Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff and Joe Mazzulla from the Boston Celtics are currently neck and neck for the NBA's Coach of the Year award
Ever since J.B. Bickerstaff arrived in Motown before the 2024-25 season, the Pistons have continued to move in an upward direction. Bickerstaff took over a squad that lost an NBA-record 28 consecutive games the season before and quickly tripled the group’s win total (from 14 to 44) in just one year.
But despite the stark turnaround that Bickerstaff seemingly initiated overnight in Detroit, the Pistons head coach narrowly missed out on winning the NBA’s Coach of the Year award last season. Interestingly enough, Bickerstaff’s successor with the Cleveland Cavs, Kenny Atkinson, walked away with the award last year.
Now one year later, Bickerstaff has the Pistons in control of the Eastern Conference with 12 games remaining before the postseason starts, and the Detroit coach is fending off a late charge from Joe Mazzulla this time around.
At the moment, the race between Bickerstaff and the Boston Celtics’ head coach is interesting in how it parallels the battle between JB and Atkinson from the season before. Back then, the Pistons were expected to struggle for most of the season before Bickerstaff quickly turned Detroit around near the All-Star Break, Atkinson, on the other hand, took over a Cleveland group that held modest expectations and turned them into a 64-win juggernaut in the regular season.
As for the Bickerstaff–Mazzulla showdown that’s currently unfolding, the Celtics were the unit that held slim expectations back in October considering Jayson Tatum’s health and potential impact were both in serious doubt. So, Boston was considered an afterthought while the Pistons had a benchmark set near playoff contention that was blown past somewhere around the December mark of the regular season.
If the track record of the Coach of the Year award is anything to go off, then Bickerstaff’s resume this season is more similar to that of Atkinson’s a year ago than Mazzulla’s would be at the moment. If the Pistons can hold onto the top seed in the Eastern Conference over the next 12 games despite the extended absence of Cade Cunningham due to a collapsed lung, it will be hard to deny Bickerstaff the award that many believe he should have taken home 12 months ago.
But this time around, Bickerstaff has strengthened his case with a more complete squad on the court that's won more games and is expected to do even more damage in the playoffs. Bickerstaff has elevated the Pistons' defense to the No. 3 position in the league, and he's helped Jalen Duren develop into one of the NBA's best young centers along the way. Bickerstaff's imprint is visible all over the Detroit organization, and the returns are overwhelmingly positive.
According to FanDuel, Bickerstaff is the current leader for the award with roughly one month left at -110, which is slightly better than even odds. Mazzulla, on the other hand, is rated at +100, so the Celtics coach is an even-money selection based on the current battle.
Outside of Bickerstaff and Mazzulla, there are a couple other candidates with compelling resumes, but they are trailing by quite some distance. Mitch Johnson of the San Antonio Spurs is currently listed at +1300, while Charles Lee of the Charlotte Hornets is a +4000 choice with a dozen games remaining, so it looks like the award is down to a two-man race coming out of the Eastern Conference.
The Detroit Pistons have not had a head coach win the award since Rick Carlisle after the 2001-02 campaign, so depending on the outcome of the regular season, Bickerstaff could snap a 24-year drought in the Motor City.
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