Toronto’s Sam Mitchell Awarded Red Auerbach Trophy - Dallas-Mavs.com Forums

GermanFan · 04-24-2007, 12:10 PM

http://www.nba.com/news/mitchell_coa...ar_070424.html

Third-Year Coach Guided Raptors to 20-Win Improvement Over 2005-06

NEW YORK, April 24, 2007 – Toronto Raptors head coach Sam Mitchell has been named the winner of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the NBA Coach of the Year for the 2006-07 season, the NBA announced today.

In his third season as the Raptors’ head coach, Mitchell totaled 394 points, including 49 first-place votes, from a panel of 128 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Utah Jazz head coach Jerry Sloan was second with 301 points (39 first-place votes) and the Dallas Mavericks’ Avery Johnson was third with 268 points (28 first-place votes). Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote received.

Mitchell, the first coach in Raptors history to receive the honor, led the Raptors to their first Atlantic Division title and a franchise-record-tying 47 wins. The sixth head coach in franchise history, Mitchell guided the team to an NBA-best 20-game improvement (27-55) over the 2005-06 season. The Raptors were 30-7 this season when they scored 100 or more points and 38-4 when they had a better (or same) field goal percentage than their opponents.

In January, Mitchell became only the second coach in Raptors history to earn Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honors after leading the team to a 10-5 record. During the month, Toronto recorded a 7-3 mark at home and was 8-2 versus Eastern Conference opponents. January was the Raptors’ first 10-win month since January 2002 (11-5) and the fifth double-digit win month in franchise history. The Raptors finished January leading the Atlantic Division by one game with a 23-23 record and then compiled a 24-12 record to close out the rest of the season.

During his 13-year playing career, Mitchell was held in high regard around the league as a student of the game and when he finally hung up his sneakers in 2002, he went from student to teacher in his new role as an NBA coach. Following two seasons as an assistant coach, Mitchell was named the Raptors’ sixth head coach on June 29, 2004. Although the Raptors finished 33-49 in Mitchell’s first season, the campaign under his direction was highlighted by the implementation of a more up-tempo style of play that saw the team’s points per game average increase by 14.3 over the previous season, the third-highest jump in NBA history.

The Coach of the Year Award is named after legendary coach and Hall of Famer Red Auerbach who guided the Celtics to nine NBA Championships. In 1996, Auerbach was honored as one of the Top 10 Coaches in NBA History as the NBA celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Following are the balloting results for the 2006-07 NBA Coach of the Year award and the all-time list of winners:

2006-07 NBA COACH OF THE YEAR RESULTS
Coach, Team

1st

2nd

3rd

Pts
Sam Mitchell, Toronto

49

43

20

394
Jerry Sloan, Utah

39

28

22

301
Avery Johnson, Dallas

28

31

35

268
Jeff Van Gundy, Houston

10

19

27

134
Mike D’Antoni, Phoenix

2

3

3

22

FedericoItaly · 04-24-2007, 12:19 PM

Sam Mitchell is a good coach, but this year He has a very good team, with Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa......
But in my opinion if the Raps will lose vs Nets, He will fire....

I'm Italian and I'm thirteen, I'm sorry if my English is not the best.....

WraithXx · 04-24-2007, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FedericoItaly

Sam Mitchell is a good coach, but this year He has a very good team, with Bargnani and Jorge Garbajosa......
But in my opinion if the Raps will lose vs Nets, He will fire....

I'm Italian and I'm thirteen, I'm sorry if my English is not the best.....

You don't have to be sorry about stuff like that... the fact that you're trying to speak a different language is far more than a lot of Americans can say for themselves

stonersblood · 04-24-2007, 01:43 PM

raptors roster is full of quality and skilled players.it also includes the players who have experienced European basketball. you got a superstar team leader, good shooters so i think sam mitchell would do a better job with these guys. they should have in a better spot.

DarenG · 04-24-2007, 01:45 PM

He deserves it. That team actually looks like a team and not a bunch of stat hungry individuals for once.

Tokey41 · 04-24-2007, 02:28 PM

He definitely deserved it, the roster was completely revamped. Team chemistry doesn't just happen over night (or over one season withs o many young players). Becoming the 3 seed in the east is amazing.

MavsX · 04-24-2007, 03:33 PM

good job, im glad to see d'antoni down at the bottom where he belongs

left texas · 04-24-2007, 04:07 PM

Darn this team, for wrapping up the season to early!

WraithXx · 04-24-2007, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MavsX

good job, im glad to see d'antoni down at the bottom where he belongs

hahah me too

MavsX · 04-24-2007, 10:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WraithXx

hahah me too

with our hate for d'antoni combined..we could cure aids

mqywaaah · 04-24-2007, 10:37 PM

I'd rather Mitchell, a more deserving coach, wins it rather than D'Antoni.

shaw-xx · 04-24-2007, 10:55 PM

It's dumb. They just won't give it to the same coach two years in a row. It's dumb. They gave someone MVP two years in a row. Mitchell turns Toronto around and he kinda deserves it but man, life is easier in the East. And the league even doesn't have 67-15 every year. Though I was mad at Avery about Game 1, I'm still pissed at the award.

chumdawg · 04-24-2007, 11:06 PM

If Avery is the deserving COY this year, I don't think it's going to show up until late in the postseason. Clearly Avery has had the pedal down all year long, which is the prime reason why we won 67 as opposed to 60 or 62. This team has been in playoff mode all season.

