NBA Head Coaching Vacancies

Quinn and Griffin must be in line for HC jobs soon. If Nurse moved on he’d be a top target but might want a competing team. Would a lot of candidates hold fire until after the lottery to see who gains the chance to coach a 7ft 4ins French chap?

Stephen Silas hasn’t got the Rockets gelling despite players having good individual development, maybe he is best as a top Assistant as he has had a good career in that role so far. Dwayne Casey is in his mid 60’s now and has a FO job at Detroit so ithat looks fairly amicable. He has coached for 43 years and looks like the team feel they need a younger coach taking them forward . Being on the road so much for a guy aged 65 must be tiring and doing an FO role he can spend more time with his family as he said. But Detroit still have him around and his vast experience to draw on which will be useful with their young roster.

Bye bye Nick Nurse for Toronto now.

NIck will get another HC job soon enough with a title on his resume. Ime Udoka seems favourite to get Toronto job.

Toronto have a lot of players with player options this summer and come end of next season they won’t have that many contracts on the books so they can easily hit rebuild if they want to and look to regroup around Barnes and OG etc.

Siakam has one year left on his deal and could well be looking for a huge max deal next summer so if Raps want to cash in on him then this summer could be it.

I wonder if any teams would make a direct offer to a guy or say they are the preferred candidate whilst others are messing around doing multiple interviews.

No one looking at an NCAA guy yet

Detroit are going for a new guy to get the lead role so a fresh face as a HC in the NBA. I guess hell of a lot hinges on the draft lottery whether they get a chance to draft the second coming or not.

Griffin is a very experienced assistant and deserves a shot at being a HC. Plus he knows the Raptors franchise well so works if they look to continue to try and contend or look to rebuild.

The Raptors pretty much looking at all the likely people next in line for a top job or having another crack at one in the case of one or two. Do we see a first timer as more likely to mean they hit rebuild button?

Becky Hammon as the first female HC in NBA history would certainly be a high profile appointment but I do feel she will get a chance eventually so why not with Toronto.. It would be a risk and in some ways Becky taking over a more established and not a rebuilding team might be better for her when it comes to dealing with the guys. I’m sure she wouldn’t mince her words but with a younger less mature roster and possibly some young draft hot stots you wonder whether she might get some back chat etc. At the Spurs that would never have happened in her role as Pops was there and I’d imagine he’d have shot any disrespect towards Becky down.

I guess whether you look for someone with HC experience but outside of the NBA or maybe a 10 year plus highly rated NBA assistant/associate HC is an either or call.

Mike Budenholzer being out at the Bucks was ashock even after a first round exit. Talk is now are the team even looking at planning the rebuild as Giannis was clearly an fan of Budz. Bucks have Middleton with a big player option and would have to offer him a very good amount over say 3 years for him to decline that. Also Brook Lopez is coming off an all Defensive First Team season so will be looking for probably the last big contract of his career as he is 35 now. Jrue Holliday has a huge player option next summer when he will be 34. So the Bucks have a few big decisions to make.

The biggest will be if Giannis turns down a possible 2 or 3 year extension he is eligible for. He still has two guaranteed years on his deal and then a player option so is in no need to hurry to extend. But if the FA clock starts ticking down do the Bucks risk losing im for nothing in a couple of years time?

All the usual names have been linked with the Bucks top job, one I hadn’t seen mentioned before is Heat assistant Chris Quinn.

JJ moving into a HC role with no previous experience would be a big risk for the Raptors to give him the role above experienced assistants, former NBA HC’s or a top NCAA coach.

JJ is a good analyst on ESPN and always had a good basketball IQ when he played plus played under Coach K and Doc Rivers so would have learnt from some top coaches but giving an untried guy a top job is always a risk.

What part of the Steve Nash era made anyone think a guy can just walk into a head coaching gig and succeed? Joe Mazzulla has been an assistant at some level for a decade, and he looks about as over as head as Scotty Brooks or Vinny Del Negro on their worst days in these playoffs. I don’t get how people who work in the NBA don’t grasp how hard a job the head coach has. Mazzulla was forced in given the unique circumstances of Udoka’s firing, and maybe he can get learn from this playoff run. Maybe Redick can one day become a decent coach. There are good ones out there. The Raptors just fired one of the better ones. Why risk a total collapse if he is as ill-prepared as his resume would lead me to believe?

Do Detroit make an appointment before the Draft Lottery I wonder ?

If they did land top pick would other guys suddenly be interested ?

I agree with BTPH what has someone like JJ Reddick suddenly done to be in the coaching mix? I liked him as a player and he seems a good guy but I’ve never heard his name mentioned as a possible future coach before. Look at a HOF like Patrick Ewing who did the rounds as an assistant but never got a shot at a head job.

I can understand someone rolling the dice on a Steve Nash, Jason Kidd and Chauncy Billups as a potentially good coach but being a top player doesn’t mean you’ll be a good coach. If we take a couple of similar aged NBA veterans in PJ Tucker and CP3 a lot would say CP3 would be a much more natural fit as a coach. But I personally feel PJ might be a better candidate given his battle hardened, defensive based game.

JJ was just short of All Star class but had 15 years in the NBA and a stellar college career but to go to a head job with no experience is a big leap and would he be able to add his own assistants etc. I’ve no problem with former players going into coaching but ideally they have some experience as an assistant first or are on the teams as a veteran presence/mentor for last couple of years of their career say like Udonis Haslem was.

JJ may well become a great coach but if he has a great feel for the technical side of the game why hasn’t he been offered an assistant role yet unless he wanted to try media work first and detach himself from the NBA inner bubble to figure out what he wants to do.

I’d be interested to know how someone can decide whether a player would be a better coach or a front office person for example Elton Brand like JJ another Duke blue chip guy who conducted himself with great class has been a good GM for the 76ers but I never heard his name mentioned as a possible coach.

Monty Williams gone from the Suns. Will all these vacancies be filled by first timers or one of the proven even title winng HCs now available?

Can a team have fired a coach and still be paying him so he cannot take another job or once he is fired even if he is still being paid by another team he is free to take on any other role or does aclean break payout have to have been agreed.

Also is it leave rules a current NBA HC from another team could not be approached to consider a vacant role or declare interest in it?