Coach of the Year

[Joe Mama]

Hubie Brown has done a fantastic job with the Memphis grizzlies this season. Any other year I would say probably deserves to be coach of the year. IMO there is really only one choice is season. That is Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz. The NBA media should be ashamed of themselves if he does not win.

If you have any doubts about that just check out the Utah Jazz roster. Roster has no business being any better than one of the worst three teams in the NBA. Yet they are on the verge of making the playoffs in the Western Conference.

That's my $.02 at 5:30 AM.

Joe Mama

 

[minercon]

I think Hubie ought to win. He was given NOTHING to really work with. Where were The C's this summer...we should have hired him as our coach. I am sure we would have won more than 30 games and probably would have made the play-offs.

 

[jorje29]

Re

"He was given NOTHING to really work with".

Pau Gasol is not nothing. For me is between Porter and Sloan. I give it to Sloan.

Milwaukee Analysis

Utah Analysis

 

[F-Dog]

I disagree with you about the Utah roster. Kirilenko is one of the great, underrated players in the league--he's better than any player Denver or Portland can put up, and probably better than any player for Memphis.

The other players aren't that talented (compared to the wonderful talent on the last-place Suns, for instance), but they're solid professionals and fit the system well. Sloan doesn't have to develop any young player besides Raul Lopez--all he has to do is win. He's in a situation that's almost designed to make a coach look good.

Besides, he was a dirty player and is a dirty coach, so he doesn't get the benefit of the doubt from me.


When I look at Memphis' roster--Jason Williams, Bonzi Wells, Pau Gasol, Stromile Swift--my first reaction is, how is this team not the Trail Blazers? Gasol doesn't seem like a leader, and the other three guys don't seem like winners.

Brown's system turns NBA orthodoxy on its head, and maximizes the strength of the team. Keeping eight or nine role players productive despite short minutes seems like a huge headache, but Hubie Brown is getting it done (with help from Jerry West, I'm sure).

The Grizzlies are 9.5 up on the Jazz right now, and they might even get home-court advantage in the first round. It's gotten to the point where Memphis is starting to look like a serious contender, which was unthinkable at the beginning of the season...yeah, I'll take Hubie this year.

 

[JCSunsfan]

Both of these guys are deserving, maybe the most deserving candidates in years.

NO ONE would have said the Jazz were going to make the playoffs this year. In fact, some were wondering if they might be the worst team in NBA history.

Brown has done an excellent job as well.

Sloan gets the nod, by a nose.

 

[George O'Brien]

It won't happen, but I think Stan Van Gundy of the Miami Heat deserves serious consideration. This is a team that Pat Riley gave up on and they are now one of the hotest teams in the NBA (winning 9 of their last 10). They have already passed New Orleans (tied actually) to get to the #4 slot in the East.

 

[Joe Mama]

I think Hubie ought to win. He was given NOTHING to really work with. Where were The C's this summer...we should have hired him as our coach. I am sure we would have won more than 30 games and probably would have made the play-offs.

Hubie Brown was handed a lot of talent that was basically unrealized before he got there. He's done a spectacular job with it. Jerry Sloan has taken a team of AK-47 and fodder to the playoffs in the Western Conference. I don't believe for a second that Hubie Brown could have taken many Utah Jazz team anywhere near the playoffs.

Joe Mama

 

[thegrahamcrackr]

Sloan should win this year. I agree with Eric, the Grizz had a large amount of talent, and Hubie is in his second year coaching this group.

Not only are the Jazz a horribly talented team, but this is the first time Sloan has coached this core group of players.

Also, you have to figure its his turn. He has been overlooked countles times, and now no one can pin his success on his players.


I agree with you George about SVG. If the Heat had played so well this entire year, he would most likely be a top canidate.

 

[Errntknght]

I give the nod to Hubie - he's taken a team in serious disarray and turned it into a contender. Sloan does a terrific job, year in and year out, and I'd have voted him coach of the year before but this year I've got to go with Hubie. One thing is that I never thought Sloan's complement of players was all that bad having seen them coming along all last year. Withstanding the loss of Harpring was impressive, I do admit.
Terry Porter and SVG are worthy of consideration, too, but they're in the weak conference...

An interesting side note... Tim Floyd has probably exceeded more people's expectation of what he would do than any other coach. Everyone thought he was just a disaster going South to be visited upon a solid team. I can't say I thought he was going to be great but, at least, I held out the possibility the quagmire in Chicago was not primarily of his making.

 

[Joe Mama]

Some of you guys are just killing me. How can you possibly say that the Utah Jazz roster is not that bad? There isn't another coach in the NBA that could have won 20 games with that team. Look at Miami's roster. Look at Milwaukee's roster. Look at Memphis' roster. Those teams are just loaded with talent compared to the Utah Jazz. And the Jazz lost their second-best player a third of the way through this season. And finally, and I know this stuff shouldn't count, but Jerry Sloan has also been dealing with his wife's cancer through most of the season.

Joe Mama

 

[minercon]

We could end up with co-winners I guess. That would solve our small discussion here. One note....Sloan doesn't deal with his wife's cancer...he heads to the local bar and drowns out everything. Lute Olsen dealt with his wife's cancer.......