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The NBA season might be well over, but it is always a good time to look back at the season that was. The Heat went rampant to win their 2nd consecutive title at the cost of a dejected San Antonio Spurs.
Everyone knows who the best players of the 2012-13 season were but who were the men that commandeered their teams more effectively than the rest?
In this article, we look at the top 5 coaches of the 2012-13 season, based on the key attributes of team managed, regular and postseason season finish, and the situations they were forced into.
Note: A team winning the NBA convincingly doesn’t certify you to be the best coach. The merit is being awarded based on other factors as well.
5. George Karl, Denver Nuggets
There is a jinx to the “famed” Coach of the Year award in the NBA. Almost every coach that wins it has been sacked in the season that follows or sometimes sooner. George Karl won Coach of the Year in 2012-13, and was sacked immediately once the Nuggets bowed out of the playoffs. But his dismissal was one that raised several eyebrows, and even the Nuggets fans took to it negatively. Why wouldn’t they?
For a man that led a team to its franchise best home record of 37-3 during the regular season, Karl made sure his team, without any endorsed star, was still a reckoning force in the West.
He can credit himself with moulding the talents of Danielo Gallineri and Andre Miller, and also functioning efficiently with an offence that saw nobody average 20 PPG. The Nuggets also finished the regular season as the fourth best team which incentivized people voting in Karl’s favour in the Coach of the Year poll.
In NBA annals, Karl is the sixth-winningest coach and having plied his trade in the game for over 25 seasons, the man was sure to being finally honoured with the Coach of the Year award. But Karls’s position in this list could have been lot higher had he capitalized on the regular season momentum to ensure the Nuggets progress beyond the first round of the playoffs.
Despite ensuring that the Nuggets make the playoffs every year, the team from Denver has only made it past the first hurdle once.
4. Tom Thibodeau, Chicago Bulls
Tom Thibodeau
Imagine the predicament the Bulls faced in the first round of the playoffs.
The team didn’t have its best player throughout the season and to worsen it, their second best player too was out injured. Now add the fact that the upper-management is frugal in awarding player contracts or even trading in for players. To worsen it all, the Bulls bench in the regular season was the starting five in the playoffs except for Joakim Noah.
Yes, you might wonder how anyone could even want to coach this team.
The Bulls had all the excuses to give up. But they didn’t, thanks to the genius of Tom Thibodeau.
The wit of Thibodeau works wonders with any team. Thibs, like everyone in the NBA affectionately calls him, rotated his players well and capitalized on the team’s chemistry which saw them sail into the second round of the playoffs. Although the Heat thrashed the Bulls comprehensively in Conference semifinals, what shouldn’t be forgotten was the first game steal by the Chicagoan franchise at Miami.
The Bulls have always relied on work ethic and team chemistry – something Thibs should be immensely credited with.
Tom Thibodeau is also a mastermind of formations, like he evinced during his stint as an assistant coach in Boston. In the first round of the playoffs, the Bulls were by no means considered to be the favourites to beat the Brooklyn Nets. But a nerve wracking 4-3 series victory for the Bulls was largely due to Thibs proving his efficiency from the sidelines by plugging through the loopholes of the Nets’ defense.
No Rose in Chicago? No Deng in Chicago? Why is there any worry when they have Thibs in-charge.
3. Frank Vogel, Indiana Pacers
Frank Vogel
Frank Vogel is the reason the Indiana Pacers are Eastern Conference playoff perennials. Frank Vogel is the reason Roy Hibbert, Paul George and Danny Granger are All-Star candidates. And Frank Vogel is the reason the state of Indiana is back to watching primetime NBA basketball, last seen during the days of Reggie Miller.
While many can attribute his success to the astuteness of having Larry Bird in the front office, one cannot doubt how he has comfortably led the Pacers from being shunned away as underdogs in the post season to one that can actually compete and win an NBA ring in the coming years.
Vogel also maximized the efficiency of his team in 2012-13 singlehandedly through his starters. He managed to resurrect David West’s career, and at the same time gave additional minutes and ball handling time to Paul George. Another reason to aid Vogel in this ranking is how he bolstered his team despite not having his best shooter in Danny Granger. And who cannot forget what he has achieved with Roy Hibbert, who was an All-Star in 2013.
Frank Vogel needs to work on his bench, given they were a huge part to blame for key defeats against the Heat, especially in the back court. But if you finish as the second best team in the East during the regular and post season, you earn your right to be mentioned as a top coach in the league.
2. Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat
Erik Spoelstra
While Spoelstra has in his arsenal a triumvirate of Chris Bosh, Dwayne Wade and the best player of this generation, LeBron James, his work in sealing Miami’s second straight championship shouldn’t be unrecalled.
In game 2 of the NBA Finals, Spoelstra effectively sealed Tony Parker, and he did so again in game 4. Moreover, his implementation of Chris Andersen and Udonis Haslem as strictly a defensive threat work additionally in the Heat’s favor.
Spoelstra also has forged together a team of superstars avoiding any locker room turmoil. While it is easier said than done to have three of the best players in the NBA play for you, egos could be sky high in the Heat’s dressing room. Just ask Phil Jackson, the game’s most successful coach, how he struggled to keep Shaq and Kobe Bryant together in the same locker room.
But Spoelstra, a young tutelary, has managed to earn the respect of the entire team, and the basketball fraternity despite not having any previous NBA coaching experience.
To evince what he could do without a superstar team, he led the Heat to two playoffs before LeBron and Bosh jumped ship to the Heat bandwagon. Now, he sits ahoy with two NBA championships under his belt.
In 2012-13, Spolestra’s team finished as the best in regular and post season. He also finished second in the Coach of the Year voting. Most importantly, he worked incredibly well with a team whose only weapon in front and backcourt throughout most of the playoffs was LeBron James.
It wasn’t easy coming up against front court superpowers such as the Spurs and Pacers when both your center and power forward don’t seem to be matching up. But if the Heat were one of the league’s best defending teams in 2012-13 despite being lacklustre in frontcourt for a major part of the regular and post season, it is because Spoelstra preaches defence ardently.
1. Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs
Gregg Popovich
Coach Pop knows whom to trade for and when. Never will you see him overpaying for a player nor will you see him unnecessarily shooing away a draftee to the D-Leagues. Every move Pop makes is well justified.
Danny Green and Gary Neal were unheralded a year ago. Four weeks ago, they nearly won San Antonio the NBA championship, almost singlehandedly. That is the magic of Gregg Popovich. He moulds in talents to fit into the right positions. Also, Popovich can ceaselessly outwit his opponent by rotating his bench and starting lineup, often employing tactics unseen before.
In 2012-13, not many pundits predicted the Spurs to reach the NBA Finals with an ageing core of players. But they did, thanks to Popovich’s ingenuity. He rested his players when he had to, sometimes even rebuking the vitality of regular season games. When teams were fielding quicker players, Coach Pop’s tactics resorted to shooting from the perimeter, holding possession longer than usual and frustrating the opponents.
Kawhi Leonard is another reason why Pop deserves his mantle as the best coach of 2012-13. Not only was the youngster molded in such a way to average double digits in the points column, but he quite easily matched up to the likes of Kevin Durant, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant in defence.
The rest of the NBA has a long way to go to displace Gregg Popovich form his mantle of being the best in the business. At least not till anyone can better his player management skills and on-court intelligence.
Guess the Lakers players!
