Celtics Lab 236: Projecting season-long hardware at 2023-24’s midpoint with Kwani Lunis

We cover everything from Most Valuable Player to Executive of the Year and everything in-between,

Most of the teams in the NBA have played around half of their 82-game schedule, giving us enough of a sample size to get an idea of which players might be taking home some full-season hardware come April and onward.

And with the Boston Celtics currently the owners of the league’s best record, it is not unfair to expect the franchise to have at least a little bling headed their way at season’s end. To try to predict what awards Boston players and front office employees might be taking home come spring, the hosts of the CLNS Media “Celtics Lab” podcast got together with NBC Boston 10’s and  “The Big 3 NBA” podcast cohost Kwani A. Lunis to sort out which Celtics might be adding to their trophy case.

We cover everything from Most Valuable Player to Executive of the Year and everything in-between, and even come up with some of our own, team-specific awards for Boston’s 2023-24 season.

We also get caught up on all the latest news, and look back at an intense week of Celtics games.

The Celtics Lab podcast is brought to you by FanDuel.

Listen to the “Celtics Lab” podcast on:

Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3zBKQY6

Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3GfUPFi

YouTube: https://bit.ly/3F9DvjQ

[lawrence-auto-related count=1 category=590969556]

Steve Sarkisian wins AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year

Steve Sarkisian has led Texas to the College Football Playoff in his third year at the helm.

Steve Sarkisian was the only one deserving of the AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year award, and no other coach should have come close. Continue reading “Steve Sarkisian wins AP All-Big 12 Coach of the Year”

Notre Dame legend Muffet McGraw to have statue outside Joyce Center

Congrats, Coach!

[autotag]Muffet McGraw[/autotag] coached herself to two national championships with Notre Dame and the Basketball Hall of Fame. Now, her likeness will live forever outside the Joyce Center. Joining the many Notre Dame coaching legends with statues on the school’s athletic complex, McGraw will have her own statue unveiled before the Irish’s Dec. 17 game against Purdue.

McGraw earned 848 of her 936 career victories at Notre Dame, where she coached the women’s basketball program from 1987 to 2020, finish below .500 only twice during that time. Only six coaches are ahead of her on the all-time Division I wins list. She was named the consensus national coach of the year three times.

McGraw coached 20 WNBA players, five Olympians and 22 All-Americans. Among her most notable players at Notre Dame were [autotag]Ruth Riley[/autotag], [autotag]Skylar Diggins[/autotag], [autotag]Brianna Turner[/autotag], [autotag]Jewell Loyd[/autotag], [autotag]Kayla McBride[/autotag] and [autotag]Arike Ogunbowale[/autotag].

Join us in congratulating this Irish coaching legend. May she serve as an inspiration for Notre Dame women’s basketball players and coaches in the generations to come.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

How many of Boston’s coaches have been named Coach of the Year – and who were they?

Can you name the trio of Celtics coaches who won the award? Even better — can you name the seasons they won it in?

The Boston Celtics have a storied history of NBA championships with plenty of other hardware to go with it, and when it comes to Coach of the Year, their legacy is literally written on the award — more on that shortly.

Over the course of its seven-decade history in the league and its origins in the Basketball Association of America that came before it, the club has garnered three such honors as that annually offered to the best head coach in the NBA as seen such by the media in charge of voting. Most Celtics fans can easily name one of the three, and Boston stalwarts two or even three former Boston coaches so honored.

But can you also name the seasons in which each was so honored? Make your best guess, and then scroll down to see how you did.

NBA summer forecast: Where ESPN ranks potential Rockets’ awards winners

#Rockets prospects Jabari Smith Jr. and Jalen Green each received NBA Most Improved Player votes from ESPN’s summer forecast panel, while Amen Thompson drew Rookie of the Year buzz.

Each year, ESPN asks the many members of its summer forecast media panel to rank their top three choices for the NBA’s six major awards. These involve a first-place vote earning five points, a second-place vote receiving three and a third-place vote receiving one.

The awards debated for the 2023-24 season are Most Valuable Player (MVP), Rookie of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Man of the Year, Most Improved Player and Coach of the Year.

As Houston enters what it hopes is Phase 2 of its franchise rebuild, the Rockets are still a relatively young team. Thus, expectations for team success remain fairly minimal, at least from the outside.

