Celtics Odds: Still Worth Buying Ime Udoka’s Coach Of Year Value?

The Boston Celtics entered the NBA All-Star break as arguably the hottest team in the league before starting their last quarter of the 2021-22 season with consecutive wins.

Boston entered Sunday’s back-to-back against the Indiana Pacers — a 126-107 loss — having won 18 of its past 23 games, and did so behind a strong effort on both ends of the floor. Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, rather obviously, has played a key role in that while implementing an active and intense defense that has the league’s second-best defensive rating.

The turnaround, and more importantly the potential over the final 20 games, makes Udoka an interesting candidate for the NBA’s Coach of the Year award. Udoka, who opened the season at 18-to-1 to win the award, ballooned given Boston’s early struggles. He now has the seventh-best odds at 50-to-1, according to DraftKings Sportsbook.

Is it still worth buying in on Udoka’s prices? Or is it too late?

Well, there’s no debating Udoka is a long shot to win the award. He has a steep mountain to climb and is running out of time to do it with real contenders like the favored Suns’ Monty Williams (-340), Cavaliers’ JB Bickerstaff (+340), Grizzlies’ Taylor Jenkins (+600), Miami’s Erik Spoelstra (+700), Bulls’ Billy Donovan (+1000) and Warriors’ Steve Kerr (+2200).

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That group, though, includes three coaches in the Eastern Conference. The Celtics, who are 36-27 on the season and the No. 6 seed in the conference, are merely five games back of the top spot in the conference. If — and yes, it’s a massive if — the Celtics win 15 or 16 wins of their the last 20 games there’s a chance Boston jumps into one of the top spots. It will be a stretch that features the West’s No. 3 Grizzlies and East’s No. 8 Nets in the next week.

That type of turnaround would make a compelling case for Udoka, too. And Udoka does have some recent history on his side.

Three of the past five Coach of the Year winners did so in their first year with the organization. Udoka is only one of two coaches with a winning record in his first year with an organization (Mavericks’ Jason Kidd). Additionally, seven of the last eight Coach of the Year winners finished top-6 in defensive rating, which should not be a problem with Boston playing its defense-first brand of basketball.

Sure, betting the mortgage on Udoka is not a smart move. He is a distant long shot with a quarter of the season to make up the gap. But should the C’s continue their winning ways, Udoka’s 50-to-1 will be incredibly interesting down the stretch.