5 NBA Coaches on the Hot Seat Heading into 2012-13 Season

NBA head coaches have one of the most difficult jobs in all of professional sports.

Unless their name is Phil Jackson or Gregg Popovich they receive very little credit when their team wins, while receiving an inordinate amount of the blame when their team loses.

If you don't believe me, just look at Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra's predecessor, Stan Van Gundy.

The following slides contain the five NBA coaches I believe will have the hottest seats to sit on when the 2012-13 NBA season begins.

Erik Spoelstra

Coach Spoelstra will always be on the hot seat until he wins his first NBA title, period.

Such became the lot in life of Spoelstra the day that Miami Heat president Pat Riley signed LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh to their contracts.

There is even a distinct possibility that even if Spoelstra leads the Heat to a title, he will remain on the hot seat and the first time that the Heat start to drop—to what the majority of talking heads feel is the third-best team in the Eastern Conference—that coach Spoelstra could be fired.

Such is both the blessing and the curse of being the head coach for the Miami Heat.

The Heat are considered a modern-day dynasty with multiple guaranteed titles to come (by many of their fans), an absolute juggernaut (by many opposing coaches) and the most gifted team in NBA history (by many players).

To coach such a team is to have the responsibility of winning not one, not two, not three but an NBA title each and every year that the team’s Big Three stays healthy.

Mike Brown

Like Coach Spoelstra of the Miami Heat, Lakers coach Mike Brown is expected to win and win big.

If Brown fails to do so, it is almost a certainty that he will be fired long before his current contract runs out.

The Los Angeles Lakers owners, front office and fanbase are quite possibly the most impatient and demanding in all of professional sports.

Couple this understanding with the fact that team superstar and greatest Laker in history, Kobe Bryant, is perhaps even more impatient than anyone and Coach Brown finds himself in a very difficult situation with extremely high expectations.

Had the Lakers been swept by the Thunder in this season's playoffs, I honestly believe that Mike Brown would have been fired on the spot, but the competitiveness of the series and especially the Game 3 victory allowed him to save his job. 

However, if the Lakers fail to at least reach the conference finals next season, I don't believe Brown will be so lucky.

Vinny Del Negro

Los Angeles Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro is in a precarious situation indeed.

One would think that Del Negro would be applauded by the Clippers ownership and fanbase for leading the team to the playoffs for the first time since 2006.

However, such is not the case.

It seems that once the Clippers acquired superstar point guard Chris Paul from the New Orleans Hornets and paired him with high-flying phenomenon Blake Griffin, expectations went through the roof and an NBA title was the expected goal.

Such expectations were extremely unrealistic, but realism isn't a strong suit for a historically tortured fanbase like that of the Clippers.

In fact, I believe that there is a distinct possibility that Vinny Del Negro could actually be fired before the start of next season if either former Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy or former Jazz and Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan express interest in running the Clippers this offseason.

Lionel Hollins

Lionel Hollins has done a magnificent job as head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies.

He has changed the culture in Memphis, led them to within one game of the Western Conference finals and did so without the aid of team superstar Rudy Gay.

So what's the problem and why would Coach Hollins be on the hot seat?

The answer to the  question is simple: because he accomplished all of that during the 2010-11 season and not the 2011-12 season.

The NBA, like nearly all professional sports leagues, is most definitely a “what have you done for me lately” sort of league. The fact of the matter is that Coach Hollins led the Grizzlies to a disappointing first-round playoff exit at the hands of the upstart Los Angeles Clippers who just happened to be led by two injured stars.

That is the sort of team performance that can lead to a coach being unjustly fired.

I do believe that Hollins' job is safe at the moment, but if the Grizzlies happen to be struggling come next season’s All-Star break, I would not be surprised to see Hollins fired.

In fact, such struggles may well be expected for the Grizzlies next season. Their team financial situation does not look good and many believe they will need to let O.J. Mayo sign elsewhere in free agency as they simply don’t have the funds needed to pay him when so much cap space is already tied up in Memphis’ own “Big 3” of Rudy Gay, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol.

Rick Adelman

Rick Adelman is a fantastic basketball coach.

Adelman led the Portland Trail Blazers to three Western Conference finals and two NBA Finals appearances in his first three full seasons as a head coach. He took the Sacramento Kings to the playoffs in all eight of his seasons coaching the team, including getting within one game of the NBA Finals in 2002. He then led the Houston Rockets to the playoffs in his first two seasons as their coach.

Last season as the head coach of the young Minnesota Timberwolves, Adelman had the team in serious playoff contention until starting point guard and rookie sensation Ricky Rubio went down with a season-ending knee injury.

Missing the playoffs was a blow to the team’s ownership and fanbase but one that was rather expected once Rubio was injured.

Next season expectations will be much higher for the Timberwolves franchise.

I believe that if the Timberwolves are not firmly in the top eight spots of the Western Conference by next season’s All-Star break, Adelman will indeed be fired.

It’s playoffs or bust for the talented young Timberwolves in 2013!