2021 NBA awards: Final picks for MVP, Rookie of the Year and every other award
Coach of the Year
3. Quin Snyder, Utah Jazz
2. Tom Thibodeau, New York Knicks
1. Monty Williams, Phoenix Suns
As is the case almost every year, the Coach of the Year category is chock-full of deserving candidates, but a few stand out above the rest. Because the only tangible way to measure a coach is in wins and losses, this award relies more heavily on narrative — which teams exceeded expectations, which teams won the most and which teams were the “story” of the season in terms of their coach’s impact.
Sporting a league-best 52-20 record and a league-best plus-9.2 point differential, the Utah Jazz have been the best team in the association almost all season long. They’re one of four teams to rank in the top 10 for both offensive and defensive rating, which, alongside point differential, is typically a good measure of a team’s status as a legitimate title contender. Despite their repeated shortcomings in postseasons past, this squad has the genetic makeup of a championship-caliber team.
Quin Snyder obviously deserves a ton of credit for that. Utah’s identity as a stifling defense is made possible by Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner Rudy Gobert, but Snyder’s schemes have made top-five defenses a regular occurrence in Utah. This year, the offense has been just as deadly, as the Jazz boast an elite 3-point attack that ranks first in attempts, first in makes and fourth in efficiency from long range.
While Snyder and the Jazz have taken the league by storm, he doesn’t quite have the same narrative push on his side. Maybe it’s because of the continuity and (until recently) good health that’s been on Utah’s side, when voters enjoy a surprise candidate most of all. Maybe it’s because we expected the Jazz to become this dark horse contender last season when they got Mike Conley, or maybe it’s simply because there are just two slightly better stories ahead of him. In any case, Snyder comes up just short of Tom Thibodeau and Monty Williams.
Raise your hand if you thought the New York Knicks would be playoff-bound this season! Everyone except Spike Lee should have their hands down. And yet, the Knickerbockers are indeed heading back to the postseason for the first time since 2013, and they didn’t just sneak in; against all odds, they snagged the 4-seed in the East!
Thibodeau is the architect behind New York’s fourth-ranked defense, and his fingerprints are all over this gritty, young team that plays incredibly hard every single night. Nothing is given against the Knicks, and everything must be earned. He’s drawn criticism in the past for running his starters into the ground, but outside of Julius Randle’s league-leading 37.6 minutes per game, he’s actually been much more restrained in this area.
Considering the Knicks were viewed as a rebuilding, highly flawed team entering the season, Thibodeau’s squad has far surpassed anyone’s wildest expectations. That, along with the undeniable narrative buzz that comes with coaching in the Big Apple, has him firmly near the top of the COY conversation.
The only reason he’s not No. 1? There’s been one coach who’s stood out above the rest, leading another team that vastly outperformed expectations. While Snyder’s case rests on Utah’s regular-season dominance, and Thibodeau’s relies on blowing pre-season expectations out of the water, Monty Williams’ candidacy mixes the best of both worlds. His Phoenix Suns are legitimate title contenders by almost every measure, but most people thought they’d be fortunate to even make the playoffs heading into the 2020-21 campaign.
James Jones’ roster upgrades, the Chris Paul trade and Devin Booker being one of the most patient stars in the league all played prominent roles in the Suns’ culture reset, but Monty Williams is the linchpin at the center of it all. Booker’s had plenty of coaches, promising young players and even NBA vets around him before, but the difference this time is, all of those guys want to be in Phoenix and are thriving. That doesn’t happen without belief in a guy like Williams.
“Monty-isms” like “everything you want is on the other side of hard” and “can’t get happy on the farm” have become staples in the Valley, and his mindset of putting in the work on a daily basis has trickled down from the top of the roster with Booker and Paul all the way to the 14th and 15th guys on the bench. That may help explain why the Suns’ second unit has been so deadly this year; every single Sun is ready when their number is called, and that kind of unanimous buy-in is rare in the NBA.
Of course, winning helps too. The Suns own the NBA’s second-best record, fourth-best point differential, seventh-best offense and sixth-best defense, making them one of those four teams with a top-10 offense and defense. They have the league’s best record against teams at or above .500, and there’s a sense of community and belief that hasn’t existed in Phoenix since the days of Steve Nash. Monty is rightly credited as one of the main architects in ending an 11-year playoff drought and turning this franchise around from a decade of pure embarrassment. Even Thibs in Madison Square Garden can’t compete with that narrative.
There’s also precedence for a candidate like Thibs falling short: In 2013-14, Jeff Hornacek led the Suns (who were expected to tank, much like the Knicks) to 48 wins (a higher win pace than Thibs’ Knicks) in the Western Conference (a tougher conference than the Knicks are currently in). Hornacek lost out to Gregg Popovich and his 62 wins, most likely because they just missed the cut on the playoffs, but it feels like Thibs is a similarly great story … that isn’t quite good enough to get the No. 1 on our ballot.
We saw signs of the Suns’ future dominance in the bubble, not only when they went 8-0 and narrowly missed the play-in games, but also when Monty gave his unforgettable speech that set the tone for the 2020-21 campaign. With CP3, Jae Crowder and a legitimate bench backing up Booker and this tantalizing young core, Williams has been able to harness that momentum, work ethic and one-day-at-a-time mindset, resulting in the biggest feel-good story of the season.