Love these picks. While I am a Mazzulla COTY guy, Johnson's case is more than reasonable. This is one of the best coaching seasons in recent memory, it feels like so many teams are overachieving despite talent. Johnson, Mazzulla, Bickerstaff, Ott, Daigneault, and even Snyder (with their recent surge) are having years that could win the award in any given season.
Totally. And Redick deserves recognition, too! Whatever you want to say about the underlying metrics, Lakers keep winning through a bunch of injuries. Def been a good coaching season for lots of guys
fairs kon DOES deserve a nod, but is Kon really a better defender than coop?
one thing i've seen with kon is that he's more of a system defender while coop is a more transformative one.
he's leading all rookies in ppg AND is the primary focal point for dallas while kon, is a floor spacer alongside lamelo and brandon miller.
coop faces the other team's best wing defender every night and is the focal point of every defensive scheme. kon benefits from the gravity of his teammates but is rarely the person that a coach builds an entire defensive game plan to stop.
flagg also takes the edge in self creation as a high % comes from unassisted buckets like taking defenders off the dribble and hitting pull ups or going to the rim. a large % of kon's points come from catch and shoot situations and it's easier to be efficient when you aren't the one taking a late shot clock heave.
lastly, roty is based off of stats, not winning (look at wemby in 2023-24) and coop is top 5 in every stat.
but fairs, no shade. just wanted to give my opinion
That's a totally valid opinion, and I especially struggle with how much to value playing high-level basketball in a winning environment -- like you said, it hasn't mattered much traditionally, but that's partially because it hasn't HAPPENED much. I'm not yet calibrated on how much I should weigh that!
I always go back and forth on relatively inefficient #1 option in bad ecosystem with highly efficient #2 option in better ecosystem. What I think sold me is that Knueppel showed early in the year that, even bereft of surrounding talent, he could still generate all that offense efficiently and at a very high level.
I think Flagg's defense will reach that level, but I can't call him transformational yet. That's the goal, though. Still, Flagg's ceiling is certainly higher than Knueppel's, and I feel bad that he seems likely not to win this year.
Bickerstaff will receive a lot of deserved love. Redick doesn't seem to have that kind of narrative, especially now with their recent injuries, but he also deserves a ton of credit
Nah. We already knew his ceiling was higher, but a couple of strong games toward the end don't fundamentally change the arguments for or against him.
To be clear, Flagg has a great ROY case in his own right. I've got no problems with people putting him first, but I don't think a few great matches should swing a season-long award either way!
Congrats on your RealGM gig Mike! I’ll be checking it out for sure! 🏀
Thanks!
Love these picks. While I am a Mazzulla COTY guy, Johnson's case is more than reasonable. This is one of the best coaching seasons in recent memory, it feels like so many teams are overachieving despite talent. Johnson, Mazzulla, Bickerstaff, Ott, Daigneault, and even Snyder (with their recent surge) are having years that could win the award in any given season.
Totally. And Redick deserves recognition, too! Whatever you want to say about the underlying metrics, Lakers keep winning through a bunch of injuries. Def been a good coaching season for lots of guys
love this!
fairs kon DOES deserve a nod, but is Kon really a better defender than coop?
one thing i've seen with kon is that he's more of a system defender while coop is a more transformative one.
he's leading all rookies in ppg AND is the primary focal point for dallas while kon, is a floor spacer alongside lamelo and brandon miller.
coop faces the other team's best wing defender every night and is the focal point of every defensive scheme. kon benefits from the gravity of his teammates but is rarely the person that a coach builds an entire defensive game plan to stop.
flagg also takes the edge in self creation as a high % comes from unassisted buckets like taking defenders off the dribble and hitting pull ups or going to the rim. a large % of kon's points come from catch and shoot situations and it's easier to be efficient when you aren't the one taking a late shot clock heave.
lastly, roty is based off of stats, not winning (look at wemby in 2023-24) and coop is top 5 in every stat.
but fairs, no shade. just wanted to give my opinion
That's a totally valid opinion, and I especially struggle with how much to value playing high-level basketball in a winning environment -- like you said, it hasn't mattered much traditionally, but that's partially because it hasn't HAPPENED much. I'm not yet calibrated on how much I should weigh that!
I always go back and forth on relatively inefficient #1 option in bad ecosystem with highly efficient #2 option in better ecosystem. What I think sold me is that Knueppel showed early in the year that, even bereft of surrounding talent, he could still generate all that offense efficiently and at a very high level.
I think Flagg's defense will reach that level, but I can't call him transformational yet. That's the goal, though. Still, Flagg's ceiling is certainly higher than Knueppel's, and I feel bad that he seems likely not to win this year.
JJ Redick or Bickerstaff. Both most overperformed their vegas odds before the season. Vegas knows best after all.
Bickerstaff will receive a lot of deserved love. Redick doesn't seem to have that kind of narrative, especially now with their recent injuries, but he also deserves a ton of credit
Worst Coaches of the Year would be fun too.
I’m not sure anyone has a case quite like Doug Christie ha
Recent form should lean Cooper for ROTY
Nah. We already knew his ceiling was higher, but a couple of strong games toward the end don't fundamentally change the arguments for or against him.
To be clear, Flagg has a great ROY case in his own right. I've got no problems with people putting him first, but I don't think a few great matches should swing a season-long award either way!
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