Donovan named NBCA co-coach of year
Nuggets coach Michael Malone has known about Billy Donovan for almost 40 years.
“I heard about Billy Donovan when I was a young kid,” Malone said, “when he was at St. Agnes playing for Frank Morris.”
Donovan, the high school point guard Malone knew from their Rockville Centre, New York, days, was named co-coach of the year Monday by the National Basketball Coaches Association.
The news came hours before Donovan's Thunder and Malone' s Nuggets squared off. And without being asked, Ma lone revealed that his vote went to Donovan.
“You lose the players that they lost and everybody thinks well, this is gonna be just a throwaway season for the Donovan Thunder,”
Malone said. “And I've coached Chris Paul. I know Chris Paul doesn't allow that to happen, and he's a big part of their season. But Billy deserves a ton of credit for taking a team that most people had written off, finding a way to get them to play together, to buy in, to commit and to be playing at such a high level.
“Even if I didn't know Billy Donovan, I have a tremendous amount of respect for his career.”
Donovan shared the award with Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, who's led Milwaukee to a 54-13 record. Toronto's Nick Nurse finished third and was one vote away from creating a three-way tie for first place, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
The NBCA award is voted on by the NBA's 30 head coaches. Each coach votes for a single winner. The NBA Coach of the Year award, voted on by the media, will be announced later.
“Obviously I' m very humbled,” Donovan said. “An award like this with the coaches voting on it, I was really touched, appreciative and grateful. But I really believe a lot of time the individual awards is just a reflection of the coaching staff that's around me and the players. In my opinion, everybody shares in it, but coming from the coaches it certainly means a lot.”
Donovan has guided the Thunder to a 41-25 record, already surpassing the Thunder's preseason over/ under for wins which was set at 32.5.
“He's kept us on the right path and kept us of the right mindset,” Thunder wing Abdel Nader said. “He's built an identity for us over these past couple seasons, and it's good now to see he's being recognized for it.”
Donovan has compiled a 240-154 regular season record in five seasons as the Thunder's coach. Donovan's contract is set to expire after this season.
“Our hope is that we will have those conversations when the year is over,” Thunder general manager Sam Presti recently said when asked about Donovan's contract. “Nothing's changed with that. We've always been ones to kind of take care of the things that are in front of us. Then when we get to the end of the year, we'll sit down and figure out what's best for him, what's best for us.”