The Atlanta Hawks' Mike Budenholzer, who guided the team to the best regular season in franchise history, is the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2014-15 NBA Coach of the Year, the NBA announced today.
Budenholzer received 67 first-place votes and 513 total points from a panel of 130 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.
The Golden State Warriors' Steve Kerr, who led the Pacific Division champions to a franchise-record and NBA-high 67 victories in his first season as an NBA coach, finished second with 56 first-place votes and 471 total points. Jason Kidd of the Milwaukee Bucks was third with one first-place vote and 57 total points. Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote and one point for each third-place vote.
Budenholzer led Atlanta to a 60-22 record in his second season, three games better than the previous team high of 57-25 set in 1986-87 and matched in 1993-94. The Hawks earned both the No. 1 playoff seed in the Eastern Conference and a division title (Southeast Division) for the first time since 1993-94.
2014-15 NBA Coach Of The Year Results| P. | COACH | TEAM | POINTS |
|---|
| 1. | MIKE BUDENHOLZER | Atlanta | 513 (67) |
| 2. | Steve Kerr | Golden State | 471 (56) |
| 3. | Jason Kidd | Milwaukee | 57 (1) |
| 4. | Brad Stevens | Boston | 50 (2) |
| 5. | Gregg Popovich | San Antonio | 38 (3) |
| 6. | Kevin McHale | Houston | 13 |
| 7. | Tom Thibodeau | Chicago | 10 (1) |
| 8. | Quin Snyder | Utah | 7 |
| 9. | David Blatt | Cleveland | 3 |
| 10. | Doc Rivers | L.A. Clippers | 2 |
| - | Terry Stotts | Portland | 2 |
| 12. | Rick Carlisle | Dallas | 1 |
| - | Dwane Casey | Toronto | 1 |
| - | Jeff Hornacek | Phoenix | 1 |
| - | Monty Williams | New Orleans | 1 |
*First place votes in parenthesis