Mitch Johnson spent the entire season making the most compelling case for the Coach of the Year Award, and he did it with results that were hard to ignore. In his first full season at the controls, Johnson led the Spurs to 62 wins, the franchise's most since 2014, and turned a team that missed the playoffs a year ago into the West's second seed in 2026.
That rise was not a cosmetic jump. The Spurs produced elite results on both sides of the floor, a sign that Johnson did more than steady the group — he helped reshape it. For a coach thrust into his biggest assignment after Greg Popovich suffered a stroke in November 2024 and stepped away from the sideline, the job was about more than game plans. Johnson was charged with building the culture and system needed to pull San Antonio out of a rebuild.
He inherited a team that had finished 13th in the 2024-25 campaign and, before Victor Wembanyama's season-ending blood clot scare, had posted a 21-25 record last season. From there, the Spurs climbed all the way to second in the West, a leap that made Johnson's work impossible to separate from the team's identity. Popovich later moved into the front office as president of basketball operations, but the coaching burden on the bench belonged to Johnson.
His case for the award sits alongside other serious contenders. Joe Mazzulla was again in the conversation for his work with the Celtics, while JB Bickerstaff drew notice after leading the Pistons to the East's top seed and their first 60-win season since 2006. Even with those resumes in the race, Johnson's season had the cleanest argument: a dramatic turnaround, a 62-win finish and a Spurs team that looked transformed from the one that stumbled through last year.
The final judgment will turn on how voters weigh pure wins against context, but Johnson has already done the part that matters most. He changed what the Spurs were supposed to be, and he did it fast.