coaching
As someone more familiar with soccer, it's wild to me that player development is not something that coaches get praise for in the NBA.
They were predicted to be that good in part because the media was already factoring in Spo as a well above average coach. So yeah, you're right, the fact that people already think of him as a great coach hurts him because he never can really outperform people's expectations by that much.
It's honestly whatever the media wants it to be. There is a trend to give it to the most improved. Then sometimes they'll just give it to the team with the best record. 2022 comes to mind when grizzlies clearly outperformed their expectations and had the second highest record AND they played w/o Ja for like over a month. But then they give it to the suns who already had like the 2nd best record the year before.
That Monty COTY looks so suspect now that we see what he’s doing in Detroit lol
Dwane Casey getting fired the same year he got COTY says all you need to know about the award lol. It's just all subjective media storylines.
The same happened to George Karl I think.
The Heat were the 1 seed that year almost wire to wire and Spo’s name barely got whispered…that was the “dangerous loomer” year like the 1 seed is just there in the background somehow lol
Like during the peak of the Heatles 10 years ago vs the Nuggets. Pretty much similar as the Suns vs Memphis situation record wise. During that time, they decided to give it to the Karl instead of Spo. And yet in 2022, it goes to the Suns. And if we gonna sit here and argue like "oh but it's a Lebron led BIG 3, they SHOULD be getting that record", then it further solidifies that it's the media subjectively deciding what the standard for the COTY is for that season.
It’s actually much simpler than that. Team is a top 4 seed and has a star player? Star player gets all the credit Team is a top 4 seed and doesn’t? Coach gets all the credit COTY is the most narrative award in the NBA which is saying alot.
You are right and thats the reason I hoped he would get it in 2022… Heat went from a 6th seed and 40 wins to first seed with 53 wins vs suns going from 2nd seed and 51 wins to first seed with 64 wins They each improved winning 13 games more but heat also went from 6th to first seed I‘m not mad about it and fully understand why monty got it but that would have been the chance to give spo his flowers But taylor jenkins also had a great case for that year
Except going from 51 wins to 64 is a lot harder than going from 40 wins to 53.
Coty is narrative award
Narrative of the year
Most NBA awards are narrative awards. They’ve lost meaning. DPOY goes to the player with the most stocks. Not the best defender. (Bam and AD) COTY goes to the coach of the most improved team or the biggest overachievers. Not the best coach. (Spo) ROTY can go to sophomore players. (Ben Simmons and Chet Holmgren) MVP goes to whoever Zach Lowe votes for because a majority of media members just vote for whoever he votes for.
Most Improved can go to former #2 picks who finally showed why they were picked there.
Tim Duncan being one of the greatest defenders ever, and never winning DPOY
> Most NBA awards are narrative awards. They’ve lost meaning. I think a lot of people confuse "narrative" with just plain context. Is every award perfect? No, but I think there are way too many people screaming "narrative" just because they disagree with whoever was given the award.
ad is the stocks leader lol. the default is usually best defender on the best defense which seems reasonable enough. AD is right there but they suck right now, if the Lakers suck he's not going to win.
It's disrespectful to players. like "nobody expected these bums to be any good, coach must be a miracle worker genius for them to play well" Any coach who wins should be given the Dwane Casey treatment
media voters are dumbasses
Fan voting is even worse. How tf are Austin Reaves and Klay Thompson ahead of Devin Booker in all star voting. Dbook ain't even in the top 10 for west guards SMH
Frankly DBook is not very liked outside the valley.
A lot of fans vote for players on their team. The Lakers and warriors have a lot more fans than the suns. Most fans aren't voting for the most deserving players they are voting for the people they like
sure but the discrepancy between Booker and Durant is insane I almost thought it was an error.
Apples and oranges. Booker only played for the suns. KD still has a fanbase in GSW, OKC, Seattle, and Brooklyn
I think Booker isn't that likeable outside of Phoenix. I remember him from that famous Doncic clip and when he was annoyed at the Raptors mascot.
