The team doesn’t even have to have won the championship, but has a team in NBA history overachieved notably due to coaching? How did the coaching impact the team’s rotations, player roles, defensive schemes, etc?
Kerr in 2022 he coached a team to the finals and won with his core 3 messing big chunks of the season klay missed the first month. dray missed a couple of weeks. Than curry missed the last month
Bill Russell, 1969 Celtics.
The entire team was completely worn out. Over the previous decade they’d played an additional season and a half relative to a bad team in playoff games alone. Lousy shoes, rattly floors, useless surgery, bad food - a 35 year old basketball player in 1969 pictured next to a 35 year old basketball player today looks like a father and son photo.
The coach also had to be the starting center. Surely they were just tanking for a high draft pick? That didn’t work in the regular season, as they made the playoffs.
And then they stranded ten thousand balloons in the rafters in Game 7 of the finals.
Eric Spo for the last 3 years
there was a lot of Brad Stevens slurping during 2018, and rightfully so, first year Tatum, second year Jaylen, and young Rozier as your three leading scorers, Horford and Morris as your vets, and you’re like a bad 6 mins away from the finals? not bad
Even to have a 1 seeded team in 2016 with IT. There 2nd best offensive weapon was Avery Bradley.
IT, Bradley, Crowder, Amir and Al are all small for their positions but Brad managed it to work. Shame Brad and Spo doesn’t have a COY award
Brad was robbed in 2018 given the injuries. For some reason voters seemed to have a grudge against him, giving the award to Duane Casey of all people
Spo still having no COY award is really nuts.
first year Tatum
Do you mean Baby Tatum?
Brad Stevens 2017
It’s such a bummer he isn’t a coach anymore. I’m sure being a front office guy is way more chill, but he was so good.
Other coaches started figuring him out AND stealing all of atos. I think he peaked. You can only be so original for so long before the league copies you. I see him as similar to dantoni and thibs in that way where the rest of the league uses their tactics and sets and your advantage goes away.
no
Jazz 2004 yes…Jazz 2006 as well. Boozer and Giricek missed most of the season and the Jazz roster was the same as their 26-56 season the year prior only with rookie Deron and other rookies. One of the youngest teams in the association and they won 41 games. 15 game difference missing two starters.
Eric Spoelstra every year hes the best floor raiser coach in nba
I mean basically the best ceiling raiser too
We prefer to just the say the best
Pop and the whole Spurs dynasty. Developing Manu, Tony and Tim into players they were, keeping them with the Spurs their entire careers, and managing to convince them to buy into the system he created is the greatest success of any coach in the last two decades.
A coach’s job isn’t to carry players. It’s to raise them up and put them in position to elevate the team.
don’t know if it’s a carry, but 3 times (Bulls and Lakers twice) Phil Jackson came into an organization with a top, or the top player ( who did ok before him) and got the them to the Finals and more
Jerry Sloan with the Jazz in 2004. Projected to be the worst team in the league with Andrei Kirilenko leading a bunch of literally whos. Proceed to go 42-40 and just narrowly miss the playoffs.
probably forgotten because of still missing the playoffs. The West was stacked
Brad Stevens felt like he was coaching circles around everyone in the league in 2016/17. IT and Bradley were the smallest back court in the league, then Jae Crowder who’s 6’5 at SF and they had Zeller starting lol
Finished 1st in the East somehow
Why’d they get destroyed by Cleveland?
Because IT was ignoring injuries all season long and by the Finals he couldn’t even stand anymore. And LeBron.
Thank man
Cavs had an improved version of a team that had upset a 73 win team to win a title the year prior and would’ve repeated if not for the Warriors assembling the best roster of all time…
But why weren’t the Cavs the 1 seed then?
why weren’t the 1 seed
Those Lebron Cavs teams were notorious for slacking off in the regular season
oh copy ty
Mike Brown just unlocked the Kangz into playoff contending Kings.
Thibs 2010-2011 - that team took on his personality. They thrived on defense. It was an amazing season. Rose was something else back then.