I voted for Jerry Sloan.
The Utah team won half of its games. I said 25 wins would be pushing it for them, and secretly, I hoped they'd make it to 20. It wasn't a major acquisition. It wasn't the health of his top players. It wasn't having a top-caliber player that carried the team.
Hubie had the fortune of acquiring a few good players, and reasonable health. Minnesota did it on the strength of its acquisitions.
Essentially, I think there are only four real contenders for the award: Sloan, Hubie Brown, Saunders, and Carlisle. I vote for Sloan, but I could understand a vote for any of those guys.
I haven't posted on this because I felt like my vote would be a homer pick. Maybe it still is, but here's my reasoning.
Sloan is the coach of the year.
WITH Harpring, the Jazz were expected to win 15-25 games by most analysts. Stein on ESPN had the Jazz winning TEN games. It is absurd how far the Jazz have surpassed everyone's expectations. Most people expected this team to challenge for the worst record ever. And yet somehow they're a few games from the playoffs and have locked up a winning record. In considering this debate, it might help to break down the starting lineup.
PG: Carlos Arroyo
First starting job. Only two years of partial playing time experience. Most playing time was about 10-15 minutes per game in Stockton's last year.
SG: DeShawn Stevenson/Raja Bell: Stevenson was not very good. Everyone complains that Jerry Sloan didn't let DeShawn break down his man enough. There's a reason. DeShawn can't break down his man. He is slow for his size and has a weak handle. Bell is a tough, if not brainy, player with a decent mid-range jumper, but has little speed and average one-on-one ability.
SF: Gordan Giricek/Michael Ruffin: Gordan has fit in nicely with the Jazz as a spot up shooter. He is quite good coming off screens, but was no where near this effective with the Magic. Ruffin is a tough rebounder and is strong for his size. In fact he put Shaq on the floor quite nicely once. But when he is in, the Jazz are going 4 on 5 on offense.
PF: Kirilenko: The Jazz' one real star. He's no superstar although. Probably shouldn't have been an all-star IMO, but I'm glad he was selected. Great at rebounding and defense, okay on offense. Is developing a jumper slowly.
C: Ostertag/Jarron Collins: Ostertag is a hunk of beef with half a brain. I've never seen an NBA player run around looking at the crowd so much. Not in the game mentally most of the time. Collins is solid, doesn't make a lot of mistakes and can hit a fifteen foot jumper.
The only player on this team who could start for another NBA team is Kirilenko. The rest are mere role players. In fact, given his diverse skills, Kirilenko should be a role player; a Scottie Pippen type support player for a big-time star. There are no franchise players on this team.
And yet they've beaten the cream of crop in the West this year (except for San An and Sacto.) They beat the T-Wolves twice, the Mavericks twice, the Kings, the Rockets, the Nuggets, the Trailblazers, the Lakers. I'd like to see how many of those teams the Bucks have beaten.
No doubt Porter has done a great job. But he's got better players with more experience, and one of the top rookies in the league, and he's in the East. Sloan has taken this group of literal nobodies and has taught them to expect to win against anyone.
The other thing that is so remarkable is that the Jazz have no one who can take over a game. The only way for them to win a tight game is to execute, and most of the time they execute rather than break down. To get a team of NBA players to buy into a system so deeply is great coaching.
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