NBA Coach of the Year Odds: Joe Mazzulla, J.B. Bickerstaff Close at Top of List

The NBA’s Coach of the Year race became a two-man race towards the end of the regular season, though there’s an argument to be made for several candidates.

Detroit Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla closed as the top choices in this market, while San Antonio Spurs coach Mitch Johnson was a distant third.

Closing NBA Coach of the Year Odds

Odds via FanDuel Sportsbook

J.B Bickerstaff: -260
Joe Mazzulla: +220
Mitch Johnson: +2500
Charles Lee: +25000
Quin Snyder: +50000

Bickerstaff did a fantastic job with a Detroit team that won just 14 games in the 2023-24 season. Last season, the Pistons made the playoffs as the No. 6 seed in the East, but Bickerstaff took things even further, leading them to a 60-win 2025-26 season to capture the top spot in the conference.

The Pistons basically had a wire-to-wire handle on the No. 1 seed in the conference, even though Cade Cunningham suffered a collapsed lung late in the season. Prior to Sunday’s regular-season finales, Bickerstaff was an odds-on favorite to win Coach of the Year.

Mazzulla’s case is very interesting though, and one could argue he exceeded expectations even more than Bickerstaff. Boston was expected to have a “gap year” with Jayson Tatum out of the lineup due to a ruptured Achilles, but the C’s finished with 56 wins and the No. 2 seed in the East.

Boston moved on from Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Jrue Holiday in the offseason, yet Mazzulla developed several young players – Neemias Queta, Baylor Scheierman, Jordan Walsh and more – into key rotational pieces for Boston. The C’s finished ahead of teams like the New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers that were expected to lead the East in the 2025-26 campaign.

Tatum did return late in the season, but Mazzulla’s coaching is a major reason why Boston finished the regular season in the top five in offensive rating, defensive rating and net rating.

Johnson, Charles Lee and Quin Snyder also have cases, and it’s interesting to see Johnson so far down in the odds. The San Antonio Spurs won 62 games in the 2025-26 season, finished with the No. 2 seed in the West despite entering the season as a team that was expected to be in the play-in mix or just barely in the playoff field.

Johnson played a crucial role in the development of youngsters like Stephon Castle, Victor Wembanayma, Dylan Harper and others, and the Spurs went 4-1 against the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder.

Lee and Snyder both led their teams to huge second-half runs, though it’s tougher to give this award to coaches whose teams are the No. 6 seed (Atlanta) or in the play-in (Charlotte) given how well Boston, Detroit and San Antonio fared.

I’d lean with Bickerstaff winning this award since he’s been favored most of the season, but Mazzulla has a really compelling case considering where Boston was projected to finish (it had a win total of 41.5) prior to the 2025-26 season.

Odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.

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