Thunder's Daigneault, Wizards' Keefe Voted Best, Worst HCs in NBA Player Poll
The Oklahoma City Thunder and Washington Wizards were on opposite poles in the regular season, and that's how their head coaches were evaluated in a new player poll conducted by The Athletic's Sam Amick and Josh Robbins.
The Thunder's Mark Daigneault received the most votes from the 147 respondents who weighed in to name the NBA's best coach. Washington's Brian Keefe, on the other hand, was the narrow winner for worst coach among the 73 players who contributed.
One player alluded to how this can be an exercise in confirmation bias, especially when trying to pick a "bad" coach.
"I'm not answering because I think the coaches are really good now," they said to The Athletic. "You could pick one of the bottom-feeders, like (redacted coach from a bad team), but I've had (him as a coach), and he's good and it’s not his fault."
Keefe could be the second coming of Gregg Popovich or Phil Jackson, and there was only so much he could do with the hand he was dealt.
The Wizards lost 67 games in 2023-24 and didn't make a lot of improvements to their roster. Winning games isn't their priority right now. They're focused on developing young players Alex Sarr, Bub Carrington, Bilal Coulibaly and Kyshawn George. Showcasing Jordan Poole enough to make him an attractive trade candidate is probably among the front office's objectives too.
When Robbins and Amick polled players in December 2021, 16 coaches received at least one vote when players were asked who they'd "most liked to play for." Daigneault wasn't in that group.
At the time, the Thunder were coming off a 22-50 season and were midway through a 2021-22 campaign that saw them win 24 games. Daigneault was a relative unknown, too, having spent most of his career to that point as an assistant.
Now, a lot of players outside of Oklahoma City would probably jump at the chance to play under Daigneault on the Thunder.
The Wizards are a long way off OKC's level. In a few years, though, Keefe's reputation will be much different if Washington makes tangible progress on the court.
