6:05pm: Williams has officially been named Coach of the Year, according to a league press release.
Williams received 458 points (81 first-place votes) from a global panel of 100 sportswriters and broadcasters. Jenkins finished in second place with 270 points (17 first-place votes), while Spoelstra finished in third place with 72 points (one first-place vote).
Ime Udoka of the Celtics receive the other first-place vote and finished fourth. J.B. Bickerstaff, Tyronn Lue, Jason Kidd, Nick Nurse, and Chris Finch all received second- and/or third-place votes.
3:03pm: Suns coach Monty Williams is expected to be named Coach of the Year later today, per star Devin Booker (via Twitter), who amusingly says “book tells sources.”
Shams Charania of The Athletic (Twitter link) confirmed the news a few minutes later, noting that Williams led the Suns to an NBA- and franchise-best 64-18 record in 2021/22. Phoenix led the league in net rating at +7.5 and held the No. 5 offense and No. 3 defense during the regular season.
Williams, 50, was runner-up for Coach of the Year last season after he guided Phoenix to a 51-21 record and a berth in the NBA Finals. The Suns ultimately fell to the Bucks in six games.
Phoenix’s turnaround has been one of the most surprising stories in the league over the past couple seasons. The Suns hadn’t made the playoffs since 2009/10 prior to their run to the Finals last season, going a combined 272-450 (.377) from 2010-2019.
The team was particularly bad in the years directly preceding Williams’ tenure, going 87-241 (.265) and winning no more than 24 games in any season from 2015-2019. In 2019/20, his first year at the helm, Phoenix went 34-39.
In three seasons as Phoenix’s head coach, Williams sports an overall record of 149-79 (.656), including 20-12 in the postseason (.625). The Suns are currently tied with the Mavericks at two games apiece in their second-round matchup, with Game 5 set for Tuesday in Phoenix.
The other finalists for Coach of the Year were Grizzlies coach Taylor Jenkins and Heat coach Erik Spoelstra.
This should have been Erik Spoelstra running away… the Heat didn’t play a single game the entire season without an injured rotation player and had like 20 different lineups… the top 3 players on the team missed 20+ games each… at one point they only had 4 active players thanks to covid…. AND THEY STILL WON THE EAST. The Suns were only 1 seed ahead of what they did last year and didn’t face half the adversity of the Heat
No – This should have been Ime Udoka running way…
A rookie coach who’s team wasn’t projected to be anything other than average and they end up being the best team in the second half of the season.
The fact that he didn’t even make it the final three is ridiculous.
the celtics were the favorites to win the east 18 months ago.. what are you talking about? The Heat went from a low seed to the top of the east, facing insane adversity the entire season. For crap sake, Kyle Guy and Chris Silva were starting for them part of this season brother lol
On that note, where’s the love for Jason Kidd? Took the Allas Mavericks and put the D back in. Finney-Smith and Brunson have elevated their games under his leadership. Seamlessly integrated Dinwiddie and Bertans. Outschemed Utah in Round 1 and giving Phoenix a heckuva battle in Round 2. Kidd has been awesome.
I picked Boston as the number 1 seed…
Spo deserves an award for his consistency and will get one at some point for the lifetime achievement, even if they don’t explicitly call it that.
[Stephen A. Smith voice] BUT. The Suns (#7) missed almost as many man-games as the Heat (#5), and also by quality players. link to twitter.com
Plenty of coaches may deserve it this year, but Monty deserved it last year as well as this year, so he gets the make-up call.
The Grizzlies and Heat were the two most impressive teams to me this year.. the Suns remained consistent.. this is like Mike Brown winning it with the Cavs to me… how has Spo been considered the best coach in the NBA for at least 5 years now.. without a COY trophy?
If by remained consistent you mean they won 25% more games than the previous season then yes, the suns remained consistent.
I’d have to check the winning %… but last year there was only 72 games vs 82 this season… they probably only “won” 1-2 more percentage wise
List of complaining about officiating in this playoffs:
Suns:
Coach
Booker
Grizzlies
Coach
Celtics
Coach
76ers
Embiid
Good or bad?
Will referees make adjustments next game?
Now this one is a joke. The Suns were expected to be one of the best teams in the league, if not possibly the best team, so how and why should Monty win this award as good of a coach as he is? There were several far more deserving candidates (Spo, Udoka, Finch, Jenkins, to name some).
I guess this is his reward for the work he did last season, which is silly. Just give him a silver medal next time and call it a day.
