The NBA season is merely three weeks in. We have no real idea how the remainder of the long regular season is going to play out. Some had pegged the Cleveland Cavaliers as a dominant force back East. Through 10 games, LeBron James and Co. sit at 4-6.
Out west, the Dallas Mavericks have been embarrassingly bad in what promises to be the start of a long-term rebuild. What does this mean for head coach Rick Carlisle? Meanwhile, Alvin Gentry’s hold on the New Orleans Pelicans’ job could be tenuous right now.
It’s in this that we look at eight NBA head coaches that are already on the hot seat less than a month into the 2017-18 season.
Mike Budenholzer, Atlanta Hawks
In some ways, we have to give Budenholzer a pass. Atlanta lost Paul Millsap, Dwight Howard and Tim Hardaway Jr. in the offseason. That was 45 percent of the team’s scoring output from last season. Atlanta also moved on from former All-Stars Kyle Korver, Jeff Teague and Al Horford, all since the team’s 60-win 2014-15 campaign.
The idea of building around young guard Dennis Schroder might have been good in theory. But he’s an enigmatic figure within the organization, and this was always going to be a long-term rebuild.
There is one problem that we’re seeing in 2017-18. A lack of competitiveness. Following Monday’s loss to the Celtics, Atlanta is currently 2-9 on the season. Six of those nine losses have come by double digits. No matter where you stand in terms of experience, that’s not acceptable in today’s NBA. And while Budenholzer might have done well with a veteran-laden squad, it’s possible the Hawks’ brass believes another coach should lead the youthful rebuild.
Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat
We get it. We really do. Spoelstra is the second-longest tenured head coach in the NBA. He’s a darn good head coach. He’s led the Heat to four conference titles and two NBA championships in his 10 years with the team. That’s all fine and dandy. But the current variation of this Heat team simply isn’t working.
Miami might have taken care of business against a watered-down Clippers team on Sunday, but the team was then blown out by Golden State the following night. Sure losing to the defending champs isn’t necessarily a problem. That’s until we realize Miami is 4-6 on the season. This also comes after the organization spent a whopping $155 million to retain or add to its core in the offseason.
President Pat Riley might be a patient guy. He’s proven that Spoelstra is his man on the bench. But with a slow start to the season and nothing really clicking in South Beach, it’s possible Riley ends this long-term marriage after a decade together.
Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks
This is somewhat similar to Spoelstra in Miami. Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has shown loyalty to a coach in Carlisle who has led Dallas to the playoffs in seven of his first eight seasons with the team. Carlisle is highly regarded among the players, future Hall of Famer Dirk Nowtizki specifically.
That doesn’t change the fact that Dallas is now 1-10 on the season with a scoring differential of 10 points per game. Rookie Dennis Smith Jr. seems to be the only truly exciting player on the team with Dirk on the last legs of his career and the high-priced Harrison Barnes tapped out in regards of what he can do on the court.
As with Budenholzer and the Hawks, it’s quite possible that another head coach should lead the rebuild in Dallas. There’s many years of futility ahead for this team. Cuban knows that full well. A more youthful head coach could very well be the way to go.
Scott Brooks, Washington Wizards
At some point, things are just not going to work out for these Wizards. Three weeks into this season doesn’t tell us the entire story. And it would be foolish to believe it does. This has been a years long issue for general manager Ernie Grunfeld. In fact, he might be the first to go. Then again, he could use Brooks as the fall guy, much like what we saw with Randy Wittman in the past.
Washington currently finds itself at a pedestrian 5-4 on the season. The team is yielding north of 109 points per game. It has lost to both the Suns and Lakers thus far on the season. None of that is acceptable, especially after the Wizards doled out a max contract to Otto Porter Jr. and retained John Wall on a four-year, $170 million extension during the summer. Someone will have to pay the piper here soon.
Washington is too talented to be a mid-tier playoff team that doesn’t come close to contending for a conference title. If it’s not Grunfeld, Brooks might very well fail to last a full two seasons on the bench in D.C.
Alvin Gentry, New Orleans Pelicans
The good news here is that New Orleans has been much more competitive this season than the past two years. It enters this week’s action with a .500 record after combining to win 39 percent of its games over the past two seasons. Though, there’s definitely a lot of bad that comes with this.
Remember, Gentry took over a playoff team with the Pelicans back in 2015-16. He proceeded to lead the team to a 30-52 mark. That’s just not acceptable.
A former head coach in four different stops, Gentry has pretty much been on the hot seat his entire career with the Pelicans. With the talent this team possesses in the form of DeMarcus Cousins, Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday, continuing to see .500 as a positive likely won’t cut it for the brass in New Orleans.
Games against the Raptors (twice), Clippers, Thunder, Spurs and Warriors before the end of November could very well seal Gentry’s fate in New Orleans here soon.
Fred Hoiberg, Chicago Bulls
Remember when Bulls fans were super excited that the team brought on Hoiberg to replace Tom Thibodeau as head coach back in 2015-16? The thought process here was that Hoiberg and his college experience would act as a boon for the talented team. That has never come to fruition. In fact, Chicago saw a downtick in wins in each of Hoiberg’s first two seasons manning the bench.
Now in full-scale rebuilding mode, it’s been a disastrous start to the 2017-18 campaign for Chicago. We can talk about the Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis fight until we’re blue in the face. And in reality, it does speak to the current culture in the Windy City.
The issue here seems to be larger than that. Even after struggling in his first two seasons with the Bulls, most figured Hoiberg might be the man to lead this rebuild process. With drama enveloping the team and a 2-6 start to the season, it’s clear that might not be the case.
Quin Snyder, Utah Jazz
For someone that is highly regarded in NBA circles, Snyder has had very limited success as Utah’s head coach. He led the team to the playoffs just once in his first three seasons, and that ended in a four-game sweep against Golden State in the conference semifinals this past spring.
Now with Gordon Hayward in Boston, Utah finds itself stuck between a rebuild and some hope of acquiring a bottom seed in the Western Conference. It’s most definitely not a great mix for this squad. That came out in droves this past weekend when James Harden dropped an absurd 56 points in 20 minutes against Utah. This is the type of embarrassing performance that will cost a coach his job.
The Jazz now find themselves at 5-5 on the season and amongst a mediocre pack of bottom-end playoff contenders out west. Even without Hayward in the mix, that can’t be acceptable for a franchise that won 51 games last season.
Tyronn Lue, Cleveland Cavaliers
If you think this is crazy, ask David Blatt about being fired by Dan Gilbert after leading Cleveland to the NBA Finals. The parallels are pretty insane here.
A struggling start to the season mere months after dropping in the NBA Finals to Golden State. Continued questions about the long-term viability of the franchise and LeBron James’ future in Cleveland. Even more questions about the current cast of characters on the court and whether they fit in with that Lue does on the bench. Kyrie Irving might have said it best by throwing Lue under the bus following his exit from the Cavaliers.
“Brad (Stevens) fits perfectly in terms of that because he has an intellectual mind and is an intellectual human being,” Irving said, via Yahoo! Sports. “It was something I was unbelievably craving in terms of what I wanted for my career.”
Ouch. But in a sense, it makes sense. Has Lue been relying too much on otherworldly talent in Cleveland in the past? That is to say, James and Irving.
With a 4-6 mark and losses to the Nets, Knicks, Magic, Pelicans, Pacers and Hawks on the season, one has to wonder just how good of a coach Lue is. And really, it takes just one man (King James) to call a spade a spade in order for Cleveland to move on from its head coach. Lue’s security as the Cavaliers’ head coach has to be considered tenuous at best right now.