Sam Mitchell 2007 Coach of the Year

[Anthony15]

Mitchell beat out Sloan and Johnson to win the award. He did really good, almost on the verge of being fired last year, he got them in the playoffs this year, great turn around for him and Raps.

LINK

[Gedas]

Well, he trully deserved it. Turning a team around in a year is trully a great achievement, but I think most of the promts should go to Colangelo.

[MGHass]

I think Colangelo has to take most of the credit. He changed the playing staff almost completely, and handed it to Mitchell.

In my mind, Avery Johnson, Don Nelson and Jerry Sloan, in reverse order, deserve the award more.

[BigKaboom2]

I agree with MGHass. Avery should have won it, and the fact that he didn't means it's not so much a Coach Of The Year award but an award that goes to the coach of the team with the biggest turnaround or the biggest disparity between their expected record and their actual record. It didn't exactly take too much effort to win the Atlantic Division this year, if any of the voters happened to be watching.

[Andrew]

I agree with MGHass. Avery should have won it, and the fact that he didn't means it's not so much a Coach Of The Year award but an award that goes to the coach of the team with the biggest turnaround or the biggest disparity between their expected record and their actual record. It didn't exactly take too much effort to win the Atlantic Division this year, if any of the voters happened to be watching.

I don't entirely disagree but realistically what other criteria can be taken into consideration? After all, a coach who leads a team that unexpectedly improves by 20 games has done a pretty good job with the roster at his disposal. It wouldn't be much fairer to simply award it to the coach of the team with the best record. I did pick Avery Johnson though as taking a 60 win team and squeezing out further improvement is impressive in its own right, which I thought would earn him back-to-back COY honours.

[Ckidd--]

IMO, if Colangelo was not hired by the raptors club, I can not possibly see them making the playoffs; let alone a .500+ win pct. Mitchell, however, is still a decent coach to have if I wanted a players coach. Key additions to the team were Parker, Ford and Garbojosa and Dixon.

[mAgoTT50]

nice

[Andrew]

IMO, if Colangelo was not hired by the raptors club, I can not possibly see them making the playoffs; let alone a .500+ win pct. Mitchell, however, is still a decent coach to have if I wanted a players coach. Key additions to the team were Parker, Ford and Garbojosa and Dixon.

No doubt, an improved roster should equal more wins but it doesn't always work out that way. The front office deserves credit for making the right moves but the coach deserves credit for getting the talent to gel and be successful on the court.

[Metsis]

I think this was a good call... Mitchell and the Raptors have been flying off the radar in the lowly east... I certainly haven't paid too much attention to them this winter...

Colangelo has a great nose for unproven talent... Well, at least unproven in the NBA. I think he has recognized that the leagues outside of America are pretty good too and the best players from European leagues would probably do pretty well in the NBA too. With Garbajosa and A. Parker... And Il Mago also played pretty well until he got hurt. He was right there with Roy on top of the Rookie rankings.

But there are never any guarrantees that people will mesh together or that some people will play "team" ball... Its the coaches job to get the game flowing through the team and focus on play that works with the players around rather than something that has worked before for the coach in another situation.

So, in short... Good call... Toronto deserves some respect after their season...

[McDwyane]

pretty coaching job