LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was named a finalist to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award, but ultimately lost to Mike Budenholzer.
LA Clippers head coach Doc Rivers was a finalist to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, but when it came time for the award to be announced on Monday night, it was Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer who took home the honor.
Rivers, a former Coach of the Year winner in 2000, arguably put together the best performance of his career during the 2018-2019 season. Despite coaching a team without a single All-Star, past or present, he led the Clippers to a 48-34 record and a playoff appearance in the stacked Western Conference.
It doesn’t stop there, though. Rivers’ Clippers overcame numerous deficits of 20+ points during the regular season and the postseason, including a franchise-best 31-point comeback over the defending champion Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.
Several Clippers players, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Lou Williams, cited Rivers as the main reason the team managed to be so successful this past season.
Rivers was named a finalist for the award along with Milwaukee’s Budenholzer and the Denver Nuggets’ Michael Malone. But despite Rivers’ performance, Budenholzer was the clear favorite to be named this season’s Coach of the Year.
After going 44-38 in 2017-2018, Budenholzer led the Bucks to the league’s best record this past season at 60-22, good for first place in the Eastern Conference by a considerable margin. He’s also helped turn Giannis Antetokounmpo into the MVP-caliber athlete that he is today, and it’s clear the Bucks would not be as successful as they are today without him.
Despite losing in the Eastern Conference Finals to the Toronto Raptors, the Bucks are expected to be right back in the conversation next year, and much of that credit is due to Budenholzer.
Denver’s Malone also had an impressive season with Nuggets, improving upon the team’s 46-win season in 2017-2018 and bringing them up to 54-28 this past year. He also turned the Nuggets from a fringe-playoff contender into a legitimate title challenger, with Nikola Jokic emerging as one of the league’s most talented players.
Depending on how the Clippers’ summer goes, Rivers could find himself among the finalists next year as well. With Kawhi Leonard in the team’s sights, the Clippers are poised to make a big jump and contend for a title as early as next season.