Avery Johnson Coach of the Year

[Kings113]

Press Release - Dallas Mavericks coach Avery Johnson has been named the winner of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the NBA Coach of the Year for the 2005-06 season, the NBA announced today.

In his first full season as the Mavericks head coach, Johnson received 419 points, including 63 first-place votes, from a panel of 124 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. 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. The 2004-05 Coach of the Year Mike D’Antoni of the Phoenix Suns was second with 247 points (27 first-place votes) and the Detroit Pistons ’ Flip Saunders was third with 223 points (18 first-place votes).

Johnson, the first coach in Mavericks history to receive the honor, led the Mavericks to a 60-22 (.732) record, the third-best mark in the league and tied for the best season in franchise history. Johnson, named head coach on March 19, 2005, was the fastest coach to 50 wins (50-12) and recorded the best start by a first-time coach in league history, winning 66 of his first 82 games. Johnson led the Mavericks to a 34-7 mark at home, tied with the San Antonio Spurs for the best home record in the Western Conference.

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/40193/20060425/avery_beats_out_dantoni_and_flip_for_coach_of_the_year/

 

[Bricklayer]

http://www.realgm.com/src_wiretap_archives/40193/20060425/avery_beats_out_dantoni_and_flip_for_coach_of_the_year/

Byron Scott should have finished somehwere up there too.

 

[Evenstar]

i would have given it to d'antoni this year. he did a much better job THIS year then last.

no amare, no more Q-rich or joe johnson and they STILL win over 50 games?? he did a very good coaching job this year

 

[atxrocker]

I agree with you Brick about Byron. Anyways, Avery has done a solid job in D-Town but I still cant stand the guy.

 

[mavsman]

i would have given it to d'antoni this year. he did a much better job THIS year then last.

no amare, no more Q-rich or joe johnson and they STILL win over 50 games?? he did a very good coaching job this year

So what about Avery - who led the team to 60 wins all the while losing 198 man-games lost due to injuries or illness? I mean the injuries that have piled up in Dallas are incredible...I still don't know what this team's capable of because they frankly haven't had a full squad very much at all this season.

Injuries aside - how about the fact that he's got the most wins ever by a coach in his first 82 games?

I think the right candidate won - no offense to Flip Saunders or Mike D'Antoni, both are fine coaches, but Avery was just a little bit better.

 

[sloter]

D'Antoni... he made an All-Star out of Diaw. Flip deserves it too.

 

[acisking]

Avery Johnson deserves the reward simply for making Dallas - arguably the worst defensive team over the past 6 years or so - into a legitimate defensive squad. And, as Mavsman pointed out, he was able to take a team that was plagued by injurries of every sort and propel them to the third best record in the NBA.

 

[jacobdrj]

Maybe they should have cocoach of the year...

 

[twocents]

Maybe they should have cocoach of the year...

sounds too much like kukoc.

i have nothing against avery's award. i have one reservation though. when the lakers were in their 3-peat years, the spurs were posing the biggest threat but one very bad thing with the spurs of that era was that they would pull out unbelievable choke jobs, especially in the fourth quarters (god, that was frustrating; as a perennial laker-hater, i was of course rooting for the spurs and seeing them disappear, especially offensively against the lakers was such a pain). the mavs, this year, have a very similar tendency. they are lacking something i cannot really put my finger on. if they cannot make it to the finals, their failure will be probably due to this deficiency.

 

[VF21]

So what about Avery - who led the team to 60 wins all the while losing 198 man-games lost due to injuries or illness? I mean the injuries that have piled up in Dallas are incredible...I still don't know what this team's capable of because they frankly haven't had a full squad very much at all this season.

Injuries aside - how about the fact that he's got the most wins ever by a coach in his first 82 games?

I think the right candidate won - no offense to Flip Saunders or Mike D'Antoni, both are fine coaches, but Avery was just a little bit better.

I agree.

 

[AriesMar27]

sounds too much like kukoc.

hahahahahaha...... oh my bleeping god, that was the funniest thing i have read in quite sometime....

 

[Evenstar]

So what about Avery - who led the team to 60 wins all the while losing 198 man-games lost due to injuries or illness? I mean the injuries that have piled up in Dallas are incredible...I still don't know what this team's capable of because they frankly haven't had a full squad very much at all this season.

Injuries aside - how about the fact that he's got the most wins ever by a coach in his first 82 games?

I think the right candidate won - no offense to Flip Saunders or Mike D'Antoni, both are fine coaches, but Avery was just a little bit better.

do you think the mavs would have been as good as they were if dirk had played in only 3 games all year?

it's one thing to lose role players, it's TOUGH to win without superstars. the fact that d'antoni's team won as many games as they did without their superstar (who is arguably one of the top 10 players in the league) and still win over 50 games is a great coaching job.

 

[mavsman]

do you think the mavs would have been as good as they were if dirk had played in only 3 games all year?

it's one thing to lose role players, it's TOUGH to win without superstars. the fact that d'antoni's team won as many games as they did without their superstar (who is arguably one of the top 10 players in the league) and still win over 50 games is a great coaching job.

No way the Mavs win 60 games this year without Dirk. They're probably a .500 squad without him.

And I didn't say D'Antoni wasn't a good coach. He's an excellent coach and to win over 50 games without his superstar is considered doing a "great coaching job" like you say. But you deal with the injuries to the Mavericks top 8 scorers, plus the fact that this team is in rebuilding mode, plus the fact that they have nearly completely turned it around on the defensive end....well you factor all those together and you've got your coach of the year.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Even though I don't like Johnson, I still respect what he did with the Mavs and congrats to that.

 

[Sac.Kings]

Also, its not all Avery. Dirk alone is half the team.