The Importance of Coaches

We tipped off the 2014-15 NBA season on Tuesday with a very different landscape than we ended the previous one just over four months ago. LeBron James returned to Cleveland, and then the free agent dominoes started falling. Pau Gasol ended up in Chicago, Chandler Parsons in Dallas, Trevor Ariza in Houston. But there are also nine teams starting the year with new coaches. Some are proven winners (Stan Van Gundy, Lionel Hollins), some are not (Flip Saunders, Byron Scott), while most of the rest are rookies (David Blatt, Quin Snyder, Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher). Then there's Jason Kidd, who forced his way out of Brooklyn with a failed power move and got traded to Milwaukee.

How important are NBA coaches really, though? Outside of a select few elite coaches, people seem to think all the rest can be easily replaced. Ultimately, it's the players playing the game, not the coaches, right? They're just there to manage egos, talk to the media, and draw up out-of-bounds plays at the end of games.

Not at all. Coaches are responsible for putting their players in position to succeed. Maurice Cheeks had Josh Smith playing 20 feet away from the basket last season. Ty Corbin threw the scoring load on Gordon Hayward as if he was Kevin Durant. And now, neither of them coach an NBA team. On the flip side, look at how Gregg Popovich turned Danny Green, a guy who couldn't make the team in Cleveland, into a key piece during their championship run. Gerald Green and Miles Plumlee became important players for Jeff Hornacek in Pheonix's sudden resurgence after riding the bench in Indiana the year before.

https://twitter.com/kirkgoldsberry/status/456826735363764224/photo/1
(Chart by Kirk Goldsberry of Grantland)

NBA coaches have to be able to adjust their coaching styles to their personnel. We saw how miserably Mike D'Antoni failed with the Lakers the past two years. He tried to bring the fast-paced, offense-first style he had in Phoenix a few years prior to an older group of guys with different skill sets. Even after Dwight Howard left, he still didn't adapt his offense to better fit his best big man, Pau Gasol, and in consequence, a very good player was forced to come off the bench for a bad team. Stan Van Gundy did more with less when Howard was in Orlando. He took the team, made Howard the centerpiece, and surrounded him with role players that fit. Van Gundy made it to the Finals with a team whose second best player was Jameer Nelson or Rashard Lewis. 

http://www.basketball-reference.com/teams/ORL/2009.html#all_per_game

On the second night of the season, LeBron made his official return to Cleveland. He did his powder toss ritual, and he was home. That night was also the beginning of the season for his rookie coach, David Blatt. The Knicks won, and Blatt ended up taking some heat for his use, or lack thereof, of his bench. Shawn Marion and Mike Miller only played 13 minutes combined, while LeBron and Kyrie Irving played 43 minutes a piece. Now, remember all the way back to 2011. That Heat "big-3" with their new coach, Erik Spoelstra, started the season 9-8 before going on to play in four straight NBA Finals. Developing some level of consistency is essential for that type of run. Blatt, like Spoelstra, will have to figure out how to distribute the minutes if the Cavs hope to compete for a title. Popovich found that perfect balance last year when the Spurs trudged through the playoffs for their fifth ring in fifteen years. None of his players played more than 30 minutes per game (according to basketball-reference.com), and they still managed a 62-20 record in the brutal Western Conference. Not all teams have the luxury of being able to play every man on their roster, but all teams need to develop some level of consistency, from on-court decisions to general consistency throughout the organization as a whole.

Everything that occurs within the team is part of the coach's responsibility. A good coach can improve a basketball team (see Charlotte Hornets). A great coach can change the path of an organization for years to come (see L.A. Clippers). In the end, they all have to draw up out-of-bounds plays and talk to the media, but that's only a tiny part of his overall importance to the team.