Is Brad Stevens 2016 Coach of the Year?

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
When is coach of the year and the like announced? His will be very interesting and tight between Stevens, Stotts, and Kerr. I doubt Pop gets many votes but he is very deserving of the award in my book for what he's done with that Spurs team.
 

Blacken

Robespierre in a Cape
SoSH Member
Jul 24, 2007
12,152
I could be wrong, but I don't think Stevens is in the conversation between Kerr, Pop (who is getting a ton of love from the quarters I hear from, at least), and Stotts (who has been crazy-good in a way that's being chalked up as "out of nowhere" by a lot of folks).

Being top-five is certainly nothing to sneeze at, of course.
 

Kliq

Member
SoSH Member
Mar 31, 2013
22,671
I see Pop on a lot of writers ballots. Lowe has a policy that is "vote for Pop every year" but he amended it because a team won 73 games. People seem unsure on if to credit Kerr fully because he missed a significant chunk of the season, which could open some doors for other candidates. The issue for Stevens is that there are a lot of quality coaches behind Kerr and Pop. Stotts, Clifford, Casey and Carlisle have all gotten some love from writers.
 

The Social Chair

Member
SoSH Member
Feb 17, 2010
6,082
I read several writers ballots and Stevens hasn't been on any of them. The top 3 is usually some combo of Kerr, Pop, Stotts, and Clifford.
 

PedroKsBambino

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 17, 2003
31,191
Cannot criticize anyone voting for Pop or for Kerr. I do think Kerr has so much more to work with than Stevens or Stotts that it's kind of an apples and oranges comparison, but 73 wins is 73 wins, too.

I think there's a pretty strong case for Stevens, with a 5-9 guy as his only possible scorer, over Stotts given the high-end talent they have access to. But either way, both these guys have done a terrific job this year
 

mcpickl

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 23, 2007
4,546
I think I'd vote for Dwane Casey. Getting 56 wins out of that roster is pretty impressive. I'd definitely have him, Stotts, Kerr and Popovich ahead of Stevens, who's been awesome this year. This might be as good as coaching has ever been in the NBA. A lot of high quality guys and very few dummies.
 

bowiac

Caveat: I know nothing about what I speak
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 18, 2003
12,945
New York, NY
Why you're seeing a lot of Stotts, Clifford and Pop, and not so much Brad Stevens:



This is how much each team exceeded their Vegas win totals (taken from the Westgate, on 10/26/15). I expect this is a pretty good proxy for the voting, but I haven't looked at past years.
 

mauf

Anderson Cooper × Mr. Rogers
Moderator
SoSH Member
Kerr would be a unanimous choice if he hadn't missed time. I don't follow the Dubs closely enough to say how much of the credit that usually would go to Kerr should instead flow to Luke Walton, or perhaps some of the Warriors' other assistants. I'm inclined to say I would vote for Kerr anyway -- he deserves some credit for assembling a team of assistants who were able to keep the ship sailing without a hitch in his absence.

I agree with the consensus that Pop, Stotts and Clifford will be the leading contenders if the writers decide to give the award to someone besides Kerr. I don't see Stevens being in the mix.
 

luckiestman

Son of the Harpy
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
32,620
Why you're seeing a lot of Stotts, Clifford and Pop, and not so much Brad Stevens:



This is how much each team exceeded their Vegas win totals (taken from the Westgate, on 10/26/15). I expect this is a pretty good proxy for the voting, but I haven't looked at past years.
I think you are exactly right as to why these guys are ahead of Brad. I disagree that this should be the metric though. Stevens was already built in to the O/U #. Stevens has done more with less, imo.
 

Eddie Jurak

canderson-lite
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 12, 2002
44,475
Melrose, MA
I think you are exactly right as to why these guys are ahead of Brad. I disagree that this should be the metric though. Stevens was already built in to the O/U #. Stevens has done more with less, imo.
This is one of those metrics that sounds good but doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. That said, Stotts, Pop, Clifford all excellent candidates, probably more deserving than Brad.
 

bowiac

Caveat: I know nothing about what I speak
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 18, 2003
12,945
New York, NY
This is one of those metrics that sounds good but doesn't really make a whole lot of sense. That said, Stotts, Pop, Clifford all excellent candidates, probably more deserving than Brad.
Oh, I agree it's a bit inane, but the alternative, of just giving Pop the award every year is also a bit silly.
 

NWsoxophile

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2006
4,313
PDX OR
I hope Stotts gets it. In addition to the wins above expectation, he had significant roster turnover to deal with, as well as the league's lowest payroll and its third youngest roster. He got pretty much the most out of every player, and had them playing hard every night, with great chemistry and without a hint of drama all season.
 
Dec 21, 2015
1,410
Oh, I agree it's a bit inane, but the alternative, of just giving Pop the award every year is also a bit silly.
Sure, but I mean, shouldn't Belichick win his respective award most years? When Auerbach had his decades-long reign of terror over the league, shouldn't he have won it much more than the rest of the field combined?

