5 Coaches Next Up on the NBA Hot Seat
The NBA schedule might run like a marathon, but coaching moves can still come at the speed of a world-class sprinter.
Hot seats don't have to be noticeably warm to the touch before being engulfed in uncontrollable flames. Just ask Michael Malone.
When he pushed the Sacramento Kings out to a 5-1 start, he seemed to be lining himself up as a dark-horse candidate in the Coach of the Year race. But only 18 games later, he's no longer a coach. The Kings dropped eight of their last 10 games—nine of which they played without DeMarcus Cousins (illness)—and Malone was fired Sunday night, as Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
Relationships can dissolve that quickly in the world of professional sports.
History says no coach should feel too comfortable with his position, although some can certainly relax more than others. The five who appear on this list may not get as quick a hook as Malone's, but unmet expectations could still send them to the unemployment line.
Steve Clifford, Charlotte Hornets
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Steve Clifford could not have scripted a better start to his NBA head coaching career.
A former assistant of both Van Gundy brothers, Clifford engineered a 43-win campaign during his first stint in the prime sideline seat. Bolstered by the league's sixth-best defense, the then-Charlotte Bobcats snapped a three-year playoff drought. Clifford had the fourth-most support from the Coach of the Year voters.
With Charlotte buzzing this summer over the return of the Hornets nickname and the arrival of prized free agent Lance Stephenson, the franchise was expecting another significant step forward. But Clifford's sequel has been nothing like the original.
At 6-17, his Hornets are already buried near the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings. Charlotte holds bottom-third efficiency marks on both sides of the ball, so any hope of recovery looks slim, even this early in the year. Stephenson has been a major disappointment (38.9 percent shooting), and no one has stepped up to consistently ease the burden carried by Al Jefferson (team-high 28.0 usage percentage).
All of that being said, Clifford's contract could still keep him off the chopping block. Sources told ESPN.com's Marc Stein that Charlotte's appearance in the postseason last season "automatically triggered" the Hornets to pick up the third-year team option on Clifford's deal.
The franchise will have to determine whether it will decide Clifford's fate based on money or merit. The way it looks now, those factors could send the Hornets toward two entirely different outcomes.
Lionel Hollins, Brooklyn Nets
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There's an "Everything Must Go" sign hanging outside the Barclays Center, but the Brooklyn Nets insist they aren't having a fire sale.
After learning that a nearly $200 million roster could not buy a championship last season, the Nets have reportedly tossed the idea around of shedding some salary. Sources told ESPN.com's Stein and Ohm Youngmisuk that Brooklyn has "begun reaching out to teams to let them know that former All-Stars Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Joe Johnson are available via trade."
Those three players alone will pull in nearly $59 million this season, per HoopsHype. And if Lopez exercises his $16.7 player option for next year, that total figure will climb to nearly $63 million for the 2015-16 campaign. Not one of these players, by the way, has a player efficiency rating above 17.7.
At best, Brooklyn would be selling these players at a severe discount. Nets general manger Billy King claimed his team was "absolutely not" having a clearance sale, per Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News, but even the executive admitted, "We haven't (played) like we expected to play."
And that's putting it lightly. In the first season under head coach Lionel Hollins, the Nets are a forgettable 10-12. They are 1-11 against teams with a winning percentage of .500 or better. Their minus-2.1 net efficiency rating sits on the low end of mediocrity (18th overall).
This core, remember, was assembled to contend for a title. Drastic measures are often taken when expectations are missed by an almost comical margin. Maybe that means taking an enormous loss in a trade to move one of the Big Three.
Or, it might entail Hollins taking the fall for a mess someone else created. Changes seem like they are coming quickly to Brooklyn, and no one should feel safe.
Kevin McHale, Houston Rockets
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The following statements sound contradictory: Kevin McHale deserves some Coach of the Year support for what he has done with the depleted Houston Rockets. McHale's days in Houston could be numbered.
As former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl (and others) can attest, those two items don't have to be mutually exclusive.
