We Should Pick NBA All-Star Coaches, Too

It’s time we recognize coaching greatness, too. So which six NBA coaches make the 2020 All-Star Game?

NBA COACHES SHOULD BE ALL-STARS, TOO. We already spend a full two months of the season debating NBA All-Star starters and reserves, drafting their teams, and prepping for All-Star Weekend. But what exactly makes someone an All-Star? Is just just a numbers award? Are we trying to pick the 12 best players that season, advanced metrics and all? Do injuries matter? Should we worry about rewarding winning?

Part of the fun is that there is no correct answer to those questions. But it’s that last question that irks the most in the All-Star process. How much should winning matter? That’s the reason Bradley Beal and Devin Booker (initially) were left off the All-Star team and why Trae Young was mocked for his inclusion. It’s why guys like Khris Middleton are presumed All-Star locks, because teams that good have to have a second All-Star.

It’s true, we should reward winning basketball — and we should do so by selecting All-Star coaches.

The All-Star teams do get a coach, of course. The coach with the best record at the break goes. But why does only one coach get All-Star recognition, and why do we assume the coach with the best team is doing the best job?

I laid out the full case for NBA coaches as All-Stars a year ago, so I’ll leave that to you there. Today we’re going to pick our 2020 All-Star coaches. We select 12 players from 75 starters in each conference, which is really 60ish starters when you account for injuries and rotating starters. That’s 20%, so we’ll pick three coaches among the 15 from each conference, too.

Without further ado, here are your 2020 NBA All-Star coaches…

EAST ALL-STAR CANDIDATES

• Mike Budenholzer, Bucks: 46–8
• Nick Nurse, Raptors: 40–15
• Brad Stevens, Celtics: 38–16
• Erik Spoelstra, Heat: 35–19
• Nate McMillan, Pacers: 32–13
• Scotty Brooks, Wizards: 20–33
• Mike Miller, Knicks: 13–20*

Coaching excellence is about overachieving expectations, and there hasn’t been a ton of that to go around in the East. There are only six teams above .500, and don’t even try to convince me Brett Brown has impressed anyone in Philadelphia. He’s closer to getting fired than making an All-Star Game with the Sixers 9–19 on the road at the break.

The bottom three names are courtesy inclusions mostly. Mike Miller has the Knicks playing competent basketball at 13–20 since taking over, but that’s still only a 32-win pace. It’s mostly just not David Fizdale’s 4–18. Of course that 32-win pace would have made the Knicks the 9-seed at the break, and that belongs to the Wizards instead, which is why Scotty Brooks made the list. Brooks gets some credit for coaxing a borderline top-10 offense out of one star and a bunch of basketball retreads.

Nate McMillan might have had more of a case if not for the Indiana swoon heading into the break. He’s done well to keep the Pacers together without Victor Oladipo, but he doesn’t measure up to the top four candidates. And that’s no knock on McMillan — those might be the top four coaching performances in basketball at the All-Star break.

EASTERN ALL-STAR COACHES

Head coach — Nick Nurse

Nick Nurse is my Coach of the Year right now. Toronto is 40–15, second in the East, and they’re not just doing it without Kawhi Leonard. Don’t forget, they lost Danny Green too. And the Raptors have been banged up all season. Pascal Siakam, Kyle Lowry, Fred VanVleet, Marc Gasol, and Serge Ibaka have each missed at least 10 games already, and yet you’d barely even notice.

Toronto is on pace for a 60–win season and just ran through a 15-game win streak, and they’re doing it every night without two or three starters from last year’s championship team. Remember, Kawhi and Green left and Toronto added almost nothing of note to this roster — just overlooked free agents like Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Matt Thomas and undrafted rookie Terence Davis. Davis has been one of the very best rookies in the entire NBA, and Nurse has gotten good minutes from Chris Boucher and helped OG Anunoby take the next step. RHJ has been quality too, and FVV has gone next level.

Toronto just keeps on winning against all odds, plugging lineups together and defending their title like it’s meant to be defended, with honor and courage and moxie each night. Nick Nurse was a first-time All-Star Coach for me last year. This year, he leads the entire field.

Assistant coaches

Good luck picking only two of Bud, Spo, and Stevens. I’ll just say it upfront — Nurse has to be among your three East coaching choices, but I will accept any of the four as “head coach” and any combination of these two guys around Nurse. They’re just impossibly difficult to split.

