NBA futures: Will J.B. Bickerstaff take home 2025-26 Coach of the Year honors?

For the second consecutive campaign, Mark Daigneault has guided the Oklahoma City Thunder to the best regular-season record in the NBA. And for the second consecutive campaign, it appears that the 41-year-old will not receive the NBA Coach of the Year award.

Daigneault captured the Red Auerbach Trophy after Oklahoma City ended 2023-24 with a 57-25 record, which was a 17-game improvement from the previous season. But after Thunder went a league-best 68-14 last campaign, he finished a distant fourth in the voting for the award, garnering only two first-place votes.

Oklahoma City has secured the best record in the NBA again this season, as it is 64-16 through 80 games. However, Daigneault isn't even being considered as a viable candidate for 2025-26 Coach of the Year by some of the major sportsbooks, and he is priced at +25000 or higher at a few others.

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The top two contenders for the award reside in the Eastern Conference, with the favorite being J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons. 

Fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers after the 2023-24 campaign, Bickerstaff was unemployed for less than two months as Detroit hired him in July 2024. The club posted a 44-38 record in 2024-25, one season after going a franchise-worst 14-68, and the 47-year-old has followed by guiding the Pistons to the No. 1 seed in the East for the first time since 2006-07 as they've gone 58-22 this campaign.

The only head coach that figures to challenge Bickerstaff for Coach of the Year is Joe Mazzulla of the Boston Celtics. 

With star forward Jayson Tatum expected to miss all of 2025-26 after rupturing his Achilles last postseason, most experts gave Boston little chance of contending in the East. But in their fourth season under the leadership of Mazzulla and second since winning the NBA championship, the Celtics went 41-21 without Tatum and have gone 13-4 since the six-time All-Star returned ahead of schedule on March 6.

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The major sportsbooks believe Bickerstaff will become the first to win Coach of the Year with the Pistons since Rick Carlisle in 2002, as he is priced around -300. Mazzulla is the second favorite, with odds ranging from +200 to +240, while Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs is a distant third as he is listed between +2200 and +2500.

Detroit has had one coach other than Carlisle win the award, as Ray Scott captured the trophy in 1974. The Celtics have had three coaches earn the honor -- Red Auerbach (1965), Tom Heinsohn (1973) and Bill Fitch (1980) -- while Gregg Popovich won three times while with the Spurs.

Best bet: Bickerstaff (-260, FanDuel)

Bickerstaff, whose father Bernie was an NBA coach for five different teams and currently is the senior basketball advisor for Detroit, was runner-up for the award last season and likely would've won had it not been for the job done by his replacement in Cleveland as Kenny Atkinson guided the Cavaliers to an Eastern Conference-best 64-18 record. The Pistons made a 30-game improvement in Bickerstaff's first season with the team and already have 14 more victories than they recorded in 2024-25 with two games remaining.

Should Detroit win its final two contests, it would reach the 60-win plateau for the third time in its history and first since recording a franchise-high -- and league-leading -- 64 victories in 2005-06. The Pistons posted the best home record in the East this season, going 31-9 at Little Caesars Arena, and matched the longest winning streak in franchise history with 13 straight triumphs from Oct. 29-Nov. 24.

Bickerstaff also didn't let his team fall into a prolonged slump this season, as the Pistons lost consecutive contests only three times. Their longest losing streak consisted of four games (March 3-8) and they suffered back-to-back losses on two occasions.

There's no arguing that Mazzulla did a fantastic job for the Celtics without the services of Tatum for much of the campaign. But considering the Pistons continued to improve following last season's massive turnaround and finished atop the Central Division for the first time since 2007-08, Bickerstaff should become the third Coach of the Year in franchise history.