LeBron James sounds bored as his Cavs wait for the Toronto-Miami series to wrap up. His Cavs dispatched the Atlanta Hawks in four straight games, so that leaves a lot of down time. Since that series ended, LeBron has been holding court on Steph Curry’s unanimous MVP victory (his second MVP in as many years) and other assorted topics.
Today’s topic of choice was the Coach of the Year award, given this year to Steve Kerr, whose Warriors won an NBA-record 73 games. But LeBron thinks Portland Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts should have won:
“I think Terry Stotts should have been or could have been Coach of the Year,” James said after practice on Thursday. “I can’t remember the last time that I’ve seen a team lose four starters and still be in the same position as far as the postseason success they had.
“I mean they lost Batum, they lost Matthews, they lost Robin and they lost LaMarcus in the off-season and the only returning starter was Dame [Damian Lillard].”
To be fair to Lebron, Kerr did win Coach of the Year despite missing the first 43 games of the season recovering from back surgery, and they did start 24-0 with Luke Walton at the helm, which says a lot about this Warriors team. An elephant could have coached them to 40-plus wins alone, and elephants don’t even LIKE basketball.
But in the NBA, a coach has a lot to do with how the team is set up (and how they perform in the playoffs when in-game and in-series adjustments are a must) and like any organization, it’s a good sign for the coach when the employees are still just as productive without the boss around. Plus, LeBron’s not wrong about Stotts.
A Blazers team who many predicted in preseason would be counting lottery balls and measuring kids at the Chicago combine this time of year, made the Conference Semifinals and were one Steph Curry detonation from tying the defending champs 2-2 in that series.
But this just seems LeBron is tossing a reporter a bone here. Come on, Toronto-Miami, wrap it up. LeBron’s itching to get back on the court.
(via Cleveland.com)
