OKLAHOMA CITY -- Back when the Thunder were 3-29 last season, the notion of the playoffs coming to Oklahoma City any time soon was unimaginable.

Coach Scott Brooks helped the Thunder win 27 more games this season than they did a year ago. Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE

But it was that same miserable stretch that made general manager Sam Presti confident that coach Scott Brooks was the right man to lead his team into the future.

While Oklahoma City struggled to the worst start in the NBA, Presti was impressed by the way Brooks stayed the course and never tried to force immediate changes in hopes of making the Thunder better. He now has taken the youngest roster in the league and turned the team into a 50-game winner and a playoff team just one season after the horrendous start.

For that best-in-the-NBA turnaround, Brooks was recognized Wednesday as the NBA's coach of the year. He received 71 of 123 first-place votes and 480 points to finish ahead of Milwaukee's Scott Skiles (26 first-place votes, 313 points) and Portland's Nate McMillan (9, 107).

"He's someone that I think is incredibly consistent as a person. He is unaffected through adversities and also through successes, and I think that's an important quality we want to have as we move forward," Presti said.

Even as he was receiving a statue of Red Auerbach, Brooks faced another daunting turnaround: an 0-2 deficit in the Thunder's best-of-seven series against the defending champion Los Angeles Lakers, led by Kobe Bryant and coach Phil Jackson.