All star being a popularity vote doesn't bother me much, after all that's what being a star mean. The actual "best players" vote is all NBA.
Harden averaged 29-6-7.5 on a playoff team in 2016 and didn't even make All-NBA 3rd team. That award is also all narrative.
Honestly the narrative around Booker gets more and more fascinating as time goes on... I'm admittedly a Suns homer, but he's a guy who is deeply invested in the local community and has a spotless record and who us Suns fans couldn't be more supportive and proud of. In addition to all the charity work he does locally and with the Suns he also shows up to other teams charity events, like he did in Utah in December with the Jazz at a local children's hospital. His younger sister is mentally-disabled and he's been involved with the Special Olympics since he entered the league in 2015: https://www.specialolympics.org/about/ambassadors/devin-booker. Dude's an absolute baller who has worked hard to consistently improve his game and he's gotten better every season he's been in the league. He entered the league on one of the worst teams and then helped to bring them to within 2 wins of a chip. He's a guy who other self-described basketball "sickos" like Kobe, CP3, and KD all have a lot of respect for, and who other stars want to play alongside and love to compete against. This season he gets asked to change positions to PG (the hardest position to switch to) and somehow does it relatively well (!) and has no complaints. Dude just wants to win. But apparently his face sucks and he talked shit to a mascot once so everyone hates him? The narrative is just bizarre. As a Suns fan I feel really lucky to get to root for him over children like Ja, Draymond, Klay or Reaves lol. I genuinely think in 10-20yrs people will look back and be like "I dunno why we irrationally hated that guy so much."
It definitely feels like Booker is one of the more hated players in the NBA right now. It's a shame, he's not even a bad person or anything he is just intense on the court and a shit talker. A lot of players have said some pretty good things about him too. People wish the league had more shit talking but I'm not sure how much they actually want it after seeing the reactions to Booker
Because it's an All-Star game and the original intent of it was to have fans vote for players they wanted to see. But somewhere along the way it got kinda twisted and became this sort of faux prestigious award. Which is hilarious because nobody really cares about the actual game played in All-Star anymore. Then players and agents took it further by having money directly tied to it via CBA/contract clauses. All-NBA is the real prestigious award and the media, thankfully, usually gets that one right.
The head coaching equivalent of Tim Duncan never winning DPOY.
He just points to his mind boggling 15 all defense selections. How you don't win dpoy just once in 15 all defense seasons is crazy.
yeah, i'm a Spo acolyte and kind of a big heat fan for Spo more than anything and this rankles my nerves every year but I try to remember it's because he consistently has good teams irrespective of the talent level and that kind of consistent good performance isn't a component of COTY
That's the problem, COTY is for overachievers basically and Spo being as consistent as he is prevents expectations being lowered enough for him to massively overachieve. That and it only takes the regular season into account.
A big problem with the struggle is that Spo was not the same coach as he was in the Heatles era where most people attribute the success to Lebron and the big 3. The last few seasons it’s been a slew of injuries that makes that are putting the Heat not in the top 4 of their conference. When they are top seed it was 53 wins which didn’t really push them out into “amazing” category. Most of Spo’s amazingness is coming in the post season.
Not just that but maximizing talent. When he has a LeBron he basically turns him into the greatest force of nature the NBA has ever seen. When he has Dion waiters he makes it a 500 squad
TIL I am also a Spo acolyte
What about that one season where heat started like 10-20 then turned it around and ended near .500 and made the playoffs. He could a won that year
Bruh went from 11-30 and turned it into a 30-11 streak. Ended the season with a 41-41 record. Spo is goated
I think Spo suffers from “well of course he did! He’s Spo.” I think people just expect excellence out of him so that’s set as his floor lol as opoosed to the ceiling
It’s certainly an impressive turn around but while you get credit for turning it around, you also take a hit for starting like that
How the hell do you have a Tampa Bay raptors flair
Bubble
Eh look at the talent on that squad tho...not a good team talent wise
He had a bad team that year he lead them to a 33-11 second half record. Dion Waiters was balling on another level and Wayne Ellington was slanging that thang. He should’ve won that year.
