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Thomas on pace for Coach of the Year, but there's a darkhorse
by Graham Flashner / January 26, 2003

What’s that, you say? The coaches of the teams with the two best records in the NBA – Don Nelson and Rick Adelman – don’t deserve an award, after being overlooked last year? Well, their teams started the season among the NBA’s elite. That’s not to say the two coaches haven’t done an exemplary job, not to mention Frank Johnson, getting the best out of Stephon Marbury in Phoenix, and Jerry Sloan, keeping the ancient Utah Jazz in the thick of things.

But this year’s award presents a pleasant dilemma. What is a bigger achievement: taking a .500 team with youthful, unfocused talent to a possible 55-win season? Or transforming a disastrous 21-61 team into a playoff contender… in your first season as coach?

For the Indiana Pacers, nothing less than a championship – at the very least, a Finals appearance – will do.

For the once-hapless Golden State Warriors, the season is already a raging success.

Two coaches – one expected to win, one expected to continue losing.

Two seasons ago, Isiah Thomas stepped into a pressure cooker, replacing a hometown legend and Hall Of Famer (Larry Bird) and inheriting a team that had lost three starters (Dale Davis, Mark Jackson, Rik Smits) after reaching the Finals in 2000-01. After two .500 seasons and early playoff exits, Thomas was under a microscope.

Eric Musselman stepped into a basketball graveyard, replacing interim coach Brian Winters, who had replaced a befuddled Dave Cowens. He became the eighth Warrior coach since 1994, which is also the last Warrior team that posted a winning record. At 38, Musselman, is the NBA’s youngest coach, and served his apprentice as coach of the Florida Beach Dogs of the CBA, the league which Thomas purchased in 1999.

The Pacers served warning to the rest of the league last April, when they battled the heavily favored New Jersey Nets to overtime in the deciding fifth game of their opening playoff series. Nine months later, the Pacers sit atop the Central Division with a 31-12 record, two games ahead of the Nets in the race for home-court advantage in the East.

They are doing it with the NBA’s youngest roster. Most of all, they’re doing it with an innovative new offense, implemented by Thomas, that has five players averaging in double-figures, led by the prodigiously talented Jermaine O’Neal. It’s a passing-emphasized movement offense that Thomas refers to as the ‘Quick’, a derivation of the triangle, in which the ball is swung from side-to-side and players screen and cut opponents to exhaustion. With ageless wonder Reggie Miller still around for the game-winning shot, and defensive wizard Ron Artest wreaking havoc on opposing forwards, it’s no wonder the Pacers loom as the Nets’ heir apparent to Eastern supremacy.

The Warriors have been serving warning to the league all season. Once, a road trip to The Arena in Oakland was a welcome respite from the horrors of L.A. and Sacramento. No more. This season, the Warriors became the first team in nearly 30 years to defeat the previous season’s NBA finalists on successive nights, beating the Lakers on the road, then coming home to shock the Nets. At 20-23, they are 4 games behind the final playoff spot. Last year, the Warriors didn’t win their 20th game until April. Musselman has smoothly assigned roles for malcontent stars. He has exhibited great patience in slowly bringing along rookie Mike Dunleavy. And Earl Boykins has become Musselman’s secret weapon, a 5-5 sparkplug who has taken over in the fourth quarter.

No one is saying the Warriors will be playing past mid-April. But then, no one ever dreamed the Warriors would be playing with this much heart, and credit must go to the unsung rookie coach. Musselman has restored self-respect and discipline to a team that, until this season, sounded more like Whiners than Warriors.

In a pressure-filled year with his job on the line, Thomas has exceeded expectations. The Pacers reflect the sheer will and determination that enabled Thomas to dominate the NBA when he was a 6-1 guard.

The Warriors reflect the professionalism and aggressiveness that Musselman no doubt inherited from his father, the NBA coach Bill Musselman.

Winners, of course, tend to capture the spotlight. If Indiana continues its torrid pace, look for Thomas to be awarded for his efforts. Musselman’s achievements will likely be buried under the exploits of the more flamboyant West leaders, but if Thomas and the Pacers falter, look for the dark horse Musselman to emerge with Coach of the Year honors.

Graham Flashner is a regular contributor to HoopsHype.com

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