Heading into the off season there were six teams in need of a new head coach. With the Toronto Raptors recently hiring Darko Rajakovic, all vacant positions have been filled.
In this article we will be grading the newest hires and looking down the road as to who may be on the hot seat around the league next season.
Detroit Pistons, Monty Williams: B
This was the most eye popping hire of all off season hires. Williams signed a 6 year, 78.5 million dollar contract, making him the highest paid coach in the league. Monty is a former NBA coach of the year and is just two years removed from his first finals appearance as a head coach who now finds himself in a team that finished with the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
Detroit has plenty of young talent and is on the come-up of their rebuild. With all that being said, I have this hire as a B for both Monty and Detroit. Don’t get me wrong I understand why Monty took this job, I mean look at the money, however, this is a crummy Detroit team. Detroit, on the other hand, overpays for a coach who has struggled to keep a locker room intact in his few seasons as a head coach.
Houston Rockets, Ime Udoka: B-
Just as Monty struggled to keep Phoenix’s locker room intact, former Rockets head coach, Stephen Silas, did too with this young Houston team. That will be the task for Udoka who just last year in his first season as head coach took a shallow Celtics roster to the NBA Finals.
But Udoka was let go for off the court issues after multiple violations of team policy, something that helped pull his name from multiple coaching vacancies. That is one of the biggest reasons this grade is not any higher. Houston is in desperate need of a coach who can be a role model to this young roster and propel them to some sort of competitiveness, I’m not confident Ime is that.
Milwaukee Bucks, Adrian Griffin: A+
This is my favorite hire of the off-season without a doubt. I have been screaming from the rooftops for Griffin to get hired and Toronto missed out big time by not promoting this guy. Griffin has been an NBA assistant since first joining the Milwaukee Bucks in 2008.
He has coached under two coach of the year winners and that is no coincidence. He won an NBA championship with Toronto in 2019 and was praised for his defensive coaching adjustments along their way to a championship. Griffin brings a gritty-defensive mindset to a roster in need of a shakeup. I expect to see the Bucks back in the ECF next year.
Philadelphia 76ers, Nick Nurse: A-
Nurse is a former coach of the year who’s time simply just ran out in Toronto. However, this is a hire that comes with time for Philly. I don’t expect the 76ers to improve from their results with the current roster. If the roster is changed, which I expect it to be, I could see this being an A+ hire for the 76ers.
Doc was one of the many problems in Philly and his horrendous in-game coaching adjustments were a part of that. But this roster needs some retooling and I’m not convinced Embiid is the star you want to lead this team. He needs to be the 2 in the 1-2 punch, which is why no matter who he has been paired with, he crumbles on the biggest stage.
At the end of the day, Nurse brings in a new mindset to Philly where the Philly faithful can rest knowing Doc will never have another temper tantrum on a Philadelphia bench.
Phoenix Suns, Frank Vogel: C
I’m not sure about this hire. In my mind when this hire was announced, a lot of questions were raised. I get it though, Vogel is a championship winning coach who can fix the defensive flaws of Phoenix but was firing Monty the right choice?
That’s where this hire is truly getting its grade from. I understand that Monty underperformed since his finals appearance but I chalk that up to roster retools and injuries. Vogel is pretty much a pretty (but not so much) face for this job and I expect James Jones, GM of the Phoenix Suns, to build this roster around the dynamic duo of Kevin Durant and Devin Booker. Bye Bye Chris Paul! Bye Bye Deandre Ayton!
Toronto Raptors, Darko Rajakovic: D
Who?! You, like many people around the league, may have exclaimed that when this news broke. But don’t be fooled, Rajakovic has the experience and has been coaching professionally since 2009, spending many years as an assistant coach of three different teams.
Yet this is a puzzling hire for a team that is destined for their most interesting offseason in franchise history. What direction does this hire steer the Raptors in? Are they waving the white flag? This hire isn’t necessarily a bad one, it just is borderline worthy of a failing grade knowing that an assistant coach on last year’s roster was more than capable of grabbing the reins of this team.
Summing it up…
Looking ahead to the rest of the league, it is time to take a look at the coaches who are on the hot seat. Some of the biggest names around the league include Billy Donovan, Joe Mazzulla and Jason Kidd. I wouldn’t be surprised to see any of these three fired by the end of next year. These three in particular have the ideal rosters to make deep playoff runs but have struggled to do so in their recent years.
Some other names that find themselves on the hot seat are Tom Thibodeau, Willie Green, Taylor Jenkins and Tyronn Lue. To be completely realistic there are only about eight coaches around the league who I would be thoroughly surprised to see fired. These names are just some of the biggest who could be in need of a new home next summer.