With a major assist from full-fledged MVP candidate James Harden, McHale has kept the Rockets (18-5) near the top of the crowded Western Conference standings. And he has done so despite having three of his starters—Patrick Beverley, Dwight Howard and Terrence Jones—available for less than half of the team's games.
After riding their high-powered offense to 54 wins last season, the Rockets have relied on their second-ranked defense to get them on pace for 64 victories this year. Successfully navigating such a substantial philosophical shift would be wildly impressive even without the injuries.
But as the coach of an NBA elite, McHale won't be measured by his regular-season performance. The Rockets are hoping to have the type of long playoff run he has yet to engineer during his three-plus-year run in Houston.
And they need to see those results now. The Rockets picked up their 2014-15 team option on McHale but did not commit to anything further.
The coach could do himself a lot of favors by helping his team secure one of the West's best playoff seeds. But unless the Rockets are able to do something with that position, it may not help McHale stick around for the long haul in Houston.
Jacque Vaughn, Orlando Magic
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More than two years removed from radically reshaping their organization with the trade of Dwight Howard, the Orlando Magic are ready to see progress on their post-Superman rebuild.
General manager Rob Hennigan said as much before the season started, but his actions spoke even louder than his words.
If the Magic—who went 43-121 during Jacque Vaughn's first two years on the job—were not interested in improvement, they would not have thrown a four-year, $32 million deal at 31-year-old Channing Frye. They wouldn't have saved a spot for 31-year-old Ben Gordon, let alone one that came with a two-year, $9 million contract.
That's why Vaughn has seemed to approach this year as a make-or-break season, despite the fact that his 2015-16 option was picked up in May. Vaughn has kept the kid gloves on promising rookie Elfrid Payton (24.6 minutes) while giving Gordon (15.9) and Willie Green (15.6) more significant roles than anyone could have imagined. Developing 21-year-old Maurice Harkless has spent most of his time tethered to the bench, averaging just 17.8 minutes in the 13 games he's played.
It's hard to gauge how much heat Vaughn is feeling. The Magic (10-16) are showing some signs of life, but the front office may have set the bar much higher than simply having a pulse.
The Magic may have considered Vaughn the right coach to lead them through this rebuild, but that doesn't mean he's the right guy to lead them out of it. He has to prove that this franchise has yet to see just how far he can take it.
Monty Williams, New Orleans Pelicans
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For New Orleans Pelicans coach Monty Williams, having a soaring star like third-year phenom Anthony Davis is a blessing and a curse.
It's an unbelievable luxury to build a game plan around a two-way force who dominates the game in nearly every facet. If the season ended today, Davis would have top-10 rankings in scoring (24.3, fourth), rebounding (10.2, ninth), steals (1.9, seventh) and blocks (2.7, first)—and the highest player efficiency rating ever (33.0) of any player to have averaged at least 20 minutes and made 20-plus appearances.
But the Pelicans know how good Davis is. They've had a feeling this was coming for a while. That's why this franchise has traded future assets for present assistance: the cap space sacrificed for Eric Gordon, Ryan Anderson and Tyreke Evans, the draft picks shipped out for Jrue Holiday and Omer Asik.
Clearly, New Orleans is looking to get Davis some playoff exposure early in his career. The problem is, this team is problematically shallow and plays in the Western Conference. The Pelicans could hit their ceiling—or something close to it, at least—and still come down on the wrong side of the postseason picture.
Between Davis and the other recognizable players, the Pelicans can easily fashion themselves as playoff contenders. That puts major pressure on Williams to transform this team into precisely that.
"If the Pelicans finally make a real run at a playoff spot, Williams can pitch it as a third straight year of slow but steady progress. However, if the Pelicans fall out of the hunt early again, Williams will be looking at a fourth straight season of irrelevance," wrote Sports Illustrated's Ben Golliver. "... The time is now for Williams...to oversee a winner or face the consequences."
Davis will either be Williams' key to a playoff run or his ticket out of town. While Williams' contract runs through next season, he should know his fate by the end of this one—and hopefully not sooner.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
