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Christopher Boan has been covering sports and sports betting for more than seven years, including stops at ArizonaSports.com, the Tucson Weekly and the Green Valley News.
NBA Coach of the Year Odds 2025: Kenny Atkinson Takes Top Spot
Roughly 25 games into the league year, it’s becoming clearer by the day which NBA head coaches are set for great things, and which ones are on the verge of collecting a buyout check, with certain teams cementing their playoff chances while others fall by the league’s wayside.
Among the head coaches in the former camp are Kenny Atkinson of the Cleveland Cavaliers, who is 21-4 (.840) in his first year as a head coach in the league after serving as an assistant with the Golden State Warriors from 2021 to 2024 and with the New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets and Los Angeles Clippers between 2008 and 2021.
Right now, oddsmakers from Bet365 Massachusetts have the Celtics as their NBA title favorite at +230, while the Oklahoma City Thunder and New York Knicks (+1000 each), Dallas Mavericks (+1100) and Cavaliers (+1200) are next up on the Larry O’Brien odds board.
Throw in former Boston Celtics and current Houston Rockets head coach Ime Udoka, Jamahl Mosley of the Orlando Magic and Taylor Jenkins of the Memphis Grizzlies and you have the upper end of the NBA Coach of the Year odds board that BetMassachusetts.com compiled.
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NBA Coach of the Year Odds 2025
Coach | Team | Odds |
Kenny Atkinson | Cleveland Cavaliers | -120 |
Ime Udoka | Houston Rockets | +290 |
Jamahl Mosley | Orlando Magic | +800 |
Taylor Jenkins | Memphis Grizzlies | +1400 |
Joe Mazzulla | Boston Celtics | +1600 |
Tyronn Lue | Los Angeles Clippers | +2200 |
Mike Budenholzer | Phoenix Suns | +4000 |
Jason Kidd | Dallas Mavericks | +4000 |
*Odds according to DraftKings Massachusetts Sportsbook on Dec. 10th, 2024.
Right now, Atkinson seems like a slam dunk to win the NBA’s Coach of the Year award, given Cleveland’s NBA-best 21-4 record so far and the Cavaliers ability to stay 1.5 games ahead of the equally red-hot Boston Celtics for the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
That’s why we list Atkinson at -120 to win the COY award, ranking ahead of Udoka (+290), Mosley (+800), Jenkins (+1400) and Joe Mazzulla of the Celtics (+1600), with the first-year Cleveland head coach receiving a lot of props thanks to his ability to build a steady winner out of a team that won 48 games last year but flamed out in the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
Longshots to keep an eye on when it comes to the COY award include Tyronn Lue of the Clippers at +2200 and Mike Budenholzer of the Phoenix Suns and Jason Kidd of the Dallas Mavericks at +4000 apiece, though the award seems to be Atkinson’s to lose right now.
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NBA Coach of the Year Winners
Year | Manager | Team |
2024 | Mark Daigneault | Oklahoma City Thunder |
2023 | Mike Brown | Sacramento Kings |
2022 | Monty Williams | Phoenix Suns |
2021 | Tom Thibodeau | New York Knicks |
2020 | Nick Nurse | Toronto Raptors |
Since 2020, the NBA’s winner of the Coach of the Year award have included luminaries like Nurse, Thibodeau and Daigneault, who won the honor last year after guiding the Thunder to a 57-25 (.695) record last season.
That win total represented a 17-game improvement over the team’s standing at the end of the 2022-23 season, illustrating how far OKC has come under Daigneault’s watch, which illustrates the type of improvement that voters are looking for this season.
This year, coaching hot shots like Udoka, Thibodeau, Mazzulla and Daigneault will all look to add another accolade to their respective trophy cases, taking home the game’s top honor for sideline leaders in 2024-25.
No one has ever won the award in back-to-back seasons, something to keep in mind at MA betting apps this season.
USA Today photo by Paul Rutherford.
NBA Coach of the Year FAQ
Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder won the 2023-24 NBA Coach of the Year award after leading the team to 57 wins, 1st place in the Northwest Division and a Western Conference semifinals appearance.
As of December 10th, 2024, Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson is the favorite to win NBA Coach of the Year at -120, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.
NBA Coach of the Year voting is conducted by a panel of 100 media members. Each voter casts a ballot ranking the top five coaches in the league, with the first-place vote earning five points, the second-place vote earning four points, and so on. The coach with the most points at the end of the voting process is awarded the Coach of the Year.
The NBA Coach of the Year award is typically announced in May, near the end of the NBA playoffs. This allows voters to assess the performance of coaches throughout the regular season and postseason before making their final decisions.
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