NBA Coach of the Year Power Rankings: Jamahl Mosley in the mix for award
NBA Coach of the Year Power Rankings
These Guys are Fine
. . Nick Nurse. 93. 76ers Coach Rank 03.28.24. 18. player. 39-34, 8th East. Nick Nurse.
Losing your best player is never easy. Losing an All-NBA-level player early in the season is also not easy. And the Philadelphia 76ers have had to ride these waves and stay in the Playoff picture through it all.
The news that Joel Embiid is returning to practice soon is good news for the Sixers, even if they still need to navigate the Play-In Tournament to get to the Playoffs. Philadelphia has had to handle these injuries and adjusting on the fly. Nick Nurse will have to prove himself again when the season resumes.
Erik Spoelstra. 110. Heat Coach Rank 03.28.24. . . Erik Spoelstra. player. . 39-33, 7th East. 17
It is the Miami Heat. Is anybody going to be surprised if they win the Play-In Tournament and advance to the second round? Is anybody surprised by what the Heat do in any season?
Miami may be leaning on the Heat Culture (TM) to get the team through this season. And Erik Spoelstra continues to do what he always does. The Heat find players to fill in and still play a hard-nosed style.
Things just are not coming together quite the same way. Their playoff prospects are not nearly as strong.
. Tyronn Lue. Clippers Coach Rank 03.28.24. player. 77. 45-27, 4th West. . . Tyronn Lue. 16
Even after the trade to acquire James Harden, it feels like this has been an oddly quiet year for the LA Clippers. And that is probably a good thing.
Kawhi Leonard, James Harden and Paul George have all played in at least 65 games. So they are all playing. And the Clippers have just ben smoothly winning games at a healthy pace to establish their place in the Western Conference.
The Clippers though have just been treading water for much of the last month.
Kings Coach Rank 03.28.24. . 42-30, 8th East. Mike Brown. player. 15. 84. . . Mike Brown
The Sacramento Kings will probably look at their record and standing and be disappointed. They were the 3-seed in last year's Playoffs. It has been a disappointing season on that front.
But the Kings had to expect some regression to the mean, especially as they tried to tweak their defense. They gave up too much offense to try to do that. But Sacramento is learning how hard it is to replicate their success as part of their journey.