Yes

Before we start, here’s a fact: Golden State is the best regular-season team of all time.

Yes, Luke Walton coached 43 games this year, winning 39 of them, because of head coach Steve Kerr’s back injury. Yes, Steph Curry is perhaps the best shooter of all time. And yes, there are players on the Warriors bench who would probably start for most other teams in the league.

There’s credit to go around — Walton, the rest of the assistants, and general manager Bob Myers, for starters. Yet, someone had to put everything together on the court.

Kerr.

He built the Warriors’ offense last year, and his methods translated clearly to Walton during his absence.

Let’s also not forget Kerr is still suffering from complications of the back injury. There’s a piece by ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne on Kerr that ran a couple weeks ago (I suggest you dig for it, it’s a great read) in which he revealed he has daily headaches and things haven’t gotten all that much better.

While there are other deserving coaches — Portland’s Terry Stotts comes immediately to mind — it’s hard to not give the award to the coach of the best team in the league.

Kerr has an incredibly difficult task ahead of him. Curry is out for the next two weeks or so and probably won’t be 100 percent when he comes back.

If there ever was a time to prove just how good of a coach Kerr is, now is the time.

— Jordan Hansen

No

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of Steve Kerr and the Warriors; what Kerr has done in his first two years of coaching is remarkable.

Congratulations to Kerr on the record-setting 73 wins this season, but I wouldn’t vote him as the Coach of the Year.

I just can’t do it. Kerr missed the first 43 games of the regular season after having back surgery in the off-season. He also has by far the best player in the league this year in Stephen Curry. Joining Curry is a loaded roster that includes two top-20 players in Draymond Green and Klay Thompson, and don’t forget 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala.

When I think about the Coach of the Year, I think of which coach overachieved with little to work with on the roster. This year, that coach would be Terry Stotts of Portland.

Stotts took a team many pundits and experts predicted to miss the playoffs and led it to a regular season record of 44-38. Stotts finished fifth  in the tough Western Conference is an unbelievable feat, considering the devastating off-season the Blazers had. Portland lost four of five starters in free agency, including All-Star forward LaMarcus Aldridge.

But Stotts was able to patch over the missing pieces with player development. Role player-turned-starter C.J. McCollum has improved under Stotts, and McCollum’s improvement is a big reason for Portland’s surprising season.

The ability to remain afloat in the brutal Western Conference while replacing four starters on the fly makes Stotts the correct selection for Coach of the Year.

— Connor Sindberg