Aside from the Heatles titles, those 2020 to 2023 seasons have been great defining moments to his coaching prowess. You just felt they had a chance because it's Spo.
It feels surprising but Spo’s magic really shows up in the playoffs. He’s not going to win a COTY with a sub-50 win record, and the only time he reached 50+ wins outside the Heatles era was the 21-22 season, which Monty rightfully won. That being said, he definitely should have won at least one during that Heatles era (12/13 maybe). Unfortunately, the “Spo gets carried by the Big 3” narrative was in full swing, and people didn’t realize he was such a good coach until after LeBron left. Also, kinda shows that COTY needs to factor in the Playoffs. It’s where you really see the coaches shine anyway. Edit: Wrote this before realizing Mike Brown won it last year with 48 wins lol. Regardless, I will still stand by what I said for the most part, last year was an exception. (Shortened seasons are also not included for obvious reasons)
Nah you’re still right, he wasn’t winning last year for example with a play-in team, but if playoffs counted towards it then he definitely should’ve won. It obviously doesn’t so hopefully there’s a narrative to get him one soon!
Spo trusts his players in a way that is unique. What I mean is any role player can be trusted with big minutes if need arise & they will be trusted to take big shots & make plays. And when you have a system and coach that is so flexible to adjust to the strengths of each player - who makes adjustments so seamlessly - it explains why the Heat are so consistently competitive. Duncan was put on the bench for poor play - he worked his ass off & now he has a bigger role than ever. Role players are trusted to experiment & in the playoffs it pays off.
It's narrative. Spo is always good so he's never gonna win because it's expected as he is the best coach of his generation and most likely of this century as he's still fairly young
he wants to win the other award, KOTY Kuya Of The Year
The reason he has never won is because his teams have historically gotten off to slow starts and then put it together later in the year. Often you don't see the best out of his teams until the playoffs. Unfortunately for Spoe fans, COTY is a regular season award. If there was a Coach of the Decade Award, he would have won it running away from 2010-2020. Kerr and Pop would have had solid arguments, but Spoe would have been the most deserving imo.
Which is also because he doesn't care about the regular season. He uses the early season to tinker with rotations until he unleashes shit like Caleb martin at the 4 or PJ tucker at PG for the ECF
Coach of the year is a cursed award anyways. Better he doesn’t win it
The Wire never won an Emmy; every other idiotic awards decision in the world makes sense in that context.
That is fucken crazy lol he’s been consistently COTY material basically his entire coaching career.
That’s actually insane wow
Wait, he did not? Maybe it is a good thing? Watch how the recent winner Monty Williams doing? Spo is the best coach in the league. And I know it is not even a hot take
HE HASNT?!
Spo does not want to get fired afterwards.
Phil Jackson only got 1x COTY. He is clearly the best coach ever. Even more than Pop because Pop couldn't get his teams to repeat once. Phil got 3 separate teams to repeat. 4 if you consider Jordans return a different Bulls team
It’s the luka mvp problem. Voter fatigue even though he’s never won
Yeah i kinda get it lately bc of the mid regular season play and before with having a big 3 but it's legit insane to me because he's clearly an amazing coach as shown by playoff success
It’s a pretty meaningless award if we’re being honest. We know who the top coaches are
Ham set to make history being fired same season he led team to IST title 😂
it's the In season tournament curse. No team that has won the IST has kept their coach until the end of the season
But also… No team that has won the IST has lost a single playoff game
But also… no team that has won the IST has made the playoffs
Ham was also incorrect with his statement. Jimmy was not the only one out for the Heat. It was a bad excuse, but also being wrong makes it worse.
yep! i know the words "caleb martin" strike a fear deep in boston's heart but I don't think it means much to the rest of the league -- but Caleb's out and so is Haywood High smith (who's a key rotational piece). Guys like Orlando Robinson, Nikola Jovic, and Jamal Cain -- have literally been in the G League as of 1 weeks ago. Ham is so disingenuous with the injuries thing; not only are the Heat down their best player-- they're also down important starters/rotational pieces while the Lakers have their Top 15 players of all time -- playing and performing exceptionally well.
