Is Steve Kerr the 2015 NBA Coach of the Year?
By Dan Fappiano
While many NBA fans have been debating if Stephen Curry should be the MVP, the Warriors have another award race on their hands. That race being Steve Kerr‘s search for the Coach of the Year award.
After signing a five-year deal to be the Warrior’s head coach, Kerr has lead the team to a 67-15 record and a first-place position in the Western Conference playoffs. While Kerr has had a tremendous season, he is facing stout competition for the Coach of the Year award. The question becomes, has Kerr done enough to warrant winning the prestigious award?
Kerr’s 65-15 record not only ranks best in the NBA this season, but his .815 winning percentage is currently the highest rookie winning percentage among all active NBA head coaches. While Kerr’s rookie winning percentage ranks higher than current great NBA coaches such as the Spurs’ Gregg Popovich and the Clippers’ Doc Rivers, it also ranks higher than all-time great NBA coaches, such as Phil Jackson and Pat Riley.
One facet of coach Kerr’s game was his ability to get Andre Iguodala to buy in as a bench piece in the 2014-2015 season. After signing a four-year deal in the 2013 offseason, many expected Iguodala to fill-in at the small forward spot and complete an already solid offense already featuring Curry and Klay Thompson. After starting for Mark Jackson in the first year of his contract, Iguodala moved to the bench when Kerr came on.
After playing at least 33 minutes per game his entire career, Iguodala was bumped down to 27 minutes in the 2014-15 season. While normally this would anger a player, Kerr was able to convince Andre that coming off the bench was a good move for him. Iguodala agreed, and has become one of the leading front runners for Sixth Man of the Year.
Statistics aside, Kerr’s ability to manage his players, and rotations, and take Iguodala and use him to his maximum potential off the bench, add to his already impressive Coach of the Year resume.
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If Kerr were to win the Coach of the Year award, he would become the first rookie coach since Doc Rivers in 2000 to win the prestigious award. Looking farther, only two rookie head coaches have won the NBA championship, with Riley winning it in 1982 with the Lakers, and Paul Westphal winning it in 1993 with the Phoenix Suns.
While the Coach of the Year hasn’t been obtained by a rookie since 2000 and an NBA championship hasn’t been obtained by a rookie since 1993, Kerr has the right mix of coaching prowess and a talented roaster to accomplish both in 2015.
While Kerr may seem like the apparent front runner for the Red Auerbach trophy, he is facing stiff competition from coaches across the NBA also vying for the prestigious award.
If Kerr is considered the lead man in the Coach of the Year race, Atlanta Hawks’ coach Mike Budenholzer is the close runner-up. Budenholzer has been very impressive this year coaching his Hawks to a 60-21 record, and much like coach Kerr, first place in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
The Atlanta Hawks faced turmoil in the offseason when GM Danny Ferry made racist comments towards Miami Heat small forward, Luol Deng. To go along with that, the Hawks didn’t make any big name free agency signings, so the team was much like the 2013-2014 team, which took a first-round exit in the playoffs. The Hawks weren’t projected for much as a mid-level team in a weak Eastern Conference.
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Enter in Coach Budenholzer. He has done tremendous work for this Hawks’ team, turning them from mid-level to favorites. The return of Al Horford, matched with the development of players such as Jeff Teague, DeMarre Carroll, Paul Millsap and Kyle Korver has made the Hawks a real threat. You may be asking, since Budenholzer and Kerr have such similar 2014-2015 resumes, what puts Kerr over the edge?
For starters, Budenholzer Hawks play in the Eastern Conference. The Hawks have played 52 of their 82 games against Eastern conference foes. While the Hawks did perform admirably against the West, going 22-9, playing the majority of your games against the East puts Budenholzer below Kerr. The Warriors have played 52 of their games against the Western conference. They have fared equally as well going 31-21 in the regular season.
In the East, the ninth seed, or first team out of the playoffs, owns a 37-44 record. In the West, the ninth seed owns a 44-37 record. Kerr’s Warriors playing a majority of their games in the better conference puts Kerr over Budenholzer in the Coach of the Year race.
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Secondly, Kerr’s Warriors’ team statistics are far better than Budenholzer’s Hawks across the board. The Warriors’ point differential is +10.2, which ranks first in the NBA. The Hawks did well, ranking fourth in the NBA with a 5.6 point differential, but that mark is still 4.6 points below the Warriors. The Warriors also score more points than the Hawks, with the Warriors averaging 109.7 points per game, compared to the Hawks’ 102.8 points per game.
On defense it is much of the same with the Warriors holding their opponents to a .427 field goal percentage, while the Hawks allow a .439 FG%. On the boards, the Warriors boast a 44.8 rebound per game mark, tied for sixth in the NBA, while the Hawks muster only 40.5 RPG, 28th in the NBA.
One argument someone could make is that Kerr was handed a better team, therefore Budenholzer’s Hawks are more impressive. While the Warriors have the likely MVP and DPOY in Curry and Draymond Green, it is not as if the Hawks roster wasn’t oozing with talent. They rostered four all stars in Horford, Korver, Millsap, and Teague. The Warriors may have had more flashy media darlings, but the Hawks had just as much talent.
Additionally, former coach Mark Jackson had pretty much the same roster as last year, and he was unable to win 60 games. Kerr deserves credit for taking a good team and making it great.
The Hawks have had a tremendous season, and these stats are in no way a tool to undermine their success, but more as a tool to show the Warriors’ success under Kerr’s first season on the job. While Budenholzer and the Hawks have had a tremendous season, playing in a tougher conference and statistics put Kerr over Budenholzer in the race for the Coach of the Year.
Taking teams completely out of it, Kerr just had an extremely impressive coaching season. He won the most games out of any rookie coach of all time. His rookie win percentage was up with the best of them. And he took a team from the Western conference and lead them to a first place finish with an 11-game separation from the second-place team.
Simply put, Steve Kerr had the greatest rookie season by a coach of all time.
Steve Kerr has been extremely impressive in 2014-15. He has taken the Warriors to levels not thought possible. He has made the Warriors into true threats for the 2015 NBA championship. And there should be no question that Steve Kerr is the 2015 NBA Coach of the Year.