JB Bickerstaff stakes claim to history that can't be ignored

In two years, JB Bickerstaff took a Detroit Pistons team that had lost 68 games to one that just finished the season with 60 wins and sits atop the Eastern Conference, a feat that had never been achieved in NBA history. 

He’s figured out ways to max his talent, from superstars to role players, every guy on the Pistons is locked in, knows their job and does it well. The team has had a non-stop carousel of injuries and hasn’t missed a beat, continuing to win no matter who was in the starting lineup. 

His team has some of the best chemistry in the league and has fully bought into his style of coaching, which has led to the league’s 2nd rated defense and 9th rated offense. 

He kept the Jaden Ivey situation from becoming a thing, which now looks impressive given how quickly things imploded for him in Chicago. 

Despite all of this, there is a good chance JB Bickerstaff will not win Coach of the Year. People love talking themselves out of JB for some reason, even re-writing history in the process to act as if the Pistons were expected to be where they are. 

Joe Mazzulla is a trendy candidate, and he has had a remarkable year with the Celtics, but even without Jayson Tatum he still had an MVP candidate, and most pundits picked Boston to be ahead of the Pistons this year even without Tatum. 

But maybe the most impressive part of coach Bickerstaff’s resume is that he did it in a way that shows a true sign of coaching. 

The Detroit Pistons have the same team  

The Pistons’ roster isn’t drastically different from the one that won just 14 games two years ago. 

Detroit hasn’t made any huge signings or added a star player that could account for such a dramatic improvement. They are mostly better because their young core is better.  

Yes, Trajan Langdon has done a FAR better job of adding the right veterans to complement them. You can also argue that guys like Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren and Ausar Thompson were going to be good no matter what, but coach Bickerstaff has clearly had an impact on that, as the same level of improvement wasn’t there under Monty Williams. 

Most of the credit goes to the players, who put in the work to improve, but that doesn’t account for the complete culture change that has happened under JB Bickerstaff. 

There are other worthy candidates for Coach of the Year, but I don’t see how voters can ignore the history JB Bickerstaff just made with the Pistons, especially when no one saw it coming.