Monty Williams NBA Coach of the Year Odds

The Phoenix Suns have been the best team in the NBA by a mile this season. Phoenix is currently 51-13 and is eight games ahead of Golden State and Memphis for the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. That has led to more praise being heaped upon head coach Monty Williams, and he is a heavy favorite to be named the NBA Coach of the Year for his job with the Suns.

2022 NBA Coach of the Year Betting Odds

• Monty Williams (Phoenix) -350
• J.B. Bickerstaff (Cleveland) +350
• Erik Spoelstra (Miami) +650
• Taylor Jenkins (Memphis) +650
• Billy Donovan (Chicago) +1200
• Steve Kerr (Golden State) +2500
• Ime Udoka (Boston) +3000
• All Other Coaches are +6000 or More

Monty Williams was nearly the NBA Coach of the Year last season. Williams had the most first-place votes (45) of any coach, but he finished 11 points behind New York’s Tom Thibodeau in the overall voting. It was the smallest margin of victory since the award voting was revamped two decades ago.

That near-triumph coupled with Phoenix’s success this season makes Williams a virtual shoo-in at this point. This would be both a make-up award for failing to recognize him last year and a recognition of what the Suns have done this year, strengthening his overall case. For Williams to not be named NBA Coach of the Year at this point, the Suns would have to abjectly collapse over the last month or there would have to be some off-court issues.

J.B. Bickerstaff has done a great job with Cleveland this year, but Bickerstaff is unlikely to win. The Cavaliers have been the NBA’s most surprising team this season, and Bickerstaff certainly deserves consideration for this honor. However, Cleveland has fallen to sixth place in the stacked Eastern Conference, and this is only Bickerstaff’s second winning season in six years as a head coach.

The other surprising team this season has been Memphis. The Grizzlies may be the No. 2 seed in the West given the struggles of Golden State, and that has led to some buzz surrounding Taylor Jenkins. The real factor behind Memphis’ success though has been Ja Morant.

Morant has been incredible over the last month. He is making a strong run to beat out Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic for MVP, so it’s hard to give Jenkins a ton of credit.

Eventually Erik Spoelstra will be named NBA Coach of the Year. Spoelstra has been one of the league’s top coaches for quite some time, but he has yet to earn the honor. Miami has the best record in the East, yet it is unlikely to see Spoelstra win the award this season.