But during this three-year run of prolonged losing, the Rockets accumulated some high draft picks. With that comes expectations for improvement as the years progress. Thus, Jalen Green (No. 2 pick in the 2021 first round) and Jabari Smith Jr. (No. 3 in 2022) each earned Most Improved Player votes. Smith drew particular interest after a brilliant 2023 summer league.

Here’s a look at the categories where Houston received votes.

ESPN experts predict OKC Thunder to win pair of 2023-24 awards

The Thunder were well respected in ESPN’s award prediction exercise.

Following an overachieving 40-42 campaign, expectations have risen for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

To prepare for the upcoming season, ESPN asked its summer forecast panel to vote on award winners. The winner was determined by totaling their points. A first-place vote counted for three points, a second-place vote counted for two points and a third-place vote counted for one point.

The Thunder had a pair of winners among the award predictions. This is a strong endorsement of how highly experts value the team.

Let’s look at which awards OKC is expected to bring home at the end of the 2023-24 season.

Exploring Matt LaFleur’s ‘NFL Coach of the Year’ opportunity in 2023

Why Packers coach Matt LaFleur has such a great opportunity in the NFL Coach of the Year award race in 2023.

Entering the official start of training camp Wednesday, Green Bay Packers coach Matt LaFleur has the sixth-best odds to be the NFL’s Coach of the Year in 2023, per BetMGM. At +1800, LaFleur trails Detroit’s Dan Campbell, Denver’s Sean Payton, Chicago’s Matt Eberflus, Atlanta’s Arthur Smith and New York’s Robert Saleh.

The odds help highlight LaFleur’s opportunity. Despite winning 13 games during each of his first three seasons as the Packers coach, LaFleur never received the Coach of the Year postseason recognition. For most voters, the reason was likely easy to ascertain: LaFleur inherited Aaron Rodgers, a future Hall of Famer at the game’s most important position.

Now, obviously, the situation is much different. The Packers are coming off a losing season. Rodgers is in New York. The roster is young. Unlike 2019, there were no big free-agent additions to spark a revival. In 2023, the success and failure of the Green Bay Packers falls so squarely on LaFleur and his ability to maximize what he has in terms of personnel, especially on offense.

His candidacy as a top “Coach of the Year” candidate will be difficult to ignore if the Packers are successful in 2023.

Jordan Love, the Packers’ hand-picked successor at quarterback, is getting his opportunity as a starter. The success or failure of Love will be a direct reflection of both his last three years of development under LaFleur and LaFleur’s ability to manage and help a first-year starting quarterback in his system.

In terms of the roster, the Packers saw many established veterans leave Green Bay during the offseason, including Rodgers, Mason Crosby, Marcedes Lewis, Adrian Amos and Allen Lazard. LaFleur’s team is young at key spots, and he knows it. Maybe Brian Gutekunst added a quality contributor in a free-agent signing like Tarvarius Moore or Jonathan Owens, but there is no addition like Za’Darius Smith or Preston Smith to ignite the roster in 2023. This is all to say that LaFleur must find a way to get much more out of a team that is far less experienced than the one that won only eight games in 2022.

Because of the quarterback situation and the state of the roster coming off of last year, few outsiders believe the Packers are contenders in the NFC North. But the division lacks a dominant team and appears wide open, giving the Packers a real opportunity to surprise after finishing third in 2022.

So, what if Love is good and the Packers come alive with a young roster and win the NFC North? Well, it would be nothing short of LaFleur’s best coaching job to date, and he’d become an excellent candidate for NFL Coach of the Year, an award that so often goes to an unexpectedly good team lacking a top quarterback.

LaFleur almost certainly doesn’t care about the award and is singuarly focused on making the 2023 Green Bay Packers the best football team it can be, but this year is an incredible opportunity for him to win NFL Coach of the Year. He’s leading a monumental transition at quarterback. He must maximize a young roster. Expectations are low. Potential is high. Can LaFleur put all the pieces together and open a new contending window for the Packers in Year 1 of the post-Rodgers era? If the answer is yes, he’ll cement himself as one of the league’s top coaches while also giving himself a terrific chance to win an award he probably deserved long before 2023.

NFC North roundtable: Who will be division’s coach of the year?

Who will be the NFC North’s best coach in 2023? Our writers for the Bears, Lions, Packers and Vikings make their picks.

The Chicago Bears are building around Justin Fields, the Detroit Lions are entering the season as betting favorites to win the division, the Green Bay Packers are transitioning from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love and the Minnesota Vikings are attempting to repeat as division champs for the first time since 2008-09.

There’s a lot going on in the NFC North this season.

In the latest of a series of posts previewing the division ahead of the 2023 season, Alyssa Barbieri of Bears WireJeff Risdon of Lions WireZach Kruse of Packers Wire and Tyler Forness of Vikings Wire answered the question: Who will be the division’s coach of the year?

NFC North roundtable: Realistic expectations for each team in 2023
NFC North roundtable: Biggest impact rookie for each team in 2023
NFC North roundtable: Biggest offseason addition for each team in 2023
NFC North roundtable: Who will be division’s most valuable player in 2023?
NFC North roundtable: Who is the division favorite entering 2023?
NFC North roundtable: Players on the hot seat entering 2023
NFC North roundtable: Biggest misconception about each team entering 2023
NFC North roundtable: Favorite offseason move made by division rival

NFC North roundtable: Who is the favorite to finish last in the division in 2023?

NFC North roundtable: NFC North coach of the year

Our NFC North wire editors discussed who will be the coach of the year in the division.

The Chicago Bears are building around Justin Fields, the Detroit Lions are entering the season as betting favorites to win the division, the Green Bay Packers are transitioning from Aaron Rodgers to Jordan Love and the Minnesota Vikings are attempting to repeat as division champs for the first time since 2008-09.

There’s a lot going on in the NFC North this season.

In the latest of a series of posts previewing the division ahead of the 2023 season, Alyssa Barbieri of Bears WireJeff Risdon of Lions WireZach Kruse of Packers Wire and Tyler Forness of Vikings Wire answered the question: who will be the division’s coach of the year?

Dennis Allen shares Coach of the Year odds with 3-time winner Bill Belichick

There’s something you don’t see very day. Dennis Allen has the same Coach of the Year odds as three-time award winner Bill Belichick:

There’s something you don’t see very day. Dennis Allen didn’t exactly inspire confidence in his first year as New Orleans Saints head coach, though his 7-10 finish nearly matched his three-year win total with the Raiders a decade ago (8-28). Now he has the same Coach of the Year odds as three-time award winner Bill Belichick at DraftKings Sportsbook, both sitting at +2500. That means a $100 wager would return a $2,600 payout.

That matches what you’ll see from other notable coaches around the league, like Mike Tomlin, Kevin Stefanski, Zac Taylor, Brandon Staley, Shane Steichen, and Pete Carroll. Ten coaches have better odds than this group, including ex-Saints head coach Sean Payton (who is a betting favorite at +900; a $100 slip would cash out $1,000). Why is someone with Belichick’s resume in this kind of company?

To be frank, the New England Patriots haven’t been the same since Tom Brady left town. Belichick’s team has only posted a single winning record in the last three years and young quarterback Mac Jones hasn’t developed as hoped under his tutelage. They’re in an even more precarious position than the Saints in a tough division with little margin for error.

Back to the Saints. Allen is facing a make-or-break scenario with New Orleans pushing all their chips in on his vision for the team. They’ve built an offense around Derek Carr and paired him with the best defense he’s ever seen in the NFL. With the rest of the NFC South actively rebuilding and not looking competitive in 2023, there won’t be any excuses if Allen posts another losing record. If he leads the Saints somewhere special, well: maybe he’ll look like a fitting recipient of that Coach of the Year award after all.

Gannett may earn revenue from sports betting operators for audience referrals to betting services. Sports betting operators have no influence over nor are any such revenues in any way dependent on or linked to the newsrooms or news coverage. Terms apply, see operator site for Terms and Conditions. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, help is available. Call the National Council on Problem Gambling 24/7 at 1-800-GAMBLER (NJ, OH), 1-800-522-4700 (CO), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN). Must be 21 or older to gamble. Sports betting and gambling are not legal in all locations. Be sure to comply with laws applicable where you reside.

[lawrence-auto-related count=3]