In any league, a great way to earn coach of the year honors is to take a woebegone team and turn them into a playoff-calibur team, if not a contender. Flip Saunders finds himself with a great opportunity to make a drastic turnaround from last year and thrust himself into Coach of the Year discussions.
As far as improvement goes, the bar has been set pretty low. Flip should have no problems eclipsing last year's 19-63 mark, but of course some of the credit for any turnaround will be given to the addition of Randy Foye and Mike Miller, as well as the return of Gilbert Arenas and Brendan Haywood. So while it won't be hard to improve the team, Flip might have to work harder than other coaches to show that he's responsible for some of the team's improvement.
This dilemmat brings us to this week's question: How many wins will it take for Flip Saunders to win Coach of the Year this season? For your reference, here's the list of all the previous Coach of the Year award winners, so you get a better idea of what it takes to earn such honors. In a season with a lot of roster movement, it's hard to say who will and won't make drastic moves in the standings this year, but I think it will be pretty hard for Flip not to win COY if he wins at least 55 games. But alas, the choice isn't mine, it's yours. Vote away.