These awards always end up being more about answering "who would be a fun name to recognize this year for his team doing really well?" rather than "being as objective as possible, who is the best coach in the league?". I'm OK with the former being how people treat it, but then it's kinda hard to make serious arguments about it grounded in anything objective. The baseball-loving community has fought for decades to make Hall of Fame admission less of a popularity contest, and is only in the last few years starting to show some progress. Expecting more than that from the ESPN-watching crowd - the types that kept John Madden on broadcasts for years and can't appreciate sports without having narratives spoonfed to them - is a little unrealistic.
 

PedroKsBambino

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Apr 17, 2003
31,191
It's non-ridiculous to compare wins vs Vegas expectations, but it also should be noted that the implicit assumption there is that individual player growth (such as McCollum) is wholly or primarily attributable to the coach. Again, non-ridiculous to look at it that way but also not really always the case....in McCollum's case in particular it almost surely is not primarily due to the coach, since he had the same coach all three of his years and was only a meaningful player in one of them.

Similarly, while Vegas is a good proxy for 'intelligent expectations' what the metric is really measuring is how inaccurate the pre-season assessment was, which is not really about coaching either.
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Stevens will get his due in the next year or two.
Not without an upgrade in talent he won't. He's gotten plenty of due this year with reputation around the league but without some playoff success there is a ceiling for credit a coach gets with first and even second round exits.

This is a big offseason and only a few realistic targets who will be available. Namely Butler and possibly a Horford overpay if Atlanta doesn't retain him (they likely will).
 

HomeRunBaker

bet squelcher
SoSH Member
Jan 15, 2004
30,096
Why is Butler "available"?
Between him causing trouble in Chicago's locker room, Butler having the most value over Noah and Rose (all three can't be there again after the conflicts this year), and the soft unsubstantiated trade rumors being substantiated it isn't unreasonable to feel that he is available.

If he isn't and no major moves are made it will be a disappointing offseason.
 

nighthob

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 15, 2005
12,678
Why is Butler "available"?
Because he can be a real asshole and Chicago doesn't have anyone to smooth over the rough edges in the locker room. And apparently the new coach doesn't want to deal with it. Boston has the advantage of having one of his friends on the roster and a pretty strong locker room culture for him to be part of. So let's all hope for a lottery victory and an Ingram for Butler trade on draft night.
 

amfox1

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 6, 2003
6,808
The back of your computer
With Frank Vogel's non-renewal, Brad Stevens is now the 10th longest tenured coach in the Association. Only five coaches (Pop, Spoelstra, Carlisle, Casey and Stotts) have more than three years of tenure with their current team.
 

amfox1

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Aug 6, 2003
6,808
The back of your computer
With Frank Vogel's non-renewal, Brad Stevens is now the 10th longest tenured coach in the Association. Only five coaches (Pop, Spoelstra, Carlisle, Casey and Stotts) have more than three years of tenure with their current team.
With Dave Joerger's firing this morning, Brad is now 9th.
 

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,205
With Dave Joerger's firing this morning, Brad is now 9th.
I would vote for Joerger as coach of the year simply because of what he did to reach the playoffs in what is still the toughest conference in the NBA. He used a record 28 players to do so and made it despite injuries to their stars. How Memphis didn't lock this guy up long-term is beyond me. The Kings could do far worse than to bring him in. And I post this knowing that if SamRayNot sees it, he is going to laugh and then make an amusing follow-on post.

Back to the topic at hand, Stevens did a brilliant job coaching this season but Kerr, Pop and Stotts will get more love because of their gaudy win totals. However as anyone who follows the NBA closely knows, its a lot easier to get wins when you have a superstar player and in the case of Golden State and the Spurs, they each have a roster full of good to great players. Stotts has Lillard and say what you will about him, he is an elite level offensive player and McCollum who is knocking at the door.

Stevens has no such thing - IT4 is a very good player but as we have seen, when he is the focal point in a playoff series, other teams can shut him down. The fact that the C's got the fifth seed despite having less star power (albeit with a deeper roster) than the teams below them speaks volumes about Stevens' coaching ability. Its not his fault they couldn't win when the games counted - he was significantly outgunned. He may not win the award but there is no doubt in my mind that he is one of the top five and perhaps top three coaches in the NBA.
 

Papelbon's Poutine

Homeland Security
SoSH Member
Dec 4, 2005
19,615
Portsmouth, NH
The Pacers have Paul George and then who?. Who on the Pistons or Hornets are you considering more "star power" over Thomas? Just for clarity's sake.
 
Last edited:

DeJesus Built My Hotrod

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Dec 24, 2002
48,205
I would say Charlotte had a deeper starting rotation than the Celtics but to your point, Walker and IT4 are pretty close statistically though Walker is a better shooter from deep. And I know its 2016 and his skills aren't quite as valued as they would have been ten years ago but Drummond is now an elite big man. The Celtics are clearly a better team than Detroit though - no disagreement about that so I supposed I should have said "save for the Pistons".