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Why Gregg Popovich deserves Coach of the Year

Cary Edmondson / USA TODAY Sports

In a trade deadline wrap up post last month, after writing that Austin Daye, who had just been traded to San Antonio, might be one of the worst players in the NBA, I added the following:

On second thought, it's the Spurs. It's Gregg Popovich. Daye will probably be dropping threes on Miami or Indiana in The Finals in a few months.

Well on Monday, logging 29 minutes in a rout of the 76ers - his first time playing more than four minutes for the Spurs - Daye posted 22 points, six rebounds, two blocks, two steals and an assist. He also shot 8-of-13 from the field, including 6-of-10 from three-point range.

The 22 points represented his highest total in over two years.

Sure, it was just Philadelphia, the Sixers of soon-to-be NBA infamy, and Daye may never see that much floor time again, but it was also just the latest example of Popovich maximizing the talents of the players around him, from the Hall of Famers at the front of the line to the journeymen at the end of the bench.

That Popovich is the best active basketball coach alive is as agreeable a statement as you can make in an NBA world dominated by debate, but bring up this season's Coach of the Year candidates and there's a chance Pop's name won't even come up.

And that's a shame, because Gregg Popovich has been the league's best coach again in 2013-14 and deserves recognition for it, whether he gives a flying you know what about winning a third C.O.Y. or not (he almost certainly does not).

Jeff Hornacek, Dwane Casey and Terry Stotts are seen as the award's main contenders thanks to overachieving teams in Phoenix, Toronto and Portland, and Hornacek especially has done a marvelous job keeping a team predicted to lose 60-plus games in the unforgiving Western Conference playoff race.

Tom Thibodeau's Bulls are defying the odds without Derrick Rose again, only this year without Luol Deng to boot, and Thibs will surely be in the mix because of it. Doc Rivers and Kevin McHale may get some votes here and there, as may first year coaches like Steve Clifford, Dave Joerger and even Jason Kidd (seriously). And Rick Carlisle's coaching should be commended whenever possible.

But with all due respect to those bench bosses, Popovich has risen above them all this season...again.

In addition to being one heck of an X's and O's whiz (The Spurs' offense can be hypnotizing in its simple beauty and San Antonio is top-six on offense and defense), Popovich has once again perfectly managed the minutes of veterans like Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili to continue getting the most out of them, has thrived despite a "variety of maladies" to Tony Parker and a month-long injury to Kawhi Leonard, and has once again gotten more than anyone else possibly could out of his lesser role players.

And so here we are again. It's late March, the Spurs are in the midst of the season's longest winning streak (14 games), have already clinched a playoff spot (their 16th straight) and another 50-win season (13th straight), and they currently lead the Thunder by two games for the league's best record.

A two-game lead with 12 games to go might not seem like that much comfort, especially considering that the Spurs have already lost their season series with OKC and will travel to Oklahoma City one more time in April. But the way they're clicking right now, a two-game cushion with just 12 games to go for this team makes you feel as though the Spurs have the No. 1 overall seed just about wrapped up.

If the NBA's Coach of the Year award was awarded by some sort of measurable form of merit as opposed to voted on and often given to the coach of an overachieving team, it would be safe to assume that Popovich had that just about wrapped up, too.

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