Brad Stevens has fallen back into the chasing pack, as far as Kendrick Perkins is concerned.
The former Boston Celtics center ranked the team’s current head coach No. 6 on his list of NBA Coach of the Year contenders roughly halfway through the 2019-20 regular season. Perkins shared his NBA coaching power rankings Tuesday via Twitter.
My Mid Season Coach OF The Year Candidates in this order!
1. Billy Donovan
2. Nate McMillan
3. Erik Spoelstra
4. Quin Snyder
5. Nick Nurse
6. Brad Stevens
7. Mike Malone
8. Mike Budenholzer
9. Taylor Jenkins
10. Frank Vogel— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) January 14, 2020
Stevens has led the Celtics to a 27-11 record, the second-best in the Eastern Conference and third-best in the NBA.
Perkins’ latest ranking makes us wonder whether the reality of the Celtics’ prowess has sunk in at Stevens’ expense. After all, Perkins declared Stevens the front-runner for the Coach of the Year award as recently as Dec. 21. The Celtics have gone 8-4 since then, a .667 winning percentage, so their results haven’t declined steeply enough to explain such a drop.
Perhaps Perkins has become more enamored with Donovan’s Oklahoma City Thunder, McMillan’s Indiana Pacers, Spoelstra’s Miami Heat, Snyder’s Utah Jazz and Nurse’s Toronto Raptors over the last four-plus weeks and has taken his critical eyes off of Stevens’ Celtics.
