Winning the Coach of the Year in the ever-competitive NBA is no easy feat, and the job just gets harder for the men at the helm this 2018/19 campaign.
New faces in new places was the main storyline in the NBA this summer. LeBron James, unsurprisingly, ditched the Cleveland Cavaliers for the vast and beautiful Hollywood, while DeMarcus Cousins made everyone angry (besides Golden State) for his ring-chasing move—as if you still don’t know that he joined the Warriors for dirt cheap.
There are also players who stayed for a COST like Chris Paul and Paul George, helping shape up a summer of surprises.
With these developments, though, the pressure on coaches also increased. Imagine having to find a way to take a playoff spot in the ultra-tough Western Conference? Or having to live up to the pressure of producing positive results in the weakened Eastern Conference where owners are likely expecting a Conference Finals at the least?
Coaches all over the league have always had a share of the spotlight, and that won’t change in the upcoming basketball season. In fact, the spotlight might have just gotten bigger and brighter.
Today, however, SBOBET takes a look at three coaches who are capable of living up to expectations and delivering results to their respective teams, as well as actually winning the top coaching honour this year.
Luke Walton, Los Angeles Lakers
Walton is a dark horse candidate sure, but there’s no doubt he’s up to the task of coaching unarguably the best player in the planet—and perhaps the best ever to play on the hard court.
Remember, Luke coached Steph Curry and the Warriors a couple of years ago and was, in fact, the one responsible for leading them to a 24-game unbeaten start to the 2015/16 season. Although that record wasn’t credited to his name, everybody knows that he was the reason for that incredible feat.
Now, Walton is set to manage another superstar but of a different calibre. There are fears that he will be overshadowed in success by LeBron—just like those who coached the King in the past eight years—and not to mention that everything he will do will be put under the microscope.
Nonetheless, Walton has everything he needs to succeed in Los Angeles, a young core, a group of savvy veterans and a superstar. He is well positioned to bring the Lakers to a whole new level, and a top-three seed in the West might just do the trick for him to winning the coaching accolade.
Also, it might silence the naysayers that LeBron seems to be all-in to the Lakers and Walton.
“He’s about the team. He’s about doing things the right way, and he’s about winning,” Walton said via ESPN. “I can work with those qualities.”
Mike Budenholzer, Milwaukee Bucks
Budenholzer is one of the best coaches in the league, plain and simple.
He had little to work with at Atlanta but managed to lead the team to four straight playoff appearances before missing the postseason last year, with the Hawks finishing with the third-worst record overall.
Now that he’s at Milwaukee, though, he’s likely to find success again. After all, he’s taking the reins of a team that features one of the league’s true unicorns in Giannis Antetokounmpo. He is also not short of talent with the likes of Khris Middleton, Malcolm Brogdon, Thon Maker and newly acquired bigs Brook Lopez and Ersan Ilyasova.
That’s more than just “a pretty nice team” and certainly a level up to his Atlanta squad of last year. With that in mind, it won’t be a surprise to see Budenholzer and his bucks grab the NBA 2018 news and headlines.
Being in the Eastern Conference should also help Budenholzer’s case, though the last person on this list will make things a little difficult for him.
Brad Stevens, Boston Celtics
There are only a few highly adored coaches in the league, and one of them is Stevens.
The former Butler University coach has led the Celtics to immense growth over the past five years. He took over the team in 2013 and led them to the playoffs in just his second season, sparking a quick turnaround despite low expectations.
Stevens has never looked back since then and has guided the Celts to back-to-back trips in the East Finals, losing only to the LeBron-led Cavaliers.
With LeBron bolting to the West, Stevens and his Celtics are now the best in the East. And with Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward set to rejoin the team after recovering from injuries, Stevens has everything he needs to take the throne in their conference and possibly, according to the NBA odds, lead Boston to the Finals for the first time since 2010.
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