Cavs Mike Brown Named Coach of the Year

[Mexi]

ESPN via AP: http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=4083787

CLEVELAND -- Mike Brown was honored as the NBA's coach of the year Monday after leading the Cleveland Cavaliers to their greatest regular season.

He guided the club to a franchise-record 66 wins, a second Central Division title and the No. 1 overall seed in the postseason. Cleveland leads the Detroit Pistons 1-0 in the first round of the playoffs.

Preaching trust to his players since training camp, Brown has created a tightly knit team led by superstar LeBron James.

The 38-year-old coach also has given more authority to his assistants, a sign of his maturity as a coach and confidence as a leader.

Brown joined the Cavs in 2005 after two seasons as an assistant with Indiana. Bill Fitch in 1976 is the only other Cleveland coach to win the coaching award.

Brown received 55 first-place votes and earned 355 total points from a panel of 122 sports writers and broadcasters. Houston's Rick Adelman finished second with 151 points and Orlando's Stan Van Gundy was third with 150.

New Orleans coach Byron Scott won the award last year.

Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert called Brown a "natural leader" and credited him with much of his team's success.

"Mike Brown is one of these rare people that has nearly every tool in his tool box," Gilbert said in a statement. "He is smart, hard working, and selfless. He is curious and hungry to learn. He is philosophically driven and derives his decision making from his strong philosophy.

"Mike Brown is a critical element as to why our franchise is growing into the kind of success we all envisioned and hoped to achieve. There is no man more deserving and it proves to the world that, yes, nice guys can indeed, finish first."

 

[.GR]

Hmmmm... Idk. I thought Nate McMillan was more deserving. LeBron did all the work in Cleveland.

 

[elcheato]

Well deserved.. Mike did a fantastic job with the team this year, helped turn an offense from last year that was pretty bad, into one of the best in the NBA.

 

[One Love]

I would have had Sloan, Adelman, and McMillan ahead of him. Still though, the best team in the league, mostly due to their defense, Mike's a defensive coach. I can see how the voters would choose Brown. Congrats to him.

 

[MapleLeaf]

Only people who have an arguement imo are George Karl or Adelman. Sloan's team only got worse from last year, McMillan meh, his team won what, 10 more games? And noone was predicting them to make the playoffs before this year? I think most everyone was predicting they would be where they finished, maybe a few games, but nothing major.

Adelman took a team with Yao and a bunch of role players to 50+ wins
George Karl noone saw the Nuggets getting the 2 seed in a deep west at the beginning of the season.

But Brown deserves it the most. 66 wins with, if you look at his roster, isn't really a 66 win team on paper, but they play so well as a team and the chemistry is amazing so he deserves it

 

[DJT]

Eh....congratz to him...I still wish Sloan would get one, he's doing a good job every year...

 

[One Love]

Only people who have an arguement imo are George Karl or Adelman. Sloan's team only got worse from last year, McMillan meh, his team won what, 10 more games? And noone was predicting them to make the playoffs before this year? I think most everyone was predicting they would be where they finished, maybe a few games, but nothing major.

Adelman took a team with Yao and a bunch of role players to 50+ wins
George Karl noone saw the Nuggets getting the 2 seed in a deep west at the beginning of the season.

But Brown deserves it the most. 66 wins with, if you look at his roster, isn't really a 66 win team on paper, but they play so well as a team and the chemistry is amazing so he deserves it

You can't judge everything off of W-L. Sloan is more of a homer pick because he really deserves a COY award. He had to battle injuries all year, and had the Jazz in contention for the NW division title until the final few games.

I did not have the Blazers in the playoffs this year, and I know quite a few other people didn't either, and for McMillan to get that team a share of the division title is amazing.

George Karl, meh. The trade for Billups is really what brought them over the top. Karl didn't really change anything from what he did last year from what I saw.

Mike Brown does deserve this award though, but I would've had others ahead of him.

 

[DC4]

well deserved

 

[Mexi]

Not saying he doesnt deserve it because he does, congrats to him

the COY is kinda meh. How on earth does Jerry Sloan have none, and Phil Jackson 1?
what the hell?