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San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich named NBA's Coach of the Year

Pop goes the award

By AllThatAmar
Russ Isabella-US PRESSWIRE

This season the San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich guided his team to a 62 win season, which is 4 more wins than last season. That's a level of excellence that's Jerry Sloan -like. Pop gets the most out of his guys, knows the Xs and Os, and more than anything else now, is still not afraid to bench veteran starters if they are performing poorly in games. This is his third coach of the year award. And while it is bitter sweet that he has three and Jerry has zero, it's a far better world where these types of coaches are valued, over flash in the pan guys like Sam Mitchell.

Pop beat out Hornacek for the spot, but the real race was for third between Thibs and Clifford. Still, it's nice to see that two rookie head coaches finished in the top 5 in the voting. Of the Top 5, only Horny played in the NBA. The remaining group of vote getters all played pro ball (Stotts was drafted but had to settle for the CBA, not NBA).

Here are the full results of the voting, and the W/L records of the teams they took over -- and the chance in wins.

This Season Last Season
Coach Team Votes 1st 2nd 3rd W L % W L % Imp
1 Gregg Popovich Spurs 380 59 23 16 62 20 75.6% 58 24 70.7% 4
2 Jeff Hornacek Suns 339 37 44 22 48 34 58.5% 25 57 30.5% 23
3 Tom Thibodeau Bulls 159 12 22 33 48 34 58.5% 45 37 54.9% 3
4 Steve Clifford Bobcats 127 8 21 24 43 39 52.4% 21 61 25.6% 22
5 Dwane Casey Raptors 70 5 9 18 48 34 58.5% 34 48 41.5% 14
6 Terry Stotts Trail Blazers 25 2 3 6 54 28 65.9% 33 49 40.2% 21
7 Doc Rivers Clippers 13 1 2 2 57 25 69.5% 56 26 68.3% 1
8 Scott Brooks Thunder 1 0 0 1 59 23 72.0% 60 22 73.2% -1
9 Mark Jackson Warriors 1 0 0 1 51 31 62.2% 47 35 57.3% 4
10 Jason Kidd Nets 1 0 0 1 44 38 53.7% 49 33 59.8% -5

Hornacek made the biggest impact. I wish him well going forward.

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