Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson wins 2024-25 NBA Coach of Year award – NBA Blog – NBA Basketball Blog

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson is the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2024-25 NBA Coach of the Year.

Atkinson, in his first season as the Cavaliers’ head coach and fifth season as an NBA head coach, has been named the NBA Coach of the Year for the first time. He becomes the third head coach to earn the honor with Cleveland, joining Bill Fitch (1975-76) and Mike Brown (2008-09).

Under Atkinson, the Cavaliers (64-18) finished with the second-best record in franchise history and earned the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference. He tied for the fourth-most victories by a head coach in his first season with a team.

Cleveland joined the 2006-07 Dallas Mavericks as the only two teams to have three separate winning streaks of 12 or more games in a season. The Cavaliers won their first 15 games to match the second-best start to a season in NBA history. They also recorded a team-record 16-game winning streak from Feb. 5 – March 14.

Atkinson led Cleveland to several other single-season franchise highs, including scoring average (NBA-leading 121.9 points per game), scoring differential (9.5 points per game), road victories (30) and three-pointers made (1,303).

Atkinson was named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month twice, for games played in October/November and December. He also earned a spot to serve as a head coach in the NBA All-Star Game for the first time.