Is Sam Mitchell really deserving over all other coaches of the NBA Coach of the Year Award?

When you're considering the Raptors record last year (negative and didn't make the playoffs) and the fact that they add 4 new players into the starting lineup (Garabajosa, TJ Ford, Parker, Nesterovic), Sam Mitchell surely deserves to be NBA Coach of the year as he brought Toronto from crappy to victory.

Avery Johnson has the same core playoffs in Dallas as last year and has a much better and deeper bench. Mavs should have won it all last year if Dirk didn't choke, it's then no surprise that they are the best team in the regular season.

Jerry Sloan did a terrific job with the Utah Jazz but when you see how badly the Jazz played and how they collapsed in March (10-6) and April (4-6) and that they lost the first 2 games in the playoffs against Houston, which remind you that Utah has always been a really good team during the regular season and that they always disappear when comes playoffs time even in the Malone/Stockton era.

In terms of leading a team that was nowhere near the playoffs last year and leading them to the 3 seed, then yes Sam Mitchell deserves the Award. But he had a lot of help with that team, in All-Star and soon to be NBA superstar Chris Bosh, some lottery picks from last year turning out and playing well and an extremely weak division. One coach who has been really deserving of the Award is Scott Skiles who does it with 0 superstars and has his team playing hard every night. He really should have won 3 years ago but every year since then his body of work becomes more and more deserving of the award. When will the NBA open their eyes and see what a great job he has done in Chicago.

Coach of the year was a tough choice this year. There were a few who were very deserving. Aside from Mitchell, how about the job Jerry Sloan did in Utah, Mo Cheeks in Philly after losing Webber and AI, Flip Saunders in Detroit, Scott Skiles in Chicago, Pat Riley, Avery Johnson, and Jeff Van Gundy keeping Houston very tough without Yao for much of the season.

But in the end, Mitchell gets my vote. He started the season firmly on the hot seat already, and with a locker room full of brand new players, mostly very young, or inexperienced players, and they earned the third seed. That's one hell of a job coaching on Mr. Mitchell's behalf.

Avery Johnson? cmon, Dallas has the most number of assistant coaches. Phoenix coach, Mike D'Antoni should win this. He made you think Steve Nash deserve the MVP, despite being atrocious in the defensive end. He lost Amare for nearly a full season, and still get the same results while proving the critics wrong at the same time.

Sam Mitchell and Avery Johnson both equally deserve to be Coach of the Year. Hell, I won't have a problem if Jerry Sloan had won it. All of them did very well with their teams this season. It is just a matter of personal opinion of the voters.

There's no doubt that he's done a wonderful job in Toronto, but it's the East. He's pulled them from the bottom of the East to the third seed but it was a playoff race that included the Knicks, the Pacers and the 76ers (AFTER Iverson left). Come on. They finished 12 games over .500. The Mavericks finished 67-15. One of the top ten records in league HISTORY. They also played in the West, which everyone believes is a better conference than the East overall.

Raptors' Mitchell wins NBA coaching honor

April 24, 2007

Toronto Raptors basketball head coach Sam Mitchell gestures as he talks with players during practice in Toronto, Monday April 23, 2007. Sam Mitchell was honored as the NBA coach of the year Tuesday April 24, 2007 after leading the Toronto Raptors to a franchise-record-tying 47 victories and their first Atlantic Division title.

TORONTO (AP) -- Sam Mitchell was honored as the NBA coach of the year Tuesday after leading the Toronto Raptors to a franchise-record-tying 47 victories and their first Atlantic Division title.

"It's a great honor," Mitchell said. "It floors you. You're thankful. Words just can't express it."

Mitchell won the Red Auerbach Trophy in a decisive vote over Utah's Jerry Sloan. He picked up 49 first-place votes for a total of 394 points in balloting by 128 basketball writers and broadcasters. Sloan had 301 points followed by Dallas' Avery Johnson with 268.

"We recognized him for it this morning, " forward Chris Bosh said. "But the thing I love about him is he said it was a team effort."

Mitchell, the sixth coach in Toronto's team's history, guided the Raptors to an NBA-best 20-game improvement (27-55) over the 2005-06 season. The Raptors trail New Jersey 1-0 in a first-round playoff series., with Game 2 Tuesday night in Toronto.

Guard Anthony Parker praised Mitchell for building unity on a team that added nine new faces before the season.

"From the summer, after I signed, his focus was trying to get us all in and get the chemistry going early," Parker said. "Throughout the course of the season we seemed to come together pretty nicely. Sam obviously was a huge part of that."

During a 13-year playing career that ended in 2002, Mitchell was held in high regard around the league as a student of the game. Following two seasons as an assistant, he was hired as the Raptors' coach on June 29, 2004.

"He's done a great job with the ball club," forward Morris Peterson said Monday. "He's really grown a lot over his first couple of years coaching. If anybody in the NBA deserves it, it's him. He's proved a lot of people wrong."

Guard T.J. Ford said Mitchell puts his faith in the players.

"He's going to give us the structure offensively and defensively, but it's up to us to go out there execute," he said. "He puts it in our hands and lets us control it. He's been great in that aspect."

With the way he made a pretty good team out of a bunch of young kids from a bunch of different countries, yes he deserves it.

For turning a losing team around in one season to a top seed, division winning team with barely any veterans? I would definitely give my vote to him.

NOPE. Golden state's don nelson should of got the award.