Avery Johnson Named Coach of The Month

nydailynews.com

The Brooklyn Nets great start to their season has seen some early recognition from the NBA in the form of the Nets head coach Avery Johnson winning the Eastern Conference Coach of the month award for November.

Avery Johnson has led the Brooklyn Nets to an 11-4 record in November that is the best start in November for the Nets in franchise history. Johnson has gotten the Nets to become one of the better defensive teams in the league, which goes a long way to why they have 11 wins, and are the second best team in the league in points allowed only giving up 90.4 per game.

“I've used (zone defense) in the past as a tool, and maybe sometime in the future we may use it," Johnson said. "We like our full-court press a lot more when we go to that instead of our zone half-court defense. Everything's always on the table, but we take pride in being a good man-to-man defensive team.”

The Nets record is quite impressive considering their start backcourt in Deron Williams and Joe Johnson have yet to find their shots consistently, and when they do the Nets maybe a real force in the Eastern Conference.

“Coach Johnson has been a great leader and motivator," Joe Johnson said. "Every day he comes in here with a great attitude and he definitely keeps us on our toes. He's a great 'players' coach' that you can go to anytime and sit down and talk to and he gives great advice.”

There is still a long ways to go in the season, as even though the Nets are playing well right now coach Johnson and his team all have much bigger expectations than just one good month of basketball.