Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has won the Michael H. Goldberg award for the 2024/25 season, earning Coach of the Year from the National Basketball Coaches Association, according to a press release.
This award, introduced in 2017 and named after longtime NBCA executive director Michael H. Goldberg, is voted on by the NBA’s 30 head coaches, none of whom can vote for himself.
It isn’t the NBA’s official Coach of the Year award, which is voted on by media members and is represented by the Red Auerbach Trophy. The winner of that award will be announced later this spring.
J.B. Bickerstaff (Pistons), Mark Daigneault (Thunder), Ime Udoka (Rockets), and – interestingly – Michael Malone (Nuggets) also received votes from their fellow coaches for this year’s NBCA award. Malone was let go by Denver earlier this month.
Atkinson was hired by the Cavaliers last June and was tasked with turning the team into a legitimate title contender following a 48-win season and a second-round playoff exit. Despite the fact that Cleveland’s roster didn’t undergo any major changes last summer, the team had one of the best years in franchise history, racking up 64 wins and holding the No. 1 spot in the Eastern Conference for nearly the entire season.
After the Cavs placed 16th in the NBA with a 114.7 offensive rating in 2023/24, Atkinson helped turn the unit into the league’s top-ranked offense in ’24/25 — Cleveland’s 121.0 offensive rating led the league by a comfortable margin. The club also ranked eighth in defensive rating (111.8) and third in overall net rating (+9.2).
The NBCA Coach of the Year award has frequently been a bellwether for the NBA’s Coach of the Year honor, which bodes well for Atkinson. In six of the eight years since the award’s inception, the winner has gone on to be named the NBA’s Coach of the Year, including in 2024 when Daigneault won both awards.
So, how long is it going to be before Davey J posts that Lacob should have fired Kerr and hired Atkinson. You know DJ will say it. It can’t let a day go by without saying Kerr is an idiot and must be fired.
Good for Atkinson and Cleveland. Looks like they’ll be a dominant team for the remainder of the 20s.
i would have voted Bickerstaff because he took a bad team to a contending team.
I agree with you on Bickerstaff. Changing a teams culture is probably harder to do. He did it so fast.
Atkinson took a good team to the next level. All Bickerstaff did was take a team that already had talent and look good because previous coaches were pretty damn bad.
But, there is something to say for changing the mindset of a team that is used to losing and drama.
I disagree. I think it’s much more difficult to make an already good team an elite one. And since winning is then ultimate goal, I think bringing a team to the precipice of championship contention should take precedent.
Not to mention, Atkinson basically took over the same team Bickerstaff had and made it better
Good call lmao.
OKC coach is Coach-of-the-Year.
Atkinson is Coach-of-the-first-3/4-of-the-Year.
Bickerstaff is Coach-of-the-last-3/4-of-the-Year.
Good job Warriors in keeping Kerr and his idiotic, outdated smallball over a guy who saw the future of the game and dove right in, in Kenny! SMRT
Congratulations coach Atkinson …… well deserved
The coach the Nets should’ve never let go. Despite what the players requested.
Agree
I would have voted pistons’s hc monty ups i mean j.b. from worst to playoff team.
I am curious how close the vote was. Wish they would detail that.
Ssshhh…Be very quiet. You might upset Davey when he finds the Cavs starting Center is only 6’9″. Yes, Atkinson saw the future in Small Ball. Hysterical!!
JB should’ve won. Also Donovan will never win a championship.
Billy donovan? Off course..and the bulls decide to kept him. So sad
My bad, forgot it. He won it once in 2020, him and bud won it together, but i dont think he deserved for it