But that won't be validated until the second season.

dirno2000 · 04-24-2007, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chumdawg

If Avery is the deserving COY this year, I don't think it's going to show up until late in the postseason. Clearly Avery has had the pedal down all year long, which is the prime reason why we won 67 as opposed to 60 or 62. This team has been in playoff mode all season.

But that won't be validated until the second season.

You don't give this team enough credit. Jet didn't play any more minutes this year than he did the last. The last time Dirk played fewer minutes was in his second season. Josh played more but only because he got better.

Avery didn't have the pedel down his players did. They hate to lose.

As far as coach of the year, I never thought much of the award because it usually goes to the coach of the team that exceeds the media's expectations the most and I don't trust them to set those expectations.

BTW, I don't exepect Mitchell to be back in Toronto next year. Colangelo's going to find a way to get Ivaroni in there.

chumdawg · 04-24-2007, 11:58 PM

I never can figure out when you are trying to give credit to the coaching staff and when you are trying to give it to the players.

For my money, AJ set the tone for this season, and that tone was balls-out every game. No matter how many minutes you played.

dirno2000 · 04-25-2007, 12:08 AM

Could be. We aren't in the locker room so we can't really know.

I just reflect back on games like @Indiana, @Toronto, @Milwaukee, and home against Orlando. In an 82 game season it would have been perfectly acceptable to say "we just don't have it tonight" but they almost never did that. I would look in Dirk and Jet's eyes and see this crazed obsession with winning even when they didn't "have" to.

My guess is that if we win the title this year, Avery can coach the same way next year and it won't matter. They'll be no bad taste to get out of their mouths and they'll save themselves for the playoffs.

chumdawg · 04-25-2007, 12:14 AM

We'll see. Avery rode his players pretty hard this year, from what I saw. I find it entirely ironic that people would diminish Nellie for having only "regular season" success, but then laud Avery for pushing even harder than Nellie ever did, for that same regular season success.

dirno2000 · 04-25-2007, 12:46 AM

How do you define pushing hard? I mean he yelled a lot and he called quick time outs but that was just Avery being Avery. He did the same thing last year and the year before.

Did Avery pushing the team hard have anything to do with the record in close games? Because we both know that was the difference between 61 wins and 67 wins. I don't see the connection.

As far as Nellie, I don't think anyone criticizes him for “only” having regular season success. His playoff wins are well documented. He gets criticized because the perception (fair or not) is that his style isn't conducive to winning championships. Totally different issue.

chumdawg · 04-25-2007, 12:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dirno2000

How do you define pushing hard? I mean he yelled a lot and he called quick time outs but that was just Avery being Avery. He did the same thing last year and the year before.

Did Avery pushing the team hard have anything to do with the record in close games? Because we both know that was the difference between 61 wins and 67 wins. I don't see the connection.

As far as Nellie, I don't think anyone criticizes him for “only” having regular season success. His playoff wins are well documented. He gets criticized because the perception (fair or not) is that his style isn't conducive to winning championships. Totally different issue.

You're right, his pushing hard caused them to win a lot of close games that could easily have gone the other way.

The risk is that this "pushing hard," as it were--almost always against lesser teams--made the Mavericks look like a more dominant team than they really are. I mean, 67 wins normally equates to a shitload of dominance. But as Hollinger for one has pointed out, the Mavs may not be that dominant a team. So if they have a head full of themselves based on that record, that could be a problem.

People do criticize Nellie for having only regular season success. It's unfounded, but they still do.

dirno2000 · 04-25-2007, 01:06 AM

Quote:

You're right, his pushing hard caused them to win a lot of close games that could easily have gone the other way.

I don't see the connection. Last five minutes of a close game comes down to making shots and getting stops, not the coach screaming from the bench.

Back when we didn't have anything better to do than to debate the validity of Hollinger's model and it's assumptions, I seem to remember you leaning toward the school of thought that winning close games was a matter of chance. What you're saying now kind of contradicts that.

chumdawg · 04-25-2007, 01:17 AM

No, I'm still of that school of thought. But, getting into position to maybe win those games is another thing entirely.

FINtastic · 04-27-2007, 05:52 PM

What was the record of the Mavs this year in close games, again? I remember it being far too good for it to be just winning by chance, especially the according to the 50-50 theory Hollinger threw out.

Stranger · 04-27-2007, 07:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by chumdawg

For my money, AJ set the tone for this season, and that tone was balls-out every game. No matter how many minutes you played.

We're a deep team and I really don't think we pushed guys much in terms of minutes. Dirk led this team in minutes per game at 36.1, down from 38.1 last season. Our top 5 (in minutes, not starters) average only 31.5 minutes per game. Last year they averaged 32.3.

For comparison, Golden State is at 33.7, Detroit is at 34.3, and Phoenix is at 35.2.