Mike Budenholzer was recently voted the NBA’s coach of the year by his peers. He’d been similarly honored before. He won the NBA’s official COY award four seasons ago, when his Atlanta Hawks were a model of asset maximization. They won 60 games without a superstar, which led many among us to wonder what wonders Budenholzer might work with a superstar.
We have our answer. In Year 1 with Milwaukee, Budenholzer won another 60 games, securing the top seed in the East, which his Hawks also had in 2015, and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, which those Hawks did not.