Ranking Available NBA Head Coaches After Fizdale Hiring, Stan Van Gundy Firing
The NBA coaching carousel is almost spinning off its axis.
The Detroit Pistons are moving on from Stan Van Gundy. The Charlotte Hornets are moving forward with James Borrego, as ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported.
But four coaching seats remain vacant with the Pistons, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks all in the market. It's possible even more open up, with TSN's Josh Lewenberg reporting the Toronto Raptors are "strongly leaning toward" letting go of Dwane Casey.
Luckily, there's no shortage of potential candidates. And that's true regardless of if these clubs are hoping to hire someone with head-coaching experience or an up-and-comer who has honed his or her craft in the assistant and/or G League ranks.
With more deserving applicants than openings, the field must be broken down by each potential coach's desirability.
That's where we come in. We have assessed the candidate pool based on credentials, past performance, upside and versatility to rank the nine best coaching options on the market.
Honorable Mentions
1 of 10
David Blatt
A decorated coach oversees, Blatt spent one-and-a-half seasons at the helm of the Cleveland Cavaliers. But the job he held wasn't the same for which he'd applied. He joined the franchise in June 2014, less than a month before LeBron James returned to Northeast Ohio and transformed the team from a patient rebuilder into one instantly graded on the championship-or-bust scale.
Blatt was gone after 123 games—83 of them wins—and returned to Europe. He just coached Turkish team Darussafaka Istanbul to the EuroCup championship. But in a superstar-driven league, his inability to connect with James might be viewed by NBA front offices as a fatal flaw.
Mike Brown
Brown's first NBA head coaching gig offered the blessing and curse of overseeing LeBron. While Brown won an Eastern Conference championship and 66.3 percent of his games during his first tenure with the Cavaliers, it was never easy to tell how much of that success was his doing and how much was having James on the roster.
Brown has had two misfires since—he lasted only a season and five games with the Los Angeles Lakers and one campaign back with the Cavs—but has rebounded nicely on Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors. Brown probably deserves another shot to the run the show, but his name lacks excitement.
Jerry Stackhouse
The only worrisome part of Stackhouse's track record is its lack of longevity. He only capped his playing career in 2013 and first joined an NBA coaching staff in 2015.
That said, his stock has been ascending ever since. During two seasons as head coach of the G League Raptors 905, Stackhouse has steered them to a pair of G League Finals appearances and one championship. He was named G League Coach of the Year in 2016-17, so it's possible a big league club could overlook this defense-minded coach's relatively short resume.
Frank Vogel
Vogel's first dismissal—from the Indiana Pacers in 2016—was a head-scratcher borne out of then-team president Larry Bird's desire for "a new voice." Vogel's most recent ouster—from the Orlando Magic in April—was much more predictable after his two-year run featured just 54 wins against 110 losses.
Granted, Vogel wasn't dealt the easiest hand, as the Magic were anxious to snap their post-Dwight Howard playoff drought but hadn't assembled a playoff-caliber team. Still, he's likely stained in the short term by coaching a club that didn't distinguish itself at either end and failed to elevate any of its young players to star levels.
Monty Williams
Williams has some interesting footnotes on his coaching resume, like leading New Orleans on its last playoff trip with Chris Paul and first postseason voyage with Anthony Davis. Williams also bookended his five-year tenure in the Big Easy with winning seasons, and after his firing in 2015, he landed on his feet first as an assistant in Oklahoma City and later as a front-office member in San Antonio.
League sources told Gery Woelfel of the Racine Journal Times that Williams is one of the front-runners in Milwaukee. That would give him another transcendent talent to work with (Giannis Antetokounmpo), surely along with the expectation of doing more. Over five seasons in New Orleans, Williams only won 43.9 percent of his games and went 2-8 over his two playoff trips.
Jay Wright
Wright has captured two of the last three NCAA championships by coaching an NBA-friendly small-ball style and developing several players into big league prospects. All of that interests NBA executives, sources told NBC Sports' Kurt Helin.