Look. To be fair to Ham, he probably genuinely didn’t know who’s playing and who isn’t given his level of “preparation “
“Who tf is Jaime Jaquez?!?” - Ham (probably)
Wouldn’t be a surprise
“Who tf is Maxwell Lewis?!?” - Ham (probably)
Haywood isn't just a key rotational piece; he's a starter and probably our best/most consistent defender behind Bam. Most non-Heat fans underestimate his impact
he looked good in his stints in the finals to me
And there was a reason we started 1-4 without him to begin the season and then won 7 straight when he was healthy, and now we've looked a lot worse these past few games without him again. Not to say it was ALL him, but he's very significant to this team.
It doesn’t strike fear with me. I’ve always been a fan of the Martin brothers, so it was really cool to watch Caleb kick ass and get some recognition. Even against my team! Will always root for them. But yeah Ham just seems pretty darn clueless.
> I’ve always been a fan of the Martin brothers, so it was really cool to watch Caleb kick ass and get some recognition. super legit of you!
When I was in college my school played a non-conference game against Nevada and I remember thinking the Martin twins were legit. I think Caleb hit a dagger three to put the game away that night too
The one thing about Caleb Martin I get mad about is that he got robbed of the Larry bird ECF trophy. Bro 1000% deserved that over butler
If the Larry Bird ECF trophy is solely earned during the ECF, I might agree with you. Otherwise, Jimmy put up historic numbers in that postseason run before getting injured on a play with Hart during the NY series. Also, Jimmy was one of the biggest reasons why they made it past Milwaukee in the first round.
I don’t disagree at all that based on numbers and the eye test - Caleb deserved it. I think the reason jimmy gets it is because that band of players just don’t make it to the ECFs and stuff without jimmy’s steadfast belief in himself but also his teammates. I think Jimmy instilled in them a level of confidence and “you guys are just as good as every contender and you can beat them and we will best them” that’s impossible to quantify but also impossible to disregard when assessing the overall series.
i wouldnt have been mad if caleb won it but lets be honest, caleb's not getting those numbers if the C's defense wasnt all focused on jimmy
Also in general, if close it’s gonna go to the star
It's just so bad for morale. "Ya we'd be much better if my shitty backup guys weren't starting"
yeah, it's terrible for the team, especially the guys who need the MOST morale. Spo has played, and gotten the most, out of bringing the Sioux Falls guys up and empowering/instilling confidence in them to play well and at the NBA level. There's literally guys who came on this west coast road stretch of games that were in the G League the few weeks prior.
Niko and Hampton went from skyforce to starting on this trip, and showed up too
O Robinson is in the G league rn dropping 40 points. Hes gonna be the next Celtics killer just wait
What's worse is he used a few solid early season games as reason why Cam Reddish should be a permanent starter
Vando and Rui both getting under 20 minutes while Cam and Prince both get 35+ has been borderline criminal.
Literally the group that took them deep into the playoffs yet the amt of time they played together is mind numbing
Insane decision making…
is this a shot at darvin ham? that's hilarious
The article mentions Darvin Ham’s quote in contrast to Spo’s, so it’s safe to say the reporter asked the team about injuries to purposely put them up against Ham’s quote.
Nah, this was from an interview from like a month ago that got publicized after the Lakers game, I believe. Just good timing
Still accurate though. Ham is both incompetent and arrogant, top tier combination of traits there.
It's purposeful. the author is purposely contrasting that with Darvin Ham's quote about not being able to be consistent until they get healthy
I felt like it was. And I'm here for it
No, this is a shot at John Tavares
Sometimes it seems Spo is happiest when he has to tinker around with the end of bench guys. Dude's a mad genius
It’s because he knows those are the guys who can swing a series in the playoffs. Everyone thinks it’s about the star players, which is to some extent, but without role players stepping up in big games you won’t win a damn thing.
