Kenny Atkinson led Cleveland to a 15-0 start in the season and took the Cavaliers to the best record at the Eastern Conference. JB BickerStaff took Detroit from the basement to the playoffs. Ime Umoka guided Houston’s path to finish his five -year -old playoff drought.
The three did elite jobs this season.
And Monday, one of them will be the NBA year coach.
None of the three has previously won the award, but at the has been legitimate candidates before. BickerStaff has now obtained votes in each of the last four seasons, Uudoka has obtained votes in his three seasons as a chief coach and Atkinson finished fifth in the vote for the 2018-19 season.
The finishing order does not matter, which will be revealed in a TNT transmission shortly after 6:30 pm will be 1-2-3 in some order; The NBA launches the three finalists in advance, but does not reveal the winner of its main awards before the transmission announcement.
Atkinson and BickerStaff did this in the year 1 of their current periods. Atkinson led Cleveland to a 64-18 record and seed number 1 at the East Conference, doing so after BickerStaff was fired after a race to the second round in Cleveland last season. BickerStaff was hired by Detroit and converted a team of 14 wins into a team of 44 wins that won the number 6 of the East.
Umoka took Houston a 52-30 mark and seed number 2 at the West Conference.
The Award to the Coach of the Year, like several other Honors of the NBA, was voted for a global panel of 100 writers and speakers who cover the League and cast votes shortly after the end of the regular season.
The other awards that were part of this voting process and have already presented their results: Dyson Daniels de Atlanta winning Most improved playerSan Antonio’s Stephon Castle winning Rookie of the yearEvan Mobley by Cleveland Winning Defensive player of the yearNew York Jalen Brunson winning Clutch player of the yearand Boston Payton Pyton Pritchard winning Sixth man of the year.
Other awards announced by the League since the end of the regular season: Stephen Curry by Golden State won the Twyman-Stokes Team AwardHis Warriors teammate, Draymond Green, won the prize And Boston Jrue’s holidays won the prize For the second time in his career. The Executive of the year will be revealed on Tuesday and the Social Justice Champion of the League will be revealed on Wednesday.
The main awards that will be announced later in the playoffs include MVP (either the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City, Nikola Jokic of Denver or Giannis Antetokounmpo of Milwaukee), in addition to the All-Rookie and All-Terokie and All Defensive teams.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
