Jazz's Will Hardy Disrespected in New Coach of the Year Odds
The disrespect of the Utah Jazz is real.
According to DraftKings, Jazz head coach Will Hardy has a 45-1 chance of winning the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year award. The only coaches that have worse odds are Billy Donovan, Chauncey Billups, and Wes Unseld Jr.
The coaches leading the pack are Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat at 7.5-1 and Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder, who's slated at 8-1.
The Jazz continue to fly under the radar when it comes to how the oddsmakers view their chances of winning awards this upcoming year — although this could be more of a jab at Utah’s roster than Hardy's coaching acumen. Either way, the second-year head coach has as good of a chance of taking home the trophy as anyone.
In the last two out of three years, the coach who won the award was coming off the heels of a losing season, including last year's winner Mike Brown of the Sacramento Kings. That would bode well for Hardy’s chances considering the amount of room there is to grow for a Jazz team that went 37-45 last year.
Also, considering upgrades made at the power forward position with the addition of John Collins and the backup center spot with Omer Yurtseven, the Jazz should be equipped to trump the 2022-23 season win total.
Finally, Utah is positioned to play for keeps in a year where the Thunder have the rights to its first-round top-10 protected pick. The front office shouldn't be motivated to put up any roadblocks to deter the Jazz from getting wins, so fans can expect Hardy to have his foot on the gas for the whole season.
Predicting the winner of these awards is always a crap shoot, but from this point of view, Vegas is underestimating a coach that, for the first time in his short career, has the deck stacked in his favor.
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