There are so many candidates for this award. There's absolutely no favorite. Snyder, Stevens, and Casey are the leading candidates, I guess? What bout Nate? Stotts won't win but he'll get some third place votes I think. What about Pop? D'Antoni?
Casey will more than likely win. D'antoni second, stotts 3rd. Thats how it should be. Pop shouldnt be in the conversation.
I wouldn't put Casey in the conversation, either, but that's just me. Snyder, D'antoni, Stotts, probably in that order. Snyder: Lost a Star, still almost got his team to 3rd in the brutal West. D'antoni: Added a superstar, true, but still had the most efficient offense in league history. Stotts: Everyone had counted the Blazers out, but he got his team to (somehow) player much better defense, and barely fall short of 50 wins.
Indiana have gone somewhat under the radar so people did not notice that they actually improved their performances after franchise player left.
Casey imo is going to win it. There has been all this talk about 'how they've reinvnted their offense'. He'll get it.
You need perspective to assess those rankings. He lost his best player, had his current best player injured for more than a third of season and still managed to recover and get them a very good record in the end. If you are using wins then you should have Brown, Stevens ahead of Stotts too.
In no particular order: Brett Brown Nate McMillan Quin Snyder Terry Stotts Dwayne Casey Mike D'Antoni.
Here's -one- reason why I think Snyder does NOT get COTY, though I think he's a great coach. The difference in the record pre and post Gobert injury lends itself to look like Gobert is in fact the reason for the better-than-average record, and not really coaching. That being said, I'd probably go Casey 1st, Stevens 2nd, and Snyder or Nate 3rd. Stotts probably will get some top 5 votes. Maybe?