The problem is an NBA leap would require leaving the Villanova Wildcats behind. And, for now at least, it doesn't sound like Wright is ready to go.
"The whole thing is, to take a new challenge you have to give up what you have," Wright told The Athletic's Dana O'Neil. "I don't want to give up what I have. Would I like to coach in the NBA? Yes. But I have to give this up in order to do that, and I don't see that happening."
9. Becky Hammon
2 of 10
Becky Hammon is ahead of schedule.
In 2014, she became the Association's first female, full-time assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs. She's pioneering again this summer as her interview for the Milwaukee Bucks opening will also be the first of its kind, per ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
Hammon doesn't have the most experience—she did, however, coach the Spurs to a summer league title in 2015—but makes up for it with one of the league's most impressive letters of recommendation.
"Becky can do anything she wants," Gregg Popovich said in March, per Jeff McDonald of the San Antonio Express-News. "She's earned the respect of everybody in our program, top to bottom. I really respect her knowledge and her way of doing things. So whatever she wants to do in her future, she's a natural. She's got it all."
Before crossing over into coaching, Hammon had a decorated playing career. She was a three-time All-American at Colorado State, then a six-time All-Star during her 16-year WNBA career. Her 5,841 career points rank eighth all-time among WNBA scorers.
8. Steve Clifford
3 of 10
A longtime disciple of the Van Gundy brothers, Steve Clifford did more right than wrong over five seasons as head coach of the Charlotte Bobcats-turned-Hornets.
He snapped a three-year playoff drought during his first season at the helm. Two campaigns later, he gave the Hornets their first postseason victory in 14 years and pushed the third-seeded Miami Heat to all seven games in the 2016 first round.
Those successes are part of what clubs can cling to if they have interest in Clifford now, as The Ringer's Danny Chau wrote:
"Franchises can do much worse than a coach who has a reputation of building strong bonds with his players and can make even the most lackluster rosters in the NBA competent defensively. From 2013-14 to 2015-16, Charlotte was a top-10 defense despite relying on players like an aging Al Jefferson and a young Cody Zeller as defensive anchors around the rim."
7. Jeff Van Gundy
4 of 10
It's easy to draw parallels between the career paths of Jeff Van Gundy and Jon Gruden. Both were highly successful coaches in their fields—Van Gundy an NBA finalist, Gruden a Super Bowl champ—who mirrored that success in the broadcast booth.
Gruden, who last coached in 2008, finally left his analyst gig this offseason when the Oakland Raiders lured him back with a 10-year, $100 million pact. Van Gundy wouldn't mind seeing their careers follow the same route once again.
"If anybody wants to offer me $100 million to coach, you can publish my phone number and have them call me," Van Gundy told the Houston Chronicle in January.
Like Gruden, JVG's time away from coaching has likely increased his intrigue. He was fired by the Houston Rockets in May 2007 and joined ESPN's broadcast crew shortly thereafter. Staying in the spotlight has probably helped his appeal, and because he's waited this long to make his coaching return, he'd make a media splash in whichever market he landed.
He's a good coach with a particular penchant for overseeing dominant defenses. The Houston Rockets never finished worse than sixth during his four seasons behind the wheel, while the New York Knicks did the same over his five full seasons there. That said, he hasn't led an NBA team in more than a decade, and his greatest previous successes involved the type of interior bigs seldom seen anymore (Patrick Ewing and Yao Ming).
Van Gundy's Rockets were slow and forgettable on offense—even with unique talents like Yao and Tracy McGrady together for the final three seasons. Van Gundy might have coached to their strengths, but that meant a lot of ball-pounding on Yao's post-ups or McGrady's isolations. Van Gundy must prove he can modernize, a task perhaps started through his work with USA Basketball in 2019 World Cup qualifying.
