Doug Collins Has Done a Fine Job, but He Is No Tom Thibodeau

In the conversation for Coach of the Year, there are three names that have come to the top, Doug Collins, Gregg Popovich and Tom Thibodeau.

Supporters of each coach have their reasoning. Popovich has reinvented the Spurs and led them to best record in the NBA. Thibodeau has elevated the Bulls to elite status, and Collins has shaped the 76ers into a playoff team. 

While the Spurs and Bulls are looking to claim the top spot in their respective conferences the 76ers are vying with Knicks for the sixth spot in the Eastern Conference and hovering near the .500 mark for their season record. Therefore it seems a strange thing that he would be in contention with the other two. 

The reasoning though is that the 76ers have improved more, and that's why he merits consideration. It stands to reason then that this argument rests squarely on a provable or disprovable factor—that the 76ers have actually improved the most this season. 

Last year the 76ers won 32.9 percent of their games. This year they've won 51.4 percent of their games. That's a nice improvement. In fact, it's the second best improvement in the NBA.

The Bulls last year won 50.0 percent of their games. This year they've won 72.1 percent of their games. That's the largest increase in the NBA. 

Furthermore when you break things down into their defensive and offensive components you see a distinction. Last year the Bulls surrendered 105.3 points per 100 possessions. This year that's down to 99.8. That's 5.5 fewer points per possession better than last year, and that improvement is 0.8 points better than the 76ers remarkable improvement. 

Last year the 76ers scored 106.1 points per 100 possessions, this year that's improved a full half point to 106.6. Last year the Bulls scored 103.5 points per 100 possessions. This year that's improved to 107.1, an improvement of 3.6. That means the Bulls offense has improved by 3.1 points more per 100 possessions than the 76ers have. 

In terms of average margin of victory, last season Philadelphia was outscored by 3.9 points per game. This year they outscore their opponents on average by 1.74 points. That's a 5.64 point swing. Last year the Bulls were outscored by an average of 1.63 points. This year they've outscored their opponents by 6.59. That's a swing of 8.22 points.

Last season the 76ers were 23th in the NBA league standings. At present they are in 15th, a climb of eight spots. Last year the Bulls were the 17th best team in the NBA, this year they are tied for second. That's a climb of 15 spots.  

Considering the intangibles, it gets more difficult to make a case for Philadelphia and  Collins.

First, it's more difficult to improve the further you get up the standings. Consider that the closest thing to a "star" that has been added to the Bulls is Carlos Boozer, who has missed a sizable chunk of games, yet the Bulls have improved more than the Heat, who added LeBron James and Chris Bosh. 

The fact they've so quickly elevated themselves to the elite status of NBA teams shouldn't diminish the accomplishment. Chicago has a realistic opportunity to win 60 games this season. Tom Thibodeau in all likelihood will coach the third largest improvement in NBA history for a winning team, the second most by a new coach and the single biggest improvement in wins by a rookie coach in the history of the NBA. 

Doug Collins is having a great season. Tom Thibodeau is having an historic season. 

Then you also need to consider that the 76ers have been basically healthy this season. Of their top six players they have missed a total of 29 games due to injury. The Bulls' Joakim Noah has missed that on his own, and Carlos Boozer has missed 23. In all the Bulls have had 57 missed starts from their top six players. 

And yes, the Bulls have had the benefit of MVP frontrunner Derrick Rose running their team. However, it should be mentioned that the understated value of Thibodeau's coaching is player development.

This is a coach that when he was an assistant at Houston literally spent a summer in China to help develop Yao Ming. This is a coach that helped Latrell Sprewell, who brought a much more literal meaning to the word "choking" to the NBA, actually commit to being a team player.

One thing is clear if you pay attention to the  MVP ascendancy of Derrick Rose, coaching has played a key role. In fact it was Thibodeau this summer who planted the seed in Rose's head that this year he could be the MVP.  Rose deserves every bit of the MVP talk he's gotten, but he's become an MVP player in part because of Thibodeau's coaching. 

Derrick Rose's MVP run isn't an argument against Thibodeau being the MVP, it's an argument for it. 

In a normal year Doug Collins would deserve heavy consideration for coach of the year. Unfortunately for him, this isn't a normal year. If improvement is the criteria for the award then there just doesn't seem to be valid reasoning for giving it to anyone other than Thibs. Certainly Popoivich deserves consideration for other reasons, but if improvement is the criteria, Thibodeau should be the Coach of the Year.