Coaching a Western Conference contender not named Golden State or San Antonio carries a considerable burden this season. So does coaching a team which endured the most humiliating loss in the first round of the 2015 playoffs.
Then there’s coaching for James Dolan, a different matter altogether.
Our roundtable panel examines the coaches with the most to prove this season:
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SEAN WOODLEY
Raptors coach Dwane Casey is on his last length of rope. His team fell embarrassingly in the playoffs last spring for a multitude of reasons, but his inability to alter his complex and aggressive defensive scheme to better suit a defense-starved roster with a sluggish big man as its anchor was a big factor in the Raptors’ demise. Casey was given another chance, while his lead assistants were let go.
Now, Toronto’s roster has been injected with defense-first players like DeMarre Carroll, Cory Joseph and Bismack Biyombo. Casey has fresh assistants (including former Tom Thibodeau sidekick Andy Greer), and there are no more excuses. If Casey can’t get this team to coalesce on the defensive side of the ball and the team struggles out of the gate, his time in Toronto may be up.
JOE MANGANIELLO
Kevin McHale is entering his fifth season with Houston. The Rockets have improved each year under the former Celtics great, including back-to-back seasons with a win total in the mid-50s. For the first time in his coaching career, however, McHale has a team expected to compete for a championship, with basketball experts around the league wondering if the Rockets have the juice.
GM Daryl Morey has fielded one of the deepest, most dynamic rosters in the league, and the ascension of James Harden from sixth man to MVP runner-up has accelerated everyone’s timetable for the team. In the past two seasons, any doubts about the Rockets were aimed at Morey or the players — namely Dwight Howard, who has missed a tremendous number of games and made a limited impact. The finger-pointing for Houston’s missteps has seldom been aimed at McHale, but if Houston fails to make it back to the West Finals, that will change. Coaches have it tough in the NBA, and all eyes will be on McHale to close the deal this season.
JARED MINTZ
As much as I don’t want to put any kind of heat on Chris Paul, I think Doc Rivers is clearly the coach with the most to prove in the NBA this season. This is twofold, as Coach Doc has a lot of difficult personalities to deal with on that roster, mainly because GM Doc has compiled a group of players that may or may not really fit together, specifically in the second unit.
With possibly the league’s best starting five, the Clippers have several players coming off the bench who have all-star ability, but lack the discipline (and maybe even basketball IQ) to consistently not hurt their team. We’re not sure which versions of Lance Stephenson and Josh Smith are going to show up for the Clips this season, but to assume the team will get the best out of them as role players is shortsighted.
Much as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have the most to prove as players this season, Rivers coaches the other team with two top-10 players on it. If the Clippers are unable to get to the Western Conference Finals at worst, this will have been year five of those two together, with nothing to show for it.
BRYAN GIBBERMAN
New York Knicks head coach Derek Fisher is at an important juncture in his second season. Coming off a 17-win start to his career, serious progress needs to be shown in year two. Fisher has question marks about his offensive and defensive tactics, lineup decisions, and his ability to handle close-game situations. He needs to make strides in all areas and prove he’s the right man that can help lead the Knicks back to respectability.
MATT ZEMEK
A coach or player with the most to prove — not merely “more to prove than 75 percent of the league” — has to have a chip on his shoulder AND extremely high stakes to compete for.
This is basically a Western Conference category, then.
David Blatt already endured his baptism by fire. He proved himself. Who else in the East has to prove himself as a coach on a large scale, now that Tom Thibodeau is no longer coaching the Chicago Bulls? Erik Spoelstra doesn’t have that much to prove — sure, winning without LeBron would be great, but he was doubted in 2011. Not many doubt him now.
Jason Kidd has answered doubts about his coaching chops. Mike Budenholzer just won the Coach of the Year Award in Atlanta. Randy Wittman is probably the East coach with the most to prove, but he doesn’t have a championship-caliber roster.
It’s all about the West, where merely being a good team might get you 54 wins and a first-round playoff exit, and buckets of withering scorn in early May. Being a really good team might mean a second-round playoff exit and a season which would be a total failure under those circumstances, barring an injury or some other crisis before elimination occurs.
Kevin McHale and Doc Rivers, come on down!
These are by far the two coaches with the most to prove this season. A proposed way to settle the matter: Their teams should play a best-of-seven series in the spring of 2016.
