The NBA's Coach of the Year award is a significant honor for any head coach in this league, but it's certainly not easy being in this position. Anything that goes wrong during the game is always their fault, regardless of what actually happened, and the coach is always the first one to take the blame for the organization's lack of success at the end of the year.
Just this past year, we saw Nick Nurse, Doc Rivers, Mike Budenholzer, and Monty Williams all relieved of their duties with their respective teams. Nurse and Budenholzer are recent NBA champions, Rivers is a future Hall of Famer, and Williams took his team to the NBA Finals just a couple of years ago. Job security is not real when it comes to coaching in the NBA, which is why head coaches deserve a lot more respect than they get.
Even though a lot of the attention for NBA head coaches goes on their lack of success, there are moments that deserve to be celebrated. Take Mike Brown for example, as he was fired three times as a head coach and decided to become an assistant under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. After winning three championships in the Bay Area, Brown became the head coach of the Sacramento Kings last year and went on to end their historic playoff drought.
As a result, Brown was named the 2022-23 NBA Coach of the Year and is now perceived to be one of the better coaches in the entire league. The Coach of the Year award is directly connected to a success story, as the league and its peers want to celebrate growth and achievements. This is the reason why there are several candidates for the award entering the 2023-24 season.
Right now, several teams across the NBA are looking to prove they're ready to take that next step as a franchise. There are several coaches who will be put in the spotlight as a result. However, only one of them is going to be able to call themselves the Coach of the Year when all is said and done.
Throughout the course of the NBA preseason, ClutchPoints conducted a poll featuring media members from around the country, some of whom are official voters the league uses to determine the winner of their end-of-season awards. Some cover the league at-large, while others cover individual teams. Nonetheless, each media member was asked a variety of questions pertaining to the playoffs, NBA Finals, and individual player awards and accolades.
ClutchPoints' Full NBA Preseason Media Poll
Most Valuable Player | Rookie of the Year | Most Improved Player| Coach of the Year
Sixth Man of the Year | Defensive Player of the Year | NBA Finals/Playoffs/season predictions
Most likely to be a first-time All-Star
Many answers were given and there was a wide array of talent to choose from, but the media believes there is a favorite for this upcoming season's Coach of the Year award. He may be a younger head coach, but he has matured with one of the youngest teams in the league that is in a position to finally make a push for the playoffs.
Below are the results from the voting that took place for 2023-24 NBA Coach of the Year.
ClutchPoints' 2023-24 NBA Coach of the Year Media Poll results
- Mark Daigneault (Oklahoma City Thunder) – 24%
- Rick Carlisle (Indiana Pacers) – 16%
- Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat) – 12%
T-4. Frank Vogel (Phoenix Suns), Adrian Griffin (Milwaukee Bucks), Quin Snyder (Atlanta Hawks), Michael Malone (Denver Nuggets) – 8%
Also receiving votes: Chris Finch (Minnesota Timberwolves), Monty Williams (Detroit Pistons), Nick Nurse (Philadelphia 76ers), Tom Thibodeau (New York Knicks)
Mark Daigneault's growth with Thunder
Since Mark Daigneault was hired, the Oklahoma City Thunder have gone 86-150 over the last three seasons, failing to make the playoffs each year. Just 35 years old when he became the head coach of the Thunder, Daigneault has been one of the youngest coaches in the league.
While this may be viewed as a downside to some, the Thunder saw the opportunity that Daigneault brought to the table, especially since they have had one of the youngest rosters in the league. Young players resonate with young coaches, and the Thunder have built a terrific bond between their coaching staff and locker room through the years.
“Working with this particular core of guys, everyone’s different. But with players like Shai and Lu, I was an assistant their first year in Oklahoma City. So this is our fifth year,” Daigneault told Steve Aschburner from NBA.com this offseason. “And Giddey and that draft class – [Aaron] Wiggins, Tre Mann – they’re going into their third year. [Aleksej] Pokusevski is going into his fourth. So it’s been very organic. And that’s intentional… I try not to focus so much on myself or our staff that we’re aiming at the wrong target. We’ve got to help these guys on this team, and that’s what we focus on.”
Making the postseason was never a part of Oklahoma City's plan over the last few years, which is why they invested in Daigneault and have stuck with him to this point. Now, as he prepares for his fourth season on the sideline, the Thunder head coach has the same high-potential core he has been building with, as well as more talent added to a roster that went 40-42 last season, coming up just short of winning in the play-in tournament.
Many around the league are expecting the Thunder to make the playoffs for the first time since 2020 this upcoming year. As a result, Daigneault will have a very good argument for being the league's Coach of the Year. Receiving 24 percent of the vote in the NBA preseason media poll, OKC's coach is in fact the favorite to win this award.
“It's clear to see the Thunder have a vision for their long-term success,” one Western Conference executive shared with ClutchPoints. “They believe in what they've built and unlike other teams who try to speed up their championship progression, this team takes their time and does everything the right way. Mark's record may not reflect it yet, but the Thunder have found success over the last three seasons. I have no doubt that they're going to be a problem for all of us in the West moving forward.”
With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and rookie Chet Holmgren set to lead the charge for the Thunder, this team will undoubtedly find success. It takes time to bring out potential and Daigneault has done a fantastic job of developing this team.
This is why he is primed to be in the Coach of the Year running.
Others to consider for Coach of the Year
Erik Spoelstra is heavily regarded as one of the best coaches in NBA history with the Miami Heat, while Rick Carlisle is one of the most respected coaches around the league with the Indiana Pacers. Two championship head coaches with a ton of experience, Spoelstra and Carlisle find themselves in two different positions entering the 2023-24 season.
The Heat recently made the NBA Finals for the second time in the last four seasons, adding onto Spoelstra's legacy with the organization. Time and time again, Miami is able to prove that they are title contenders no matter what happens during the regular season. Not to mention, Spoelstra and his staff are always finding diamonds in the rough when it comes to undrafted players.
In Indiana, Carlisle enters his third season since returning to the Pacers and has a group of young, dynamic players who are on the verge of becoming something special. Led by All-Star point guard Tyrese Haliburton, the Pacers are in a similar boat as the Thunder in terms of being a young team on the rise.
Spoelstra is coaching a championship-contending team and Carlisle is coaching a less-experienced group featuring some of the next generation of top talents. Nonetheless, it's Carlisle who received 16 percent of the vote in the preseason media poll, while Spoelstra received 12 percent of the vote for Coach of the Year.
A group of four others came in right behind these two veteran coaches in the vote, as Frank Vogel, Adrian Griffin, Quin Snyder, and recent champion Michael Malone each received 8 percent of the vote. Vogel and Griffin inherit two championship contenders in the Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks, respectively, while Snyder enters his first full season on the sidelines for the Atlanta Hawks.
Malone and the Denver Nuggets proved to everyone last season they are legit and will be looking to win back-to-back titles this season. Should they finish with the best record in the NBA, Malone will have a really good shot at being named the NBA's Coach of the Year.
Chris Finch (Minnesota Timberwolves), Monty Williams (Phoenix Suns), Nick Nurse (Philadelphia 76ers), and Tom Thibodeau (New York Knicks) each received a single vote for Coach of the Year in the NBA preseason media poll.
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