Coach of the Year is a tough award to judge. The formula for most years is basically trying to decide which coach of whatever team is exceeding preseason expectations we like best.
“Wow, we thought the Cleveland Cavaliers were going to be a lottery team, but they have spent all year in the middle of the Eastern Conference pack! That has to be a great coaching job!”
“We were skeptical of the Phoenix Suns, but they’ve been the best team all year long, even when Chris Paul went down with an injury! That has to be a great coaching job!”
Those arguments aren’t wrong. JB Bickerstaff’s connection with his players in Cleveland has been a huge part of why the team is playing well. They have generally been executing for him at a high level, and have had one of the league’s stingiest defenses this season. If Bickerstaff won, he’d be very deserving.
The same goes for Monty Williams, who is probably the leading candidate for the award. The Suns very much know who they are, following a plan set forth by Williams and his staff, They are sticking to their defined roles without trying to do too much. When someone goes down, guys shift up, and they're able to do those jobs well. Williams is very deserving of the the award. He also finished just behind Tom Thibodeau last season, and voters looking at how both teams have fared this year might also feel like they want to correct a mistake.
You can look up and down the standings and find coaches who, if they won, would be legitimate winners. Eric Spoelstra in Miami keeps on winning no matter who gets hurt. Taylor Jenkins has Memphis fighting for the second seed and has a great record with or without megawatt point guard Ja Morant.
There are great candidates throughout the NBA, but I think it’s worth introducing another.
Ime Udoka.
Udoka is in a unique spot for a coach because he not only has a narrative that's developing in his favor, he has some hard facts directly tied to his coaching.
The Celtics obviously began the year playing mediocre basketball. They came into the season with a new coach who had promised to coach them hard, which is something they invited. And though it took a while due to injuries and COVID, the players ultimately bought into what Udoka was selling.
“Habits aren't going to change overnight,” Udoka told BSJ. “(Hard coaching is about) winning all the small battles and doing what is beneficial for players. If not, you're doing a disservice by just kind of sweeping it under the rug when you see something.”
Udoka’s direct nature is directly tied to Celtics players ultimately getting the message. They were never really given a chance to choose otherwise. Defensively, he engineered the top-ranked defense in the league by first flooding them with “switch everything” immersion therapy so everyone could get used to a new style of defending. Then, he introduced more common coverages and variations, including using Robert Williams as more of a roaming help defender that has unlocked his own candidacy for a spot on the All-Defense team.
Offensively, he has demanded growth from Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, both of whom have displayed improved playmaking skills this season. Tatum, especially, has grown into a player who invites double teams rather than tries to beat them every trip down.
“Habits are not always a conscious thing,” Udoka told BSJ about Tatum’s growth. “It's not a conscious decision, he sees three guys, and ‘I'm going to shoot over them to try to get some numbers.’ Its habits ‘I’ve scored 30 points on being double-teamed my whole life.’ You got the size to get any shot off. And so it's more so the film sessions like, ‘can you see this?’ When you have the character of your player and that is not a conscious decision like ‘I’m seeing this guy but not passing,’ then those things can change.”
Udoka’s specific coaching directives have played a big role in the team going from middling to monsters. Of course, it coincided with good health and some roster changes to help eliminate the reliance on guys who were poor fits, but the players still had to buy into what Udoka was trying to drill into them.
Defense in the NBA comes in three flavors. Pure effort will make any defense decent. Add good defenders to that effort, and you’ll get a good defense. Add a good scheme to that mix and it becomes elite.
You need all three to reach the top, and Boston has that. There is talent in Marcus Smart, Robert Williams, Al Horford, and most of the rest of the rotation players. The scheme is Udoka’s, and the effort is partly fueled by knowing that's what’s required.
The reliance on isolation basketball has dwindled over the course of Boston’s turnaround, which is also part of Udoka’s stated preseason goal. The team’s assists per game have grown from 21.9 in November to 27.4 in February. March has seen a slight dip to 25.3, but there is still time to pump that number up.
The bottom line for Boston is that they have become a really good team, and Udoka’s coaching is directly tied to the team’s success. They are the fourth seed in the East and the best team since January 1, and it’s in large part to players fully buying into the plan and playing how Udoka has always wanted them to.
My guess is that Monty Williams will get the award, and he will be a very deserving and appropriate winner. Again, there are plenty of great candidates who can also make strong arguments.
But to me, Udoka is right there with them. He has tangible evidence of a team dramatically turning things around because they did things the way he wanted them to, which warrants strong consideration for Coach of the Year.
I get more into the discussion about this and Marcus Smart's case for Defensive Player of the Year on the latest Locked On Celtics podcast, which you can watch below: