Not since the 1999-00 season has an NBA coach won the prestigious Coach of the Year award without making it to the postseason. It was Doc Rivers who took home the trophy that year after leading the Orlando Magic to an even .500 record. Before that -- to find a Coach of the Year whose team missed the playoffs, you'd have to go all the way back to 1978 -- when Hubie Brown won the award with the Atlanta Hawks. If history is of any indication, there's no question the odds are stacked against the Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra for winning COTY in 2017, but that doesn't mean he doesn't deserve it. Supporters, from Spoelstra's own players to various basketball legends, are vying for voters to elect coach Spo as the NBA's top head man. Here are the top five reasons Spoelstra should win Coach of the Year: 5. He Brought the Very Best Out of His Players Before the 2016-17 season, when's the last time an NBA big man had his "breakout season" at age 30 in his eighth year as a pro? Before his season with Miami, James Johnson was never looked at as more than a somewhat solid big man who'd grab the occasional rebound, play some defense and hit a 3-pointer here or there. Then, he joined Miami, and under Spoelstra and his staff's tutelage, Johnson brought his game to a totally different level. At the start of the season, Johnson was 30 pounds lighter and in the best shape of his playing career. Fast forward several months later and Johnson is a legitimate candidate for the NBA's Most Improved Player award. In addition, Spoelstra was able to work his magic by drawing out untapped potential from guys like Hassan Whiteside, Tyler Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Dion Waiters -- each of whom had career years in Miami. Even when the Heat were 11-30, and all hope seemed lost, Spoelstra managed to get his guys to dig deeper. Despite the seemingly impossible odds (to make the playoffs) at that point, Spo galvanized the Heat. He found a way to get everyone on the roster to go "all in" towards a shot at the playoffs, regardless of how far-fetched it had sounded. While Spoelstra worked tirelessly to establish the most effective lineups the team could possibly roll out, he also figured out ways for the individuals on the roster to thrive in a brand new system. Spo squeezed every last drop of juice out of each member of the roster. As a result, at least a half a dozen Heat players went from underappreciated at best to household names in South Florida. Now, because of some of the things Spoelstra was able to accomplish with those players, several of them are looking at hefty paydays in the very-near future. Next: He Helped the Team Reinvent Itself [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Image-Only"] 4. He Helped the Team Reinvent Itself It's hard enough as it is to establish a genuine, functional identity on any professional sports team. But to do it so effectively after losing elite-level talents like Dywane Wade and Chris Bosh right before the start of the season, is something truly impressive. https://twitter.com/ReggieMillerTNT/status/844986806273757188 Sure, it took about half the season to implement, but Miami's head coach was able to establish the team's identity relatively early in the season, given what he had to work with. By mid-January, Spoelstra had a group of guys that most casual basketball fans had never heard of looking like a fine-tuned, well-oiled machine. “Everybody knows how we started the season and how we’ve bounced back, and a lot of credit goes to Erik," said Miami's highest scoring player in 2016-17, Goran Dragic. "He’s an unbelievable coach, and a lot of players, we love to play for him. He’s putting the guys in the right spots and that’s how the players can thrive under his system. And he’s such a great communicator with all the players.” See -- Spoelstra realized early on that the Heat couldn't do much about their lack of superstar talent. Therefore, he figured if he could get his guys to outhustle, outrun and outwork teams on a nightly basis, they would have a puncher's chance in every single game -- and that they did. Once the team bought into that strategy wholeheartedly, the floodgates opened and the wins started flowing in. That's how they were able to finish the year going 30-11 in their final 41 games. Next: He Overcame Near-Impossible Odds [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Image-Only"] 3. He Overcame Near-Impossible Odds https://twitter.com/ESPNNBA/status/852357969228423168 It would be one thing if Spoelstra was able to bring his team back to an even record after being 13 games under .500. That alone would've been unheard of. But to finish 41-41 after starting the season 11-30 is nothing short of extraordinary. It's not just any unprecedented feat though -- no team has ever even come close to this type of in-season turnaround. Naturally, Miami still had to fall to 19 games under .500 to warrant such a comeback attempt in the first place. Still, it'd be extremely difficult to find any coach that could've started winning right out of the gates with Miami's current roster. Entering the year, Dragic and Whiteside were the Heat's most statistically accomplished and skilled players by far. But by the time Spoelstra had everyone's game elevated to previously unforeseen peaks, it was straight back to "winning basketball" down in South Beach. Next: He Never Considered Tanking [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Image-Only"] 2. He Never Considered Tanking In today's NBA, the strategy of "tanking" for a top draft pick is quite commonplace, albeit unfortunate. In early January, it seemed to most that Miami would be one of those teams. The Heat were spiraling out of control, inching ever closer to a top-five NBA lottery pick. It would've been so easy to just accept that fate -- to flip on the cruise control and let the natural flow of things take its course. That isn't in Spoelstra's DNA though. After all, this is a head coach who was trained by the success-obsessed Pat Riley, who's always made it clear that the Heat's ultimate goal, year in and year out, regardless of who fills out the roster, is to contend for a championship. That kind of mentality was instilled in Spoelstra early on in his days as the team's video analyst. So, he pushed forward, and in doing so, made a little history along the way. If the Heat had continued along the path they seemed to be traveling down in late December/early January, would anyone have really blamed Spoelstra anyway? Probably not. Last summer, nobody expected the Heat to be battling for a playoff spot come April -- let alone win 41 games. It would've been "understandable" if Miami finished, say 35-47, or worse for that matter. But the expectations of others have never had anything to do with the standards Spoelstra lives by. He's not a future Hall of Fame coach because he settles for what's "expected." Instead, he has gotten to where he is today by continually striving to shatter expectations. He's the walking, talking epitome of the "Why not us?" mentality that has helped fuel the success of so many "underdogs" in professional sports history. Next: No Coach Did More With Less [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Ad"] [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-Image-Only"] 1. No Coach Did More With Less The team with the longest winning streak of the 2016-17 NBA season was not one of the freakish "super teams" that take up the majority of screen time on ESPN's SportsCenter every night. It wasn't a team with multiple All-Stars and former MVPs on the roster like the Golden State Warriors, who won 73 games last season before adding Kevin Durant to the fold this year. It wasn't the defending champion Cleveland Cavaliers, led by the game's greatest player, either. Rather, it was Miami and its All-Star-less lineup that tallied a league-best 13 straight victories at one point. It was also the Heat that finished tied for the best second-half record in the entire NBA, at 30-11. No team in history has ever achieved either of those feats without a single All-Star or All-NBA talent on the roster. As if the odds weren't already stacked high enough against the Heat, Miami also suffered through one of their most injury-plagued seasons ever. In fact, no team had to suffer through more missed games (328) by its players due to injuries or illnesses in 2016-17. It's hard to win consistently, if at all, when a team's lineup changes on an almost-nightly basis because of injury. Spoelstra and company simply had to work with what they had available -- and what they had available was comprised largely of D-League alumni and a handful of veteran journeyman. To say Miami was at a disadvantage as far as talent level and its constant injury-induced adversity would be an understatement. Perhaps NBA legend and Hall-of-Famer Reggie Miller perhaps put it best: https://twitter.com/ReggieMillerTNT/status/844989030743846912 Regardless, the Heat fought their way to within a half-game of making the playoffs and were amongst the league- leaders in several categories. For instance, you won't find any top-five Defensive Player of the Year candidates on Miami's roster -- yet it finished fifth in the NBA with a 104.1 defensive rating. Furthermore, this Heat team defiantly refused to let anyone outhustle them, as they allowed the fewest opposing fast-break points in the NBA in 2016-17. All in all, the fact is that no coach accomplished more with less at his disposal. That's what really makes Spoelstra so deserving of the COTY award. That's what makes his unprecedented run in 2016-17 so special and worthy of recognition. Sure, coaches like Steve Kerr of the Warriors, Mike D'Antoni of the Houston Rockets or Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics finished with better records. But as far as the gap between a team's initial expectations for the season and the eventual result -- nobody overachieved the way Spo managed to. There was no Durant, Stephen Curry, James Harden or Isaiah Thomas to assist Spoelstra in stringing together one of the most impressive coaching performances in recent memory. Instead, he took a group of raw, unrefined players and lifted them to heights they'd never before reached. To put it all into perspective, Spoelstra deserves to win COTY because he essentially finished the season-long NBA "race" with a respectable qualifying time, driving a Toyota Prius, while every other .500+ team's designated vehicle was a Ferrari. It's akin to painting the Sistine Chapel without the use of a ladder, and only a couple cans of water-based finger paint to work with. And just like a piece of priceless art, Miami's 2016-17 season was a masterpiece -- particularly because it was entirely unique, we've never seen anything like it before and we may never anything like it in our lifetimes again. [xyz-ihs snippet="Responsive-ImagenText"]
