OKC Thunder: Media ballots revealed for COY detailing Billy Donovan votes
Votes of the 100 media members were released including Coach of the Year where former OKC Thunder Billy Donovan placed third.
With the announcement that Giannis Antetokounmpo is the Most Valuable Player for 2019-20 all of the award recipients have been revealed. Although no one from the OKC Thunder won any individual awards based on media votes Dennis Schroder and Billy Donovan did finish second and third respectively for Sixth Man and Coach of the Year.
Chris Paul was the only OKC Thunder player to rank on the All-NBA teams as he was tapped All-NBA second team.
Some players took umbrage with their placement or lack of votes. For example, LeBron James felt shafted by receiving only 16 first-place votes. In truth, the numbers Antetokounmpo put up this season were better than his numbers from last year when he won the award the first time so it’s hard to argue why media members tapped him as the repeat MVP.
That said, the players aren’t kept in the dark as the NBA released how each media member voted for the awards.
Billy Donovan Media votes for Coach of the Year
Although Billy Donovan won earlier in the season tying Milwaukee Bucks head man Mike Budenholzer for Coach of the Year, that award was from their peers. The media ranked Donovan in third behind Budenholzer and run away winner Nick Nurse of the Toronto Raptors.
Here’s how the 62 media votes panned out for Donovan from the panel of 100 voters.
First Place: (five points)
Nick Nurse collected 90 of the potential 100 votes as the winner. The Raptors bench boss also garnered six votes for second, two for third, and two media members left him off their ballot (Chris Haynes and Mark Jones).
Billy Donovan collected 20 points for the four media members who made him their top selection:
- Chris Haynes – Yahoo! Sports
- Mark Jackson – ESPN
- Mark Jones – ESPN
- Simone Sandri – La Gazzetta Dello Sport
Second place: (three points)
With Nick Nurse running away with the top spot the true race was for second and third. Coach Bud got five votes for first, 37 votes for second, and 11 votes for third while 47 media members didn’t put him in their top three positions.
The media members who voted Donovan as the second-best bench boss were:
- Steve Aschburner – NBA.com
- Jon Barry – ESPN
- Tim Bontemps – ESPN
- Doris Burke – ESPN
- Shams Charania – ESPN
- Anthony Chiang – Miami Herald
- Davide Chinellato – La Gazzetta dello Sport
- Vince Goodwill – Yahoo! Sports
- Jared Greenberg – Turner
- Will Guillory – The Athletic
- Kevin Harlan – Turner
- Erik Horne – The Athletic
- Frank Isola – Sirius Radio
- Coral Lu, ESPN – Tencent
- Jackie MacMullan – ESPN
- Brian Mahoney – Associated Press
- Kevin O’Connor – The Ringer
- Candace Parker – Turner
- Tim Reynolds – Associated Press
- Josh Robbins – The Athletic
- Dennis Scott – Turner
- Doug Smith – The Toronto Star
- Steve Smith – Turner
- Brad Townsend – Dallas Morning News
- Joe Vardon – The Athletic
- Gary Washburn – Boston Globe
- Brian Windhorst – ESPN
- Royce Young – ESPN
Third place: (one point)
Donovan received more overall votes than Mike Budenholzer as the duo appeared on 62 and 53 ballots respectively. The difference was the Bucks bench boss had more second-place votes.
Donovan’s 62 votes broke down with four votes as the winner, 28 votes for second, and 30 votes for third. Of the 100 media voters, Donovan missed the top three on 38 media members ballots.
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The following media members picked the OKC Thunder coach as third on their ballot:
- Sam Amick – The Athletic
- Jason Anderson – Sacramento Bee
- Kevin Arnovitz – ESPN
- Rod Beard – Detroit News
- Marc Berman – New York Post
- Mike Breen – ESPN
- Chris Fedor – Cleveland.com
- Mike Ganter – The Toronto Sun
- Zach Harper – The Athletic
- Lisa Hsu – Tencent
- Cassidy Hubbarth – ESPN
- Kelly Iko – The Athletic
- Fred Katz – The Athletic
- Chris Kirschner – The Athletic
- Nick Kosmider – The Athletic
- Zach Lowe – ESPN
- Maxime Malet – L’Equipe
- Chris Mannix – Sports illustrated
- Jeff McDonald – San Antonio Express-News
- Mark Medina – USA Today
- Yoko Miyaji – Sports Graphic Numbers
- Rachel Nichols – ESPN
- Keith Pompey – Philadelphia Inquirer
- Shaun Powell – NBA.com
- Ramona Shelburne – ESPN
- Mirjam Swanson – Southern California News Group
- Matt Velazquez – Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
- Michael Wilbon – ESPN
- Matt Winer – Turner
- Jeff Zillgitt – USA Today
Aside from the trio of Nurse, Budenholzer, and Donovan, seven other coaches received one first-place vote, 29 second-place votes, and 57 third-place votes.
Specifically included in this mix were the Heat Erik Spoelstra, Pacers Nate McMillan, Grizzlies Tayler Jenkins, Lakers Frank Vogel, Celtics Brad Stevens, Clippers Doc Rivers and Mavericks Rick Carlisle.
Nurse was provided a contract extension and Budenholzer will be back with the Bucks despite their underachieving season. Donovan elected to move on after sharing a few beers with OKC Thunder VP and GM, Sam Presti.
No doubt the fact his peers cited him as the co-winner of Coach of the Year and the Media citing him in third will help his pursuit for a new position should he remain in the NBA. The other option could find Billy D returning to the College ranks.