6. David Vanterpool
5 of 10
The Portland Trail Blazers are far from standouts. They've suffered three first-round exits in four years. So if you've overlooked the work of assistant coach David Vanterpool, you'd be excused for it.
But executives aren't making the same mistake. Rather, they're giving a long look at the 45-year-old who starred at St. Bonaventure once upon a time and enjoyed a 22-game cup of coffee with the Washington Wizards in 2001.
As Chris Mannix reported for Yahoo Sports, some of Portland's premier assets have been developed under Vanterpool's watch:
"In Portland, Vanterpool has worked closely with Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum—'He has done a remarkable job with our guards,' [Blazers coach Terry] Stotts told Yahoo Sports—and is the de facto defensive coordinator on Stotts' staff, leading a defense that ranks in the top 10 this season. Said Stotts: 'He really thinks the game like a head coach.'"
Lillard and McCollum have both averaged 20-plus points each of the last three seasons. Portland's defensive improvement this season was spectacular in jumping from 21st in efficiency into a tie for eighth. If Vanterpool deserves credit for both developments, it's no surprise his coaching stock is surging.
Portland's backcourt production and defensive development are more tangible triumphs than one can find on Hammon's regular-season resume. They're also more exciting than anything that happened under Clifford's watch in Charlotte the past couple of seasons and speak to an upside that's more invigorating than wondering whether Van Gundy has still got it after a decade away.
5. Ettore Messina
6 of 10
Ettore Messina was a coaching legend before he ever oversaw a second of NBA action. By the time the San Antonio Spurs lured him stateside in 2014, he'd already won four Euroleague titles and twice been named Euroleague coach of the year.
His appeal has only grown since. He not only spent the past four years learning directly under Popovich, Messina stepped in to coach the Spurs through the final three games of the opening round following the passing of Popovich's wife, Erin. San Antonio won Game 4 and played a superior Golden State team tight again in game 5.
"He handled it very well, with great composure," Pau Gasol said, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News. "He handled the adversity and also the opportunity really well. He sent the right message to the team coaching the right way. He was always sharp and in control of the situation."
Messina coaches with Popovich-ian principles of spacing and ball movement. The fact Messina already has some hands-on NBA training diminishes the chances that he experiences the same misfortune as David Blatt.
4. Stephen Silas
7 of 10
If people are born to coach, Stephen Silas is the shining example.
He's the son of NBA lifer Paul Silas, who played in the league from 1964 to 1980 and then coached almost straight through from 1980 to 2012. Stephen got his first NBA gig from his father, working as a scout and later as an assistant in Charlotte, and he was assistant under his father with New Orleans (when the Hornets moved) and Cleveland as well.
The younger Silas upped his coaching profile once he branched out on his own and joined Don Nelson's staff with the Golden State Warriors. Near the end of Silas' four-plus-year stint there, he worked with Stephen Curry and helped establish his elaborate pregame routine. Silas returned to Charlotte in 2010 to work with his father again and later served as Clifford's lead assistant.
Silas, who also worked with LeBron James in Cleveland, counts his two highest-profile students among his biggest supporters.
"Coach Silas is a big part of who I am today," Curry said, per Nubyjas Wilborn for Sporting News. "Getting to work with him was beneficial for me. It's only a matter of time before he gets a gig. Really, he should probably already have one."
James added that "when he does get on, it'll be good for the league," per Wilborn.
Silas is nearing two decades as an NBA assistant and served as the Hornets' interim head coach for just over a month this past season while Clifford stepped away for health reasons. Silas could be the most NBA-ready candidate among the assistants who have never held the head-coaching spot. He was a finalist for the Houston Rockets job that went to Mike D'Antoni in 2016 and is now on the Hawks' short list, per Michael Cunningham of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
3. Nick Nurse
8 of 10
There are a couple things to know about Nick Nurse that will explain why he's our second-ranked coach and perhaps make an argument for him to be first.