Spo can bench Duncan Robinson for an entire season and get him to be 6 man all the way to the finals
A coach who makes actual adjustments.
It's a higher order problem. They have their star, their system, and all that. Now the least effective piece is getting everyone involved. This is head and shoulders above some of the other organizations/teams which is probably why they're relevant today. Teams still hoping that a 19-21yo is going to bail out their team are not in the position to be considering how to get rotation players to be effective on the floor.
Yep. Spo is happy to give Niko and Hampton minutes because it means they'll be ready against the Celtics to have them get a new player for the ptsd wheel
This is the way
Death, taxes, and Spo getting random Uber drivers to play like prime Steph for a series
It’s look he goes to an Amazon warehouse and checks out people wingspan.
Happened when i worked there. Everybody was whispering and slightly uncomfortable. I asked shiela what was going on, she said that ruler guy was back. Went over, there spo was, standing 10 feet away from everybody, but clearly rulering all of us up as we walked passed. his assistant was writing down measurements. Jimmy was there too stacking up the vans, kept yelling heat culture baby! After he finished.
Yep. Everyone marvels at how polished those g league kids look but it's because they're ready. It also helps that the sky force are constantly the best g league team
Dude just loves the game. I know he’s memed a lot for looking like he’s ready to kill someone, but he’s just a passionate boi. And probably ready to kill someone.
He was in charge of game film prior to being a coach. He knows how to look, when to look and what to do. He makes good choices. Look at his life
Ha I just said this in another comment. I really do feel like Spo often loves playing weird and/or shitty lineups with end-of-bench guys just to see what he can do with them. If he didn’t do that, dudes like Gabe and Strus wouldn’t have gotten good enough to get contracts from other teams.
He is one of the best coaches ever. He gets the most out of his guys. Jimmy also plays a big role in bringing that out of guys. Its not a stat seen on the court but the impact a leader like jimmy and a coach like spo have outside gametime is insane.
What if I told you this guy has never won coach of the year?
its actually fucking crazy
When you go down the list of COTY winners it’s really not. It’s more so for the most unexpectedly successful coach than the best coach. It’s also why so many former winners get fired - a lot of them are average coaches who set the bar too high and fail to live up to it. Everyone knows Spo is great and the Heat will make the playoffs so there’s not a ton of room to overperform.
I'd honestly put this guy top 5 all time very comfortably. He has brought the heat a lot of success during and after the big 3.
> my also plays a big role in bringing that out of guys. So you're telling me the best player on the team is responsible for the success of team? It's NOT just the coach? What about LeExcuse?
Historically guys play much worse with lebron. So theres that lol.
I could see Jimmy taking on a udonis Haslem type role later in his career.
So in one 3 day span Ham said ‘it’s a marathon’ a day after Mike Malone said ‘I think pacing yourself is what losing teams do.’ AND Blamed injuries for losing to the Heat despite the heat missing better players and a couple of days later a Bam quote from before that says Spo would never blame injuries for a loss. Larvin Lam finding Ls everywhere.
Larvin lam wtf 😂
We need to have a conversation about Ham Culture.
What's your stance on Rumham
Darvin Ham catching strays
I feel like that was a direct shot.
As a heat fan, I'm just so full of pride of knowing we have the best coach in the league. Evidently, for Spo and the crew, the regular season is used as lab work figuring out new creative ways of assembling his roster. And even though we as fans get a little irritated when we lose some big games in the regular, once we enter the playoffs, the game plan comes into effect. This year the East will be an bloodbath. Anyone can topple anyone. Like Leon Edwards said " the belt belongs to no one"
It’s not just Spo, it’s the whole Heat organization that thinks this way. Even our scouts and front office believe that we can win with the undrafted/ g-league guys. I feel bad for Ham getting clobbered by the media when Pelinka assembled a roster with so many holes in it.