Mike Budenholzer has the Bucks at 46–8, on pace for 70 wins, and no one is even talking about it. We’re already taking Giannis Antetokounmpo for granted, and maybe Bud too. Milwaukee lost Malcolm Brogdon along with Brook Lopez’s shooting ability and replaced them with a whole heap of nothing and got… better? Eric Bledsoe has bounced back after a brutal playoffs. George Hill has been a stud. Suddenly Donte DiVincenzo and Pat Connaughton are valuable rotation players.

Brad Stevens is doing President Brad things. A year after Boston was this year’s Philadelphia, the Celtics are humming again. Stevens shows up in the Xs and Os, the out-of-bounds plays, the timeouts and close games. Remember when we were worried about Boston’s lack of size and how big a hole Kyrie and Horford would leave? Stevens has made us think Horford didn’t matter and Kemba is better than Kyrie (both very untrue). The Celtics have a top-five offense and a top-five defense. Do you realize how hard it is to have a top-five defense without a real starting center? Only the Bucks, Lakers, and Celtics rate top-five on both ends.

Despite all that, Erik Spoelstra is my second pick in the East. Most of us had the Heat in the Eastern playoffs with Jimmy Butler, but did anyone expect this? Miami is 35–19, with as good a case as any team for second best in the East. Who would you have said was Miami’s second best player before the season? Would you have picked Goran Dragic, who has started one game, or Justise Winslow, who’s missed 43? It’s obviously Bam Adebayo now, but there’s a whole cadre of young no-name Heat balling out each night. Who expected this from Kendrick Nunn, or Duncan Robinson, or Derrick Jones Jr., even Chris Silva? Spoelstra helped turn every one of those guys into a legit NBA rotation player and put Miami right in the mix despite getting nothing this season from Winslow, James Johnson, or Dion Waiters.

The truth is that all four of these Eastern coaches have been masterful, and I’d pick any one of them over every West option. All four of them are on pace to win 10+ games more than their Vegas expectation. But rules are rules, and we only get three. Nurse gets head coach, and I’m going with Spoelstra and Budenholzer as my other All-Stars. Sorry, President Brad.

WEST ALL-STAR CANDIDATES

• Frank Vogel, Lakers: 41–12
• Mike Malone, Nuggets: 38–17
• Doc Rivers, Clippers: 37–18
• Quin Snyder, Jazz: 36–18
• Mike D’Antoni, Rockets: 34–20
• Billy Donovan, Thunder: 33–22
• Rick Carlisle, Mavericks: 33–22
• Taylor Jenkins, Grizzlies: 28–26
• Terry Stotts, Blazers: 25–31
• Gregg Popovich, Spurs: 23–31

Yeah, we just listed off 10 of the 15 coaches out West, and that’s not even including Steve Kerr on his Warriors sabbatical.

Gregg Popovich and Terry Stotts are here out of respect but obviously can’t be our choices. The Spurs were bad, then pretty good, and now bad again, and the playoff run might finally be over. Pop ain’t dead until the clock strikes midnight, but we can’t reward him this time. Stotts has the Blazers in the picture despite losing both forward starters plus his star center. I realize Melo, Ariza, and Whiteside are names we know, but the fact that Portland is right in the playoff mix starting those guys in 2020 is pretty amazing.

Mike D’Antoni is out, but don’t underestimate how he’s flipped the script on what was looking like a lost season by going super-small, finding a superstar role for Russell Westbrook, and putting the team into position to trade Clint Capela for Robert Covington. I know you like Quin Snyder, but the Jazz have been hot and cold and are overall about exactly at expectations. Doc Rivers probably deserves a little more credit than we’ll give him for balancing a roster of guys that still don’t totally know how to play together and putting the Clippers on pace for 55 wins even with all the games missed from Kawhi, PG, and even Patrick Beverley.

Respect to the work all five of those guys are doing, but they’re not among my top five options out West. So that leaves us with Vogel, Malone, Donovan, Carlisle, and Jenkins.

WESTERN ALL-STAR COACHES

Head coach — Frank Vogel

But the Lakers have LeBron and Davis! How much does Frank Vogel even have to do?!

