And the award goes to … (Coach of the year)
So many choices here … Scott Skiles, Jim Boylan, even Larry Krystkowiak. I kid, I kid. It’s a tough choice between:
- Phil Jackson: finally making Kobe understand what team-play is and getting the Lakers the 1st place in the West even with Bynum out, Gasol comming over, then getting injured and comming back after some weeks, not to mention he had to deal with losing Kwame Brown
- Byron Scott: taking a team that didn’t make the playoffs last season and almost winning the Western Conference is no small feat. And there’s no way you can compare the talent on the Hornets with what the Lakers have. The Hornets are not even close, so from this point of view Byron Scott’s achievement kinda trumps Phil’s.
- Doc Rivers: he managed to turn a bunch of newly acquired players into a team from day 1. He put his ego aside and allowed assistant Tom Thibodeau do his thing.
- Stan Van Gundy: I know he won’t really receive considerations for the award, but I’d like to give him props for the job he did in Orlando. I highly doubt that the 120 million man Rashard Lewis is the reason for this team’s improvement. In fact, Rashard’s play was quite average, at best worth half of the 20 mil he makes per season. Van Gundy found a way to turn a team with only one real good defender (Howard) and that featured a poor defender playing out of position (Lewis at PF) into the league’s 7th best defensive team. He also found a way to unleash Dwight Howard upon the league. One can only imagine what he could do with a real PG able to put the ball in Dwight’s hands more often and in better spots.
With all due respect for Byron Scott, but I think it’s about time Phil Jackson got his second COY award. Just think about this for a moment: best coach alive, arguably best coach ever, has 9 titles but only 1 COY award. Another reason is that Scott has been the coach of the Hornets the past couple of seasons when they were just another lottery team. So I’d rather credit Chris Paul’s improvement as playing the biggest part in the Hornets raising in the rankings.
