NBA Coach of the Year award: Nick Nurse, Toronto Raptors
Runner-up: Mike Malone, Denver Nuggets
As far as this season is, at least in my opinion, there isn’t much competition for Nick Nurse in terms of winning the NBA’s Coach of the Year award. Even after losing Kawhi Leonard during the summer, Nick Nurse has done a tremendous job leading the Toronto Raptors. They enter the hiatus as the second-best team in the East and currently have the third-best record in the NBA as a whole.
If winning the NBA championship wasn’t enough to cement Nurse as one of the best coaches in the NBA, certainly that has changed with the job he’s done this season. While there still may be questions about whether the team can be successful in the postseason, Nurse has helped keep the Raptors at the top in the Eastern Conference after losing arguably the best player in the NBA.
That’s no small accomplishment. That’s why Nick Nurse should come away with the NBA’s Coach of the Year award with no real push. However, if there is one other coach out there that deserves some credit for the job he’s done this season, it’s Mike Malone.
He’s done a great job with the Denver Nuggets over the last couple of seasons and had the Nuggets just 1.5 games back of the LA Clippers in the Western Conference for the second seed before the hiatus.