Yeah, Los Angeles does have Bron and Brow. But who else is on that roster? Who is the Lakers third best player? It was supposed to be Danny Green, but he hasn’t been that great and isn’t always even in the closing lineups. Kyle Kuzma has been putrid. The Lakers never got that third free agent and didn’t trade for another star at the deadline. Instead they’re relying on retreads like Dwight Howard, JaVale McGee, Avery Bradley, Alex Caruso, and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope.

And somehow, all of those guys are contributing positively and the Lakers are playing beautifully. They’re top-five on both offense and defense, and I assure you, you have to play more than two guys on both of those. This was not going to be an easy coaching job, and that’s without even taking into account all the obvious emotions and distractions after the Kobe Bryant tragedy.

But Vogel has checked every box. The Lakers are on a 65-win pace, and remember, Vegas set their over/under at 50.5 this year and usually inflates the Lakers number. Isn’t this something like a top 2% outcome for this Lakers regular season, given all the circumstances and the names involved? Maybe Vogel isn’t the Coach of the Year, but let’s give credit where credit’s due.

Assistant coaches

We’re down to four names for two spots, and with apologies to a man I selected as an All-Star Coach a year ago, Mike Malone is the next one to go. Malone has done a great job to keep the Nuggets right near the top of the West despite a lot going wrong for Denver. Jokic showed up out of shape, Millsap has been hurt, Gary Harris has stunk, and Jamal Murray remains inconsistent. But Malone is getting a great season from Will Barton and brought Michael Porter Jr. along beautifully, and he has these Nuggets right where they wanted to be. There are just other better options.

One of those options just has to be Taylor Jenkins, even if you’ve never even heard his name before. Jenkins has done an absolutely incredible job with the Grizzlies this season. For a team that young and precocious to be 28–26 and in the Western playoffs at the break is absolutely incredible. Teams with a rookie point guard just aren’t successful, ever. No one would have batted an eye if the Grizz finished bottom in the West this season. Instead, they’re ahead of seven other teams and already beat their Vegas projection. Truth be told, Jenkins would be my first pick out West, my one lock, but I’m not ready to make him the All-Star Head Coach just yet. Earn your stripes, rookie. But hey, Memphis has that deserving All-Star now.

No team has outperformed Vegas expectations more than the Oklahoma City Thunder. Their season over/under was 31.5 wins, and they’ve already hit that before the All-Star break. OKC is 33–22, tied for the 6-seed and on pace for an amazing 49 wins. That’s 18 wins above expectations! And at first all of that had me listing Billy Donovan as a lock on this team. But why were the Thunder listed at 31.5 wins? Wasn’t it because we expected this team to strip down and sell parts? OKC has gotten healthy seasons from Chris Paul and Danilo Gallinari, and kept them all year. If you ignored the presumed tanking intentions and saw a roster with healthy CP3, Gallo, Steven Adams, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, would you really be that shocked to see that team in the playoff hunt? Is that really a coaching success, or is Donovan just lucky his guys are still on the roster and healthy?

In the end, I had to give my final spot to the warlock, Rick Carlisle. Sure, Carlisle’s Mavs are tied with the Thunder and had a higher Vegas projection (40.5 vs 31.5), but look at these rosters and tell me which has overperformed more. Who’s even the second best player on Dallas? Kristaps Porzingis hasn’t been that good. Is it Tim Hardaway Jr.? Is it somehow Dorian Finney-Smith?! Carlisle has taken those dudes, Maxi Kleber, Delon Wright, Dwight Powell, Seth Curry, and Jalen Brunson and made each one a valuable contributor. THAT collection of dudes is the league’s #1 offense? Luka Doncic has been absolutely incredible — and Carlisle gets some credit for empowering him in that position to succeed, too — but even when Luka sits, this offense balls out.

Taylor Jenkins and Rick Carlisle get my final two West spots, and Frank Vogel leads the way.

But give me another day or two, and I might change my mind yet again… ■

2020 NBA ALL-STAR COACHES

EAST

Nick Nurse, Toronto Erik Spoelstra, Miami Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee

WEST

Frank Vogel, Los Angeles Lakers Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Rick Carlisle, Dallas

Follow Brandon on Medium or @wheatonbrando for more sports, television, humor, and culture. Visit the rest of Brandon’s writing archives here.