{"id":135359,"date":"2025-04-19T15:09:40","date_gmt":"2025-04-19T19:09:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=135359"},"modified":"2025-04-20T06:30:33","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T10:30:33","slug":"unexpected-turnaround-earns-kenny-atkinson-top-coaching-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/19\/unexpected-turnaround-earns-kenny-atkinson-top-coaching-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Unexpected Turnaround Earns Top Coaching Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenny Atkinson has won the National Basketball Coaches Association\u2019s Coach of the Year award. Though not new to coaching, Atkinson made an immediate impact in his first year leading the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a>. He took over a team that reached the second round of the playoffs last season. This year, they posted a stunning 64\u201318<\/a> record.<\/p>\n

Unexpected Turnaround Earns Kenny Atkinson Top Coaching Award<\/h2>\n

Cleveland\u2019s 16-win improvement earned them the top seed in the Eastern Conference. It was the first time the Cavaliers reached the 60-win mark since 2009\u201310. More impressively, it was the first time the team did so without LeBron James<\/a> on the roster.<\/p>\n

“Congratulations to Kenny on a historic season,” said<\/a> Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle.
\nCarlisle, who also serves as NBCA president, added: “He\u2019s long been respected as an innovative and humble servant to the game.”<\/p>\n

Atkinson\u2019s Peers Also Excelled<\/h3>\n

The award, voted on by NBA head coaches, also saw votes go to several standout candidates. Notably, former Cavaliers coach J.B. Bickerstaff received votes for his work in Detroit. Bickerstaff led the Pistons<\/a> to their first playoff appearance since 2019. He also helped Detroit more than triple their win total\u2014from 14 last year to 44 this season.<\/p>\n

His rebound in Detroit helped polish a reputation that had taken hits in Cleveland.
\nIronically, Atkinson\u2019s success with the Cavaliers highlighted the contrast in coaching results.<\/p>\n

Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> also earned recognition. Daigneault’s squad bulldozed their way to 68 wins this season. The Thunder finished with a +12.8 net rating\u2014second-best in NBA history.<\/p>\n

The 68-14 Thunder won the Western Conference by 16 games. That kind of dominance hasn\u2019t been seen since the early ’90s or even as far back as the 1975-76 Warriors.<\/p>\n

Udoka, Malone Also in the Mix<\/h3>\n

Houston Rockets<\/a> coach Ime Udoka also received praise. He transformed a young Rockets team that missed last year\u2019s play-in into the West\u2019s second seed. Udoka\u2019s approach included a merit-based system for crunch-time minutes.
\nPlayers earned time late in games based on performance, not reputation.<\/p>\n

Michael Malone, despite receiving votes, didn\u2019t finish the season with his team. He was dismissed just three games before the regular season ended. The move shocked many, considering Malone is the winningest coach in Nuggets history.<\/p>\n

He had led Denver to a solid fourth-place finish in the Western Conference. But Vice Chairman Josh Kroenke decided the team needed a “new direction.” Malone\u2019s firing was part of a broader late-season shake-up<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Why Kenny Atkinson\u2019s Award Win Matters<\/h3>\n

Atkinson’s recognition is not just about numbers. It\u2019s also about narrative.
\nHe arrived in Cleveland under pressure to prove he could elevate a team already on the rise. He did exactly that.<\/p>\n

His tactical adjustments and leadership brought consistency to a roster with high expectations.
\nMore importantly, he showed that a new voice can take a team from good to great.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Kenny Atkinson has won the National Basketball Coaches Association\u2019s Coach of the Year award. Though not new to coaching, Atkinson made an immediate impact in his first year leading the Cleveland Cavaliers. He took over a team that reached the second round of the playoffs last season. This year, they posted a stunning 64\u201318 record. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5018,"featured_media":135360,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[62,1608,9,3],"tags":[49979,3333,3821,49128,236,49180,1230],"class_list":["post-135359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba","category-basketball","category-cavaliers","category-news","tag-2024-25-nba-season","tag-coach-of-the-year","tag-ime-udoka","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-mark-daigneault","tag-michael-malone"],"modified_by":"Frederick Okocha","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135359"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135363,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135359\/revisions\/135363"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}