J.B. Bickerstaff is the NBA's Coach of the Year
J.B. Bickerstaff has led a historic turnaround in Detroit and deserves to be recognized as the league's most impactful coach in the 2024-25 season.
Forget setting the table. I’m just going to cut right to the chase.
J.B. Bickerstaff deserves to win the NBA Coach of the Year Award.
At 35-27, the Detroit Pistons have not just surpassed the franchise’s win total from last season (14), they’ve more than doubled it. There’s a chance they triple it by the time the season ends.
The turnaround that the Pistons have experienced this year, led by Bickerstaff, is the greatest in franchise history. As my Palace of Pistons Podcast co-host, Jasper Apollonia, pointed out, if the Pistons win 43 games, it will have been the 6th greatest season-to-season improvement in team wins in league history.
While the national media is finally starting to catch onto what is going on in Detroit, the Pistons have been playing at an elite level dating back to January.
Since the start of 2025, Detroit has been the best defensive team in the NBA. They boast a defensive rating of 109.1, inching out the Oklahoma City Thunder for the league’s top mark on that side of the court.
The Pistons’ offense has been above league average as well. At 116.1, they’re tied for the 11th best offensive rating in the league.
Overall, they have the 4th-best net rating in the league during this timeframe, behind only the Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Denver Nuggets.
Last season, under head coach Monty Williams, the Pistons were a bottom-five team in both offensive and defensive rating. They had the second-worst net rating in the league, only ahead of the equally as dreadful Charlotte Hornets.
The core components of the roster are similar from last season to this year. New President of Basketball Operations, Trajan Langdon, held onto all of Detroit’s young core - Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Jaden Ivey, Isaiah Stewart, and Ausar Thompson.
Malik Beasley, Tobias Harris, and Tim Hardaway Jr. were the team’s major offseason acquisitions along with rookie forward Ron Holland. Each of these additions has had a positive impact on the team, but none of these players are All-Stars – or near all-star level players.
J.B. Bickerstaff has found a way to integrate these veterans into a roster full of individual potential and talent that has spent the last three seasons playing putrid basketball and building losing habits.
“I think he’s the Coach of the Year, obviously,” proclaimed Cade Cunningham following Detroit’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers last week. “The things that he’s done for how prepared we’ve been, I’m not surprised we’ve won so many games. We feel more prepared than the other team.”
It’s a preparedness that Bickerstaff takes pride in on a daily basis.
“Our goal is to get great at what we do and see if other teams’ best is better than ours,” Bickerstaff said just hours before the Pistons knocked off the reigning NBA Champion Boston Celtics late last month. “We spend a ton of time watching film with our guys, individually, and as a group so that they are prepared in our walkthroughs and practices. It’s something that we believe in.”
Led by Bickerstaff, Detroit’s coaching staff has built a system they feel is capable of working against any team across the league. The results have been more successful than anyone could have imagined.
Despite the success that the Pistons have had under Bickerstaff, however, he is not the frontrunner for the league’s coaching award.
Kenny Atkinson, coach of the 51-10 Cleveland Cavaliers, is the heavy favorite to win the Coach of the Year award. The Cavaliers are one of the best teams in basketball and Atkinson deserves credit for the team’s success, but Cleveland was already a good team last season.
They have made the jump from a good team to a very good team. A large part of making that leap possible is the team’s health.
Darius Garland missed 25 games last season and suffered a broken jaw in the middle of the year. He lost 12-14 pounds while out and was unable to perform at the All-Star level he played at previously.
Donovan Mitchell appeared in just 55 games last season, but he has been healthier this year and remains a star the league. Evan Mobley played in only 50 games last season, but he too has made an All-Star leap and is a betting favorite for Defensive Player of the Year.
Meanwhile, in Detroit, Ausar Thompson missed more than the first month of the season waiting to be cleared by the NBA to return from a blood clot health issue that cut his rookie season short. Starting guard Jaden Ivey, who was in the midst of a breakout season, has been out since January 1st with a broken fibula.
Yet, J.B. Bickerstaff has continued to make it work with the roster he has been given.
The Pistons are not just better than they were a season ago: they are on the cusp of making one of the most historic turnarounds in the NBA’s history.
It’s only right the head coach who has played a pivotal role in this turnaround is recognized for this incredible achievement.