We should pick NBA coaches for the All-Star Game too
Voters want to reward winning, and selecting All-Star coaches is the perfect solution
The NBA has an All-Star problem. Every January and February, we lament the All-Star selection process. Why do we need 12 All-Stars from each conference when we’re not playing by conference anymore anyway? How are we compiling fan votes and accounting for bots, international stars, and player misspellings? How much say should the fans have versus coaches or players? Why do we need a starting All-Star center? That one we fixed.
There’s another problem that clouds the entire selection process: we have no idea what an All-Star is. Is this about recognizing and rewarding the top players (or teams), or is it about putting on an entertaining show for the fans? Luka Doncic is a perfect test case. Check out this poll I ran on Twitter. Fans are split about 50–50 on whether Doncic deserves to be an All-Star, but almost 80% of fans agree we’d like to see him in the game.
If all of us want to see Doncic in the All-Star Game, why shouldn’t he be an All-Star? Are his 20 points, 7 rebounds, and 5 assists a game as a rookie just not quite enough, even though only Michael Jordan and Oscar Robertson ever matched those numbers as a rookie? Doncic is top-30 in the NBA in both scoring and assists. He’s the best player on a playoff contender in the most loaded conference in NBA history, and he doesn’t turn 20 for another month. If you’d vote against Doncic, it’s probably because the Mavericks are 20–25, third from the bottom in the West and, darn it, we like to reward winners. All-Stars should be winners.
Many voters have this confused concept of what constitutes an All-Star. Sure, anyone can vote in Stephen Curry, James Harden, and Anthony Davis. That’s easy enough. But inevitably you get down to the end of the ballot and you’re picking between DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday, and Jamal Murray for a final spot. And what’s the argument sound like? The Spurs have been so good they deserve an All-Star. Holiday has been the best of the three, but if the Pelicans are playing so poorly, can we really give them a second All-Star? Doesn’t it make more sense to pick a second choice from the Nuggets, the best team in the West most of the season?
When it comes to All-Stars, we have the same flawed logic we use comparing historic players. Instead of RINGZ, it’s WINZ. Basketball is a team sport, yet we reduce the argument to wins and losses as if it’s Jrue Holiday’s fault the Pelicans don’t know how to build a proper roster around him and Davis.
All-Star voting is broken because we don’t know how to properly value wins in the equation. But there’s an easy way to address that.
We should pick NBA coaches for the All-Star Game, too.
We already pick 12 All-Stars from each conference. Why not pick coaches too? NBA fans are educated. We are smart enough to recognize which coaches have their guys playing above expectations and which ones just lucked into the right stars.
Right now, we choose 12 All-Stars from a pool of 75 starters in each conference. Realistically, it’s probably a pool of 60ish guys, considering some would-be candidates are injured or not full-time (or Cavs). That makes 20% of the starters All-Stars, so let’s elect 20% of the coaches. There are 15 head coaches in each conference, so three get to go to the All-Star Game.
What would that look like this year?
Logical Eastern candidates
- Mike Budenholzer, Bucks, 33–12
- Nick Nurse, Raptors, 35–13
- Nate McMillan, Pacers, 31–15
- Brad Stevens, Celtics, 28–18
- Kenny Atkinson, Nets, 24–23
- Steve Clifford, Magic, 19–27
Obviously Bud is the top choice. He’s the runaway favorite for Coach of the Year and an easy All-Star. So is Nick Nurse. In his first year as a head coach, Nurse has been innovative and inventive, reorganizing the Raptors on the fly and keeping them atop the East despite all the changes.
Stevens comes up short this year. He’s done a good job getting Gordon Hayward and Jaylen Brown to buy into bench roles, but the Celtics have been one of the league’s biggest disappointments. Clifford has the Magic in playoff “contention,” but only because the East is so bad. I’m giving the final spot to Kenny Atkinson. Tough miss for McMillan, but Atkinson has the Nets playing hard, and no team has overachieved as much as Brooklyn’s no-star roster.
