For the previous couple of years, with J.B. Bickerstaff as coach, the Cavaliers were a good team — they finished fourth in the conference both years. Last season they had 48 wins, had a +2.5 net rating, and advanced to the second round of the playoffs before falling to the eventual champion Celtics.
Cavaliers management wanted more, so it made a coaching change: Bickerstaff was out, Kenny Atkinson was in. With essentially the same roster in place, Atkinson’s Cavaliers started 15-0, finished with 64 wins (the second most in franchise history), a +9.5 net rating and were the No. 1 seed in the East.
That earned Atkinson the Coach of the Year award, the NBA announced Monday.
Atkinson got 59 first-place votes from the international panel of 100 media members, with 33 second-place votes.
After being let go, Bicketstaff was hired by the Pistons, taking over a team that had the worst record in the NBA each of the past two seasons. He helped turn them around into a 44-win team that finished sixth in the East (and pushed the Knicks to six games in the first round). That earned Bickerstaff second in the Coach of the Year voting, with 31 first-place votes and 44 second-place votes.
The Rockets’ Ime Udoka finished third. The Thunder’s Mark Daigneault finished fourth in the voting (two first-place votes), and the Clippers’ Tyronn Lue finished fifth (one first-place vote).
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