5 Best Head Coaching Jobs in the NBA

Coaches don’t often get their due in the NBA—just ask embattled Orlando Magic guru Stan Van Gundy. Though, in a compressed campaign like the current 66-game season, their impact is felt more than ever, on both ends of the spectrum. Under circumstances like these, in which travel schedules are particularly hectic and practice time is as precious as platinum, the coach’s role as an organizational leader and motivator of men (more so than a mastermind of X’s and O’s) becomes all the more vital to a team’s efforts to not only withstand the grind, but also conquer it.

Some, like Mike Brown of the Los Angeles Lakers and Vinny Del Negro of the Los Angeles Clippers, have come under fire amidst burdensome expectations, despite their teams standing on solid postseason footing. Even their successes are often examined as failures, if only because the lights shine brighter on their every move.  

Others, like Erik Spoelstra of the Miami Heat and Scott Brooks of the Oklahoma City Thunder, have done precisely what they’ve been asked and expected to do—that is, steward talented teams that were already expected to contend. They deserve consideration for leading presumed contenders to where they’re “supposed” to be.

And then there are these five men, whose on-the-job performances have helped their respective teams turn the lemons of a tumultuous season into playoff-caliber (and, in some cases, championship-caliber)  lemonade.

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