Bad take.
At least I have one.
And?
Easy to criticize others while adding nothing to the conversation. I thought that was obvious.
I would have voted for Willie Green.
K.
Jenkins, Green, Spo, Udoka, Finch, then Williams.
Jenkins because of how good they played all year and without Morant. Green cause of roster and Zion and how they came back. Spo had ton of injuries to deal with. Udoka turned team around and help create an identity. Finch took a dangerous team to playoffs. Williams for kicking the leagues butt while key guys were missing time.
I took in consideration the teams who had current Allstars, guys who will be All NBA, and the way coaches developed their teams. Tatum and Morant will make ALl NBA 1st teams. therefore some teams had more work to do
Definitely a makeup from last season. Thibs shouldn’t have won it, but it was political. They wanted to restore the faith to Knicks fans, but now in season 2 they already want him fired lol
I’d bet the vote is incredibly close. If it’s based on the second half of the season, it’s Udoka. If it’s best overall performance and turnaround from 2 years ago it’s Williams. If its making the most with the least it’s Jenkins. I’ve never been a spoelstra fan as he’s traditionally coached a group of stars, but he seems to be a pretty damn good coach.
You get the NBA is completely different than it was in 2008 when Spo started coaching because of him right? Spo killed the traditional center and showed this year he can win with literally anyone on the floor.. give the man the credit he deserves… for crap sake he took a team that was 11-32, with Dion Waiters, Hassan Whiteside, Justise Winslow, and James Johnson leading the way to 32-11 in the second half of the season in 2017-18.
The only credit he deserves this year is 3rd place in the voting.
Why all the complaints about the coach of the team with the best record in the NBA winning coach of the year?
Because why have voting in the first place? Change the award to literally being the coach of the best regular season team, in which case it all becomes somewhat meaningless.
The Suns has 3 starters miss significant time. They had the number 5 offense and the number 3 defense. Although Booker should be none of his players are a top 3 MVP candidate. His team a better road record than any other teams home record. They improved their record by 13 games and they led the league in wins by a considerable 8 game margin.
There’s nothing wrong with debate but there’s no compelling reason why it’s a travesty that he won Coach of the year.
Fair enough, but the Suns have a ton of talent up and down the roster that you’d expect any coach to do well with that roster. Not to say Monty is not a top-tier coach. But other coaches did a lot with a lot less.
Look at Spo, look at the injuries the Heat had, and look at the guys they were doling out big minutes to. Guys many fans probably don’t know before the season. The man is a wizard and does this year in and year out. Few folks could’ve predicted the Heat winning the East.
Personally, I still think Monty winning it is a makeup call for last year—and continuing to do very well this year—so we will agree to disagree there. Although calling it a joke was perhaps a tad harsh.
Coach of the year should be pretty simple. Best record = coach of the year. Every team loses players at some point of the year and there are no super teams at this point it’s pretty even, so if you end up with the best record, coach of the year.
that’s an incredible bad take…. a loaded team should not get a coach an award.. coaching should.
A year late. Thibs winning it last year was a farce even before his Knicks regressed. It’s one thing to come to a new team and improve their record by 20ish wins as he did. It’s another thing to do what Williams did last year: take the team you guided the year before to a record a few games below .500 to a juggernaught. That’s the same reason why Jenkins should have won it this year.
He’s very deserving. It’s been first and foremost a FO story for his first 2 years in PHX, but building on last year’s run to the Finals, this year, the HC was the lead story. Jenkins would have been deserving as well.
Neither of the 3 coaches should have been anywhere near winning it as a matter of fact!
J-Kidd did the best job, clearly, with DAL turning them around & improving massively their D, this season without KP6 they are clearly worst than the last 2 years & are outperforming themselves… absolutely stunning, right?
The other man to win it was Malone, no one & I repeat no team has had more adversity this year than DEN & they still were a top team, that is just flipping unbelievable!
Probably I would have shared it between this pair… all the rest of coaches this year were pretty average, no one did anything much or remarkable if you ask me!
Monty deserved it last year, and it was a travesty be didnt get it, but make up awards are weird. Spo will never get recognition, but it’s cool. The bias against the Heat has been there for a long time b/c everyone is still salty about Pat Riley choosing to be here, and building a winning culture in every way possible to build a winning roster
That being said, if Spo chooses to continue to mess with the rotation, b/c he feels bad for Doc Rivers, and it costs us for the 3rd time in his career now, maybe he didnt deserve it this year anyway