Logical Western candidates
- Steve Kerr, Warriors, 32–14
- Mike Malone, Nuggets, 31–14
- Billy Donovan, Thunder, 27–18
- Gregg Popovich, Spurs, 27–21
- Doc Rivers, Clippers, 25–21
- Dave Joerger, Kings, 24–22
The West is more difficult. Mike Malone is first. The Nuggets have been atop the West all season despite a litany of injuries, including lost seasons so far from Will Barton and Isaiah Thomas. Malone took the same roster that missed the playoffs last year and elevated them to the top of the standings, and he did it with only one star. We’re also giving a spot to Pop. His team is zigging while every other team zags, learning to play defense on the fly, and right back in the playoff hunt just like every other Spurs team ever.
We can’t reward Kerr for a 57-win pace with all that talent. Donovan found a role for Jerami Grant and has his team playing wicked D, but a team with three All-Star candidates should be 27–18. For me, the last spot comes down to Rivers or Joerger. Doc had the Clippers near the top of the West for a month, but L.A. is only 10–15 since November. I’m giving the spot to Joerger, who already has more wins for the Kings by January than most of us expected for the entire season.
So those are our first NBA coach All-Stars: Budenholzer, Nurse, and Atkinson in the East and Malone, Popovich, and Joerger in the West.
Look at those names.
Now the Bucks, Raptors, and Nuggets have their deserved second All-Star. Intuitively we look at those teams and want to recognize their greatness. If they win so many games, shouldn’t they have more than one All-Star? Now they do. Giannis has Bud. Kawhi has Nurse. Jokic has Malone. Couldn’t you argue the coach has been as important to these teams’ success as any of the other borderline All-Star candidates?
Now we don’t need to try to shoehorn Khris Middleton or Eric Bledsoe onto our ballot or pretend like Jamal Murray has a real case. The Nuggets took a leap because they’re playing defense. The Bucks changed their style of play and built an offense featuring Brook Lopez so Giannis can do his thing in acres of space. The coaches on these teams are deserving All-Stars. Outside of their one superstar, the coach is the reason these teams are winning so much.
What about Pop, Atkinson, and Joerger? Hey look, the Spurs have an All-Star now! We knew they should, but it just doesn’t feel like DeMar or LMA have done enough. The East’s 6-seed gets some recognition without considering D’Angelo Russell’s streaky shooting, and the Kings get their first All-Star since Chris Webber (fine, since Boogie, but you believed it for a second).
Now when voters go back to the player ballot, they can vote with a clean conscience. The Spurs have been properly recognized. We’ve rewarded the Nuggets and Bucks for winning a lot. We remembered the Nets are a thing. We’ve done our moral duty. Now we can vote freely for the 12 most deserving All-Stars. Now we can vote for Luka Doncic simply because we he’s one of the 12 biggest Western stars.
So how would the process work? Maybe the fans pick one choice in each conference and the players and coaches vote for the other two spots. Perhaps you prefer to reserve one spot for the coach with the best record and leave only two spots up for grabs. That’s fine. The coach with the top record will usually be there anyway.
Coaches should be All-Stars because it lets us recognize excellence. Right now we really only recognize one coach each season with the Coach of the Year award. Why not recognize six outstanding coaches instead? Why shouldn’t we have a chance to appreciate Gregg Popovich passing Red Auerbach with his 14th All-Star Game selection? Why not celebrate first-time All-Star Mike Malone ascending from almost-fired to the top of the league or appreciate rookie All-Star Nick Nurse?
Plus, this will give us a more natural way of rating coaches. Of course, Phil Jackson is a great coach, but he also spent his entire career with MJ, Scottie, Kobe, and Shaq. Eleven rings are nice, but would he have 11 All-Star berths too? Would Tyronn Lue ever have been an All-Star with the LeBrons? How much credit should we give Steve Kerr with all that Warriors talent? Maybe we’d properly appreciate seven-time All-Star Rick Carlisle a little more.
We can even let one coach be the “head coach” in each conference if you want. Maybe that’s the coach with the best record, or maybe it’s the fan choice just like the starting All-Star spots. The fun is just beginning.
Coaches should be All-Stars, too.
It’s about time they get their deserved recognition, and it will only help voters with the rest of the All-Star voting process along the way.
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