Sadly, the head coach of the Utah Jazz, Will Hardy, is sacked due to the mis…

Sadly, the head coach of the Utah Jazz, Will Hardy, is sacked due to the mis…

There is genuine disdain for the Utah Jazz.

Jazz head coach Will Hardy has a 45-1 shot of taking home the 2024 NBA Coach of the Year title, according to DraftKings. Wes Unseld Jr., Chauncey Billups, and Billy Donovan are the only coaches with worse odds.

Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat (7.5-1) and Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder (8-1) are the coaches at the top of the pack.

The Jazz are still undervalued by oddsmakers in terms of their chances of winning awards this coming season, though this may be more of a dig at Utah’s roster than at Hardy’s coaching abilities. In either case, the head coach in his second year has the best chance of winning the trophy out of all of them.

The winner of the award in the previous two of the last three years—including Mike Brown of the Sacramento Kings—was coming off a losing season. That would be encouraging for Hardy’s prospects given the Jazz team’s room to grow after finishing 37–45 the previous season.

The Jazz should be prepared to surpass the 2022–23 season win total, especially with the addition of John Collins to the power forward position and Omer Yurtseven to the backup center position.

In a season where the Thunder own the rights to their first-round, top-10 protected pick, Utah is finally set up to play for the long haul. Supporters should anticipate that Hardy will keep his foot on the gas the entire season because the front office shouldn’t be incentivized to put up any obstacles to prevent the Jazz from winning.

It’s always difficult to predict who will win these awards, but from this angle, Vegas seems to be undervaluing a coach who, for the first time in his brief career, has the cards stacked in his favor.