NBA Awards: Bucks Mike Budenholzer nabs 2019 Coach of the Year

The 2019 NBA Awards handed out the hardware Monday Night, with Milwaukee Bucks Mike Budenholzer snagging Coach of the Year.

Heading into the NBA Awards the Coach of the Year award featured three strong in-season candidates. Of course, OKC Thunder Head Coach Billy Donovan wasn’t among the list and likely didn’t get many sniffs at being a nominee given how much the team fell off in the second half.

The three nominees included the Milwaukee Bucks Mike Budenholzer, Denver Nuggets Michael Malone, and Los Angeles Clippers Doc Rivers.

This award perhaps more than any could’ve featured numerous other options. For example, the fact Nick Nurse, a first year Head Coach not only navigated 22 missed games of Kawhi Leonard’s load management but a further 17 without Kyle Lowry. Neither ever missed a game simultaneously. Throughout the playoffs, I kept reminding people the Raptors were still a team in progress learning to play together and developing chemistry.

I was also super high on Kenny Atkinson who got his Nets squad to play with an offensive aggression and develop a specific culture. Even Steve Clifford’s efforts in Orlando impressed. And, it’s no secret I’d just ink in Spurs Gregg Popovich yearly.

In hindsight, this award poignantly touches on why the Awards nominees should not be determined until after the playoffs. Logistically the timing likely doesn’t allow the shift since due to scribes needing to vote,

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Still, for the second year in a row, the CoY ends up being a strong in-season representative who got outcoached in the post season.  (see Dwane Casey last year).

Mike Budenholzer lead his Bucks to the best record in the NBA as the only team to win 60 games and just one of two squads who finished in the top five in each of the three main categories of offense, defense and net rating (the Raptors were the other).

His competition had equally impressive campaigns. After back to back seasons in which the Nuggets failed on the final night of the season to nab a postseason berth Malone’s Nuggets not only got there but did so by landing via the second best Western Conference seed. His team took on his aggressive approach and while they didn’t reach the Conference Finals they fought right down to the wire in a Game 7 affair.

Doc Rivers arguably had the toughest route to his nomination working with a team who didn’t feature any superstars and even after the Clippers sent out Tobias Harris getting still managed to keep his team focused on making the postseason where they pushed the Warriors to six games. In hindsight, it does make you wonder if anyone other than DeMarcus Cousins had missed games if they might’ve pushed the Warriors even further.

Ultimately, Coach Bud snags the award for his efforts to run an offense around Giannis Antetokounmpo which allowed the Bucks to excel while also retaining their defensive prowess.

Congrats to Coach Bud.