Kenny Atkinson wins 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year award

Kenny Atkinson wins 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year award

Cleveland Cavaliers first-year head coach Kenny Atkinson has won the NBA’s Coach of the Year award for the 2024-25 season, the league announced Monday.

The 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year is… Kenny Atkinson! #NBAAwards pic.twitter.com/6AvyikvExc

— NBA (@NBA) May 5, 2025

Atkinson won the award over Detroit’s JB Bickerstaff and Houston’s Ime Udoka, the other two finalists for the award.

Atkinson earned 59 of the 100 possible first-place votes. Bickerstaff finished second with 31 first-place votes; Udoka had seven first-place votes. Others who had first-place votes were Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault (2) and Clippers’ Tyronn Lue (1).

To me, it was a two-horse race between Atkinson and Bickerstaff.

There’s compelling arguments for both head coaches. Ironically enough, Atkinson took over for Bickerstaff, who was fired at the end of last season. Without much personnel turnover, Atkinson helped elevate the Cavaliers from a good middle-of-the-pack East team to a 60-win team. That’s a very difficult leap to make.

What Bickerstaff did to an up-and-coming Detroit team can’t be ignored. The Pistons had one of the highest year-to-year jumps in wins in NBA History. But the Cavaliers were consistently the most dominant team in the East all season. Atkinson’s offensive-minded approach guided the best offense in NBA History with largely the same core from last year.

We’ll see whether or not they can parlay that into winning the East–which is the ultimate goal. Cleveland must capitalize on the 2-3 year window it has before things start to become tricky from a salary cap perspective.

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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.

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