Los Angeles Lakers are sweeping the awards early in season

Frank Vogel

Here are the early Coach of the Year rankings

1. Frank Vogel
2. Monty Williams
3. Nick Nurse

The Phoenix Suns were expected to be in the Western Conference cellar again this season. Instead, the Suns are 8-8 despite having played one of the hardest schedules in the league. Monty Williams has the Suns playing solid defense, and he’s helped turn Devin Booker into a real two-way star.

The Toronto Raptors won the title last season behind Kawhi Leonard’s stellar play. Then Kawhi left, and the Raptors were supposed to sink to the bottom of the eastern conference standings.

Toronto did not free-fall into a losing team. The Raptors are 11-4 and look sure to secure a top-6 seed in the east. Pascal Siakam‘s rise to superstar status has helped, but Nick Nurse also warrants recognition for the way Toronto has played to start the season.

In the modern NBA, the term “pace and space” has been synonymous with almost every championship-caliber team over the last few seasons.

This year Frank Vogel has flipped the script and started a new trend in the association. You can call it “slow and selective.”

The Lakers are 19th in the NBA in pace and they are ranked 16th in 3-point percentage.

The Purple and Gold have built their identity around playing lockdown defense and grinding opponents down with their halfcourt offense.

LeBron James gets the lion’s share of the credit for the Lakers’ success on offense, and Anthony Davis gets most of the credit for LA’s defense, but what about Frank Vogel?

He installed LA’s defense, and he’s pushed the Purple and Gold to play slow. Every time the Lakers start to play at a frenetic pace, Vogel immediately calls a timeout and implores the players on the floor to slow things down. Every time the Lakers suffer a lapse on defense, Vogel stops the action and reminds his men how they must defend in his system.

Plus, Frank Vogel has been fearless with his rotations, playing the guys who are performing the best, all while making sure not to bruise any of the huge egos on the roster.

Vogel was put in the most challenging coaching situation in the NBA to start the season. If the Lakers had started slow, Frank would have taken most of the blame, however as the Purple and Gold have blitzed the NBA early on, nobody’s given Frank credit for LA’s success.

Regrettably, Frank Vogel’s not going to win the Coach of the Year award, because the voters are going to give LeBron, AD, Kuzma, and Howard recognition for the Lakers revival, but so far Frank has been the best coach in the NBA.