The National Basketball Association continued to hand out individual awards on Tuesday. This time they presented Kenny Atkinson of Huntington, New York the NBA Coach of the Year. This was Atkinson’s first season coaching Cleveland, and it was extremely successful. The Cavaliers had the best record in the Eastern Conference at 64 wins and 18 losses for a winning percentage of .780.
Cleveland also had the second best record in the NBA. The only team better was the Oklahoma City Thunder at 68 wins and 14 losses for a winning percentage of .829.
The voters for the award selected excellence over significant improvement. If I had a vote on the panel (which I do not), I would have selected J.B. Bickerstaff of Denver, Colorado, and quite frankly, it would not have been even remotely close. What Bickerstaff accomplished with the Detroit Pistons this past season was nothing short of absolutely astounding. The Pistons went from worst in the league in 2023-24 at 14 wins and 68 losses, to comfortably in a playoff spot in 2024-25 at 44 wins and 38 losses. The bottom line is you just simply never see a 30 win improvement from one year to the next. Bickerstaff deserved the award by a country mile.
I am not minimizing Atkinson’s achievements. He improved the Cavaliers this season. Cleveland was at 48 wins and 34 losses a year ago. Ironically, it was Bickerstaff, who was Cleveland’s coach in 2023-24. However, the Cavaliers only had a 16 win improvement from last season.
Who do you think deserved to be coach of the year? Were Bickerstaff’s accomplishments overlooked? Please let us know.