Here's the first—the positive changes that brought the Toronto Raptors offense out of the dinosaur ages this season were heavily influenced by him. Even if the alterations don't extend the Raptors' postseason lives—sometimes LeBron just happens—there's obvious value in upping a contemporary club's pace, passing and perimeter shooting. It's the reason Nurse is even in Toronto.
"Change was the goal when the Raptors hired Nick Nurse, an offensive guru from the (then) D-League, in the summer of 2013," ESPN's Zach Lowe wrote. "Nurse came in for an interview, and on an office whiteboard drew the offense he envisioned: different starting points, reads, passes, options."
Four years later, the Raptors fully embraced Nurse's vision and had their most efficient offensive season in franchise history.
Which leads to the second part of our rationale—Nurse's name is buzzing like few others. Mannix recently polled NBA decision-makers about which assistant coaches without NBA or major college head-coaching experience they viewed as the top coaching prospects. Nurse was mentioned more than anyone.
The 50-year-old was once a player-coach in the British Basketball League and later became the then-D-League's first coach to lead two different teams to titles. His experience and ingenuity push him ahead of other assistants and several former skippers, but our top two coaching candidates are in a class of their own.
2. Stan Van Gundy
9 of 10
Van Gundy's NBA head-coaching career stretches back more than a decade. He owns a .577 winning percentage—he never had a losing campaign before arriving in Detroit—a .527 mark in the postseason and an Eastern Conference championship (Orlando, 2009).
"I always thought he was a great coach," Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said, per Jeff Zillgitt of USA Today. "He does offense. He does defense. ... As far as Xs and Os, understanding different teams, different schemes, his players, he's one of the best as far as knowing the basketball game and what it takes."
Versatility might be Van Gundy's greatest strength. He built powerhouses around Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O'Neal with the Miami Heat, then put a lethal four-out attack around Dwight Howard in Orlando. He never found a winning formula in Detroit, but the roster he inherited there was a mess.
Although the wound of his ouster is fresh, it hasn't dampened his enthusiasm for the profession.
"I'd like to coach in the right situation," Van Gundy told the Orlando Sentinel's Josh Robbins in a text message.
With few win-now gigs available, it's possible that situation doesn't exist this summer.
But his coaching track record speaks for itself. (His front-office resume speaks in a different tone, but that's not what we're analyzing.) If he had just a bit more recent success, he could make a convincing argument for our No. 1 spot.
1. Mike Budenholzer
10 of 10
Few coaching trees are viewed more favorably than Popovich's. Just ask the four Spurs assistants getting head-coaching interviews this summer—Hammon, Messina, James Borrego and vice president of basketball operations Monty Williams.
Mike Budenholzer, of course, isn't a Popovich assistant. But at one time, Budenholzer was the Popovich assistant, seemingly groomed as the heir apparent with a gig that began as video coordinator in 1994. Who knows, Budenholzer might still be in the Alamo City had the Atlanta Hawks not come calling in 2013 with a playoff-ready roster and another Popovich disciple running the front office (Danny Ferry).
Budenholzer was the NBA's Coach of the Year in 2014-15 after a 60-win season. He had a .567 winning percentage and three playoff series victories over his first four seasons with the Hawks, before they embarked on the rebuilding project that led to his exit. He also flashed some of Pop's shape-shifting ability, winning with the sixth-ranked offense in 2014-15 and second-best defense a year later.
Budenholzer consistently made the whole better than the sum of its parts, even while identifying the best ways to maximize those individual pieces.
"The thing that proved to be a hallmark of Budenholzer's time with the Hawks was his ability to develop and improve talent," Tim Bontemps wrote for the Washington Post. "That was the case year after year, as 'Hawks University' refined one player after another and took their games to a new level."
From production and pliability to untapped potential and creativity, Budenholzer offers the most complete coaching package of anyone on the market. He should have his pick of head-coaching gigs, whether he takes one now or waits for a better option to open later.
Unless otherwise noted, statistics used courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