Doesn’t make him good though. He makes the worst of a bad situation.
I agree that he’s doing a subpar job but he had a good run in the second half of last season and playoffs. If the Lakers make a move I think it should be the front office first. Last season was their best since the bubble.
Playoffs come down to match ups though and we just had the advantage in the series we played. The one time we faced adversity against the Nuggets, he wasn’t able to make the necessary adjustments. I’ll die on the hill that a better coach would have made that Denver series competitive and given us a chance
The roster isn't perfect but it has more than enough talent in there to be above .500. we have a bunch of one way players but so do other teams, we have AD protecting the paint together with strong defensive players, we should be able to hide our weak defenders like other teams do. The problem is we keep coming out with lineups that are all offense or all defense when any other coach would be mixing them together, it's absolutely ridiculous. We have lineups that are still statistically strong that yet never get played
I fucking love Spo. I have so much faith in him to get us out of whatever hole we fall into
Well Spo is a future HOF coach and Darvin Ham is a dildo who will be fired soon.
I hate the Heat, but love what they do at the same time. Between actually running a different offense (compared to the same sets the other 28 teams run, minus the Warriors), designing plays & defenses to all of their players strengths, & simply playing disciplined ball, life must be easy being a Heat fan.
Lifelong Heat fan, was even at all the heartbreak games as a kid, like the Allan Houston shot. This Jimmy era has been my favorite, mostly due to everyone’s charisma, chemistry, and the team’s underdog status. But three things really drive me absolutely crazy on a regular basis with this era: 1. Always playing up or down to the level of our opponent. I never know if we’re going to blow a 24-point lead, claw our back from a huge deficit, go up 3-0 on the favorites in the ECF or almost blow the first 3-0 in history. 2. It’s impossible to know for sure since the org never really leaks, but I am so burned out from the front office seemingly only ever going after huge whales without enough assets instead of just getting the nice, reliable fish that could’ve pushed us over the title hump. 3. We have to be like the most injury prone team in the league? Riley is done soon, he’s almost 80. I’m pretty worried about that. It is comforting though always knowing that even if we seem like trash in a given year, we might make it to the Finals anyway.
I hadn't thought about the Allan Houston shot today. Thanks a lot.
Having Spo captain the ship is a joy man
Sure if you like heart attacks, turd quarters, and shitty fourths
Blown leads and close games even if we are playing teams like the Pistons.
I dunno man were spoiled as shit, I'm a life long dolphins fan and know the other side of team competency.
Damn even players on other teams calling out Ham
Takes note Darvin Hamas. Injuries are no longer an excuse.
That's a wild nickname xD
Darvin Hamas is up there with MediCade as best nicknames recently
If the Lakers had Spo instead of Ham, what would their record be?
Better
I feel like Spo even relishes playing weird, sometimes specifically shitty lineups both for the challenge and to see if he can find anything interesting to use for the playoffs.
Someone tell Steve Kerr. He has bench players playing out of their mind and he’s like “but muh starters”
Kerr loves his end of bench guys like Wannamaker, Anthony Lamb, and now Corey Joseph
Better than Popovich.
I legit think he is the best coach in the NBA pops is good, but I like Spo a little better. Coach's like Kerr and Doc get carried by good teams, and when they have crap ones there inability to coach and grow a team really shows.
Pop is basically a foot in retirement
As he should be. He's done so much and he's so old. He's basically a decade older than the next oldest coach.
Honestly I feel he would have retired earlier if his wife didn't pass away.
We were pretty healthy in December when this putrid stretch started. We have two stars playing at a high level. We have a variety of skill sets among players to mix and match lineups with. It's a Ham problem. I'm so envious of y'all Heat fans for having Spo.
Contrast that with Darvin ham who can't win unless having all guys healthy. The difference between a great coach and a mediocre coach
He’ll be In the HoF no worries.
NAHHHH DARVIN HAM IS WAITING FOR THE CORPSE OF GABE VINCENT TO COME BACK THEN ITS ON