The head coaches of the teams with the best records in the NBA have claimed the Coach of the Month awards for their respective conferences, the league announced today in a press release (Twitter link).
Mark Daigneault, who guided the Thunder to a 12-1 record in December, won the award for the Western Conference. Oklahoma City is currently 27-5, the second-best mark in the NBA and the top seed in the West.
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson won the East’s award for the second consecutive time. Cleveland also went 12-1 last month and is currently 29-4, the best record in the league.
If the season ended today, Atkinson and Daigneault would almost certainly be two of the frontrunners for Coach of the Year. Of course, we’re only about 40% through the 2024/25 regular season, and a lot could change between now and April.
Chris Finch (Timberwolves), Taylor Jenkins (Grizzlies) and Tyronn Lue (Clippers) were the other nominees in the West, while Jamahl Mosley (Magic), Nick Nurse (Sixers), Quin Snyder (Hawks) and Tom Thibodeau (Knicks) were nominated in the East (Twitter link).
Has this always been a thing? I don’t remember this award from previous seasons.
It’s so cool how Kerr never wins any of these things, but the superior coaches he works with always leave him and win them, while he flounders without them. It’s almost like Kerr is nothing without his assistants and stinks at his job or something!!
Kerr has won 8 Coach of the Month awards in his career with the latest coming in March of 2024. More importantly he’s an won four NBA championships.
Let’s take a look at his assistants-Atkinson and Green are still active head coaches but Walton, Gentry and Brown have all went on to be fired by the Kings.