With few exceptions, the NBA’s Coach of the Year Award has gone to the leader of the team with the best or second-best record that season for the last decade.
Monty Williams piloted the Suns to a league-high 64 wins last season and earned the honor, Mike Budenholzer won it in 2015 with the Hawks after a 60-win campaign, the second-best record that year, and again in 2019 with the Bucks when he matched that total to lead the league. Steve Kerr, of course, was dubbed Coach of the Year after the Warriors’ historic 73-win season.