Lowell Cohn: Which Bay Area pro sports team has the best coach?

Today’s assignment is to rank the managers or head coaches of five Bay Area teams: Raiders, 49ers, A’s, Giants, Warriors. Why is this today’s assignment? Because it just is.

I’ll give my rankings. Feel free to tell the world yours.

No. 1 Bruce Bochy

The no-brainer of all no-brainers. In a class by himself around here, maybe in all American sports. There are those three world championships. When he got to the World Series with San Francisco, he never failed to close the deal. Think Bill Walsh and George Seifert in a bygone 49ers era. Bochy lost the World Series managing the Padres in 1998, but this list is strictly about Bay Area achievements. And he’s the tops.

What makes him so good?

Start with patience. He never makes a panic move. You think he should demote Jake Peavy to the bullpen as a long reliever. No. Bochy waits and then he waits some more. Acts with knowledge and intelligence. He has a feel for his players and for the right moment and the wrong moment. Always takes the long view.

And he’s brilliant at putting together a lineup. And he’s brilliant at putting together a starting rotation and a bullpen. Along with John McGraw, he is the best manager in Giants history, San Francisco and New York. He may be better than McGraw.

No. 2 Steve Kerr

If Kerr had won back-to-back NBA championships, he’d be breathing down Bochy’s neck for No. 1. But Kerr did not win back-to-back championships. He is a brilliant coach who led the Warriors to the best regular season of all time - even when he was ill and not leading them.

He also presided over the biggest Finals flop in league history - the Warriors becoming the only team not to seal the deal after going up 3-1. This is not a strong point on Kerr’s curriculum vitae. Sure, he had excuses. Tell it to the wind.

He is superb and creative and the players like him. That’s important. Everyone likes him. That’s because he’s so likable. He has a great coaching staff because he’s not afraid of smart, opposing voices in the room.

But his stock tumbled after the Finals as his team scored a pitiful 13 points in the fourth quarter of the most important game of the season. He had no answers. As rude as this seems, he needs to improve.

No. 3 Bob Melvin

If Melvin worked for a normal sports franchise, he would challenge Bochy for No. 1. That’s how good he is. Melvin managing the A’s is like Michael Tilson Thomas conducting a high school band.

Melvin is a lot closer to Kerr for No. 2 than you’d think, especially after the Warriors’ postseason. Melvin has led the A’s to three postseason appearances. He has a winning record in Oakland. Imagine that. He was American League Manager of the Year in 2012.

Billy Beane regularly presents Melvin with a patched-together, minimum-wage ballclub, regularly trades the best players, and Melvin often makes it work. Not always. Often.

He is patient and smart, and he’s honest with his players, and the players know where they stand and they play hard for him, and he’s a terrific strategist. He’s everything you want in a big-league manager. Give him a set starting lineup, good starting pitching and generous ownership - talking money here - and a front office that actually tries, and he would be Bruce Bochy.

No. 4 Jack Del Rio

Tough spot for Del Rio at No. 4. Anywhere else in the country, he’d rank higher. Lots of competition in the Bay Area. He’s exactly the coach Oakland needs. Seems to be.

He is a born leader. A big, handsome, impressive man who strides around with a look-at-me confidence. You don’t mess with him. He knows what he’s doing. Seems to.

He has no interest in pleasing the media or revealing himself to the media. He is self-contained, a four-star general wearing a million medals. And he’s what the young Raiders needed and still need. He does not sulk when they lose, or gloat when they win. He has seen it all. Understands how building a team works. And he’s building one heck of a team.

Which means he’s facing his first season of pressure with the Raiders. First season of intense scrutiny. Until now he got a pass. We understood what he faced. And he developed the team and now the Raiders are oozing with talent. And - please excuse the wretched cliché here - Del Rio must take them to the “next level.”

What is the next level?

The playoffs. That’s the next level. If Del Rio takes the Raiders to the playoffs, he’s fulfilling expectations. Doing what he should do. If he wins a game in the playoffs, he’s a honking big success. If he wins the Super Bowl, tear up these rankings and celebrate Jack Del Rio.

There’s the other side. If the Raiders don’t make the playoffs, don’t show progress, it’s all on him.

His ranking plummets. Maybe he’s only a place-holder head coach after all - the Mark Jackson of the Raiders. Next season defines Del Rio. He’s fought hard for this defining season. Earned it.

No. 5 Chip Kelly

Unfair even to include him on the list. Has coached no games for the Santa Clara team. Expect the Niners to give him a grace period - a grace season or two - no matter what happens unless he’s as inept as Jim Tomsula, who was world-class inept and got run out after just one season. Inconceivable this will happen to Kelly, who is a real coach as opposed to a clown.

The Niners’ record can be bad. Almost surely will be. But Kelly will survive. He needs to show he can stress defense, and work and play well with others. See Trent Baalke.

Final ranking for Kelly: To Be Determined.

PS: A closer look at Kelly in my Monday column.

For more on the world of sports in general and the Bay Area in particular, go to the Cohn Zohn at cohn.blogs.pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Columnist Lowell Cohn at lowell.cohn@pressdemocrat.com.