Sometimes the answer to a complicated question is exceedingly simple. And basketball writers across the country, obviously, felt that way with respect to the best coach of 2015-16.
On Tuesday afternoon, the NBA announced that the Golden State Warriors’ Steve Kerr has been awarded Coach of the Year. He received a 64 first-place votes and 381 total points, narrowly edging the 335 points of the Portland Trail Blazers’ Terry Stotts. San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich finished third with 166 points.
Full voting results can be found here.
Kerr, a second-year man and 2014-15 Coach of the Year runner-up, guided the defending champions to a record-breaking 73-9 regular season. The Warriors’ offense was the league’s most efficient and their defense was ranked in the top five. They didn’t lose two straight games all year long, either, a feat of which Kerr and his players have consistently said they are especially proud.
Still, many believed his Coach of the Year case wasn’t quite as open-and-shut as numbers make it seem.
Kerr missed the first 43 games of the year due to lingering complications from a pair of offseason back surgeries. Luke Walton, who was also named on the ballot, served as Golden State’s interim coach until February, leading Steph Curry and company to a 39-4 record and history-making 24-0 start.
His superior’s victory should take nothing away from the job Walton did in 2015-16; it should actually strengthen his case as one of basketball’s top available head-coaching candidates. But forging on-court cohesion and building a lasting culture isn’t done over a single season, a reality voters no doubt took into consideration when casting tallies for Kerr.
The Warriors went 140-24 over the past two regular seasons, and the only thing standing in their way of hoisting another Larry O’Brien Trophy come June seems to be Curry’s knee injury. Needless to say, Kerr’s finger prints are all over what could be remembered as the best team in league history – and he deserves recognition for it regardless of this season’s unique circumstances.
(NBA)
