NBA Coach of the Year Favorites - All-Star Break

NBA Coach of the Year odds: Joe Mazzulla is the favorite to win the award. Michael Brown, Michael Malone, and Taylor Jenkins are the contenders.

By

Shane Lambert

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The NBA's All-Star break will start after a three-game set on Thursday, February 16th, 2023. Here's a look at the coaches that are favored to win the Coach of the Year Award in the NBA as teams prepare for the week-long break (all odds from bet365).

Betting odds for NBA Coach of the Year

  1. Joe Mazzulla +180 (9/5): Boston
  2. Michael Brown +200 (2/1): Sacramento
  3. Michael Malone +300 (3/1): Denver
  4. Taylor Jenkins +600 (6/1): Memphis
  5. Jacque Vaughn +700 (7/1): Brooklyn
  6. Doc Rivers +1000 (10/1): Philadelphia
  7. JB Bickerstaff +1400 (14/1): Cleveland
  8. Mike Budenholzer +1400 (14/1): Milwaukee Bucks
  9. Willie Green +1600 (16/1): New Orleans
  10. Will Hardy +2000 (20/1): Utah Jazz

The Coach of the Year award gets voted on and only focuses on the regular season. If a team bombs in the playoffs, then that isn't supposed to affect the voting. One factor that really helps a coach out is winning games, of course. But in particular, if a coach wins games with a lineup that was thought to be inadequate or inferior to the task at hand, then this really earns some votes.

For instance, the Sacramento Kings entered this season with a win total of 33.5, meaning that it was thought that they would win 33-34 games. They appear likely to beat that win total after the All-Star break as they already have 32 wins. If they smash the total (ie. win 44-45 games), then their coach, Michael Brown, would have a major plaudit when it comes to winning the Coach of the Year award. That's one factor that has helped make him the second favorite.

Is Mark Daigneault of the OKC Thunder underrated?

The 11th favorite for the award is Mark Daigneault. He is currently out at 25 to 1 to win the award. Daigneault coaches the OKC Thunder, a team that has already beaten their preseason win total, which was in the low 20s.

He could be viewed as underrated in the Coach of the Year market. The team lost their top draft pick to injury for the entire season and seemed to be a write-off by preseason analysis. If OKC makes it to the play-in tournament, then that would really reflect well on Daigneault's regular season.