Whispers about a potential coaching change have followed Luke Walton around for nearly the entire 2018/19 campaign, and while the Lakers have insisted both publicly and privately that his job is safe for the rest of the season, there’s no guarantee he’ll keep it beyond that.
With just 22 games left in their season, the 29-31 Lakers are currently on the outside of the playoff picture, trailing the eighth-seeded Spurs by three games. It will take an impressive run over the next month and a half to earn a playoff spot. If the Lakers can’t make that type of run, it wouldn’t be shocking to see the team move on from Walton in the offseason. However, he’s not the only NBA head coach who might be on the hot seat in the coming weeks or months.
As Dan Feldman of NBC Sports relays, John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 has suggested that Igor Kokoskov‘s seat in Phoenix is getting hot. The Suns picked up a win on Monday night to snap their 17-game losing streak, but if the Suns had been mulling a change, a single victory is unlikely to change their minds. It’s Kokoskov’s first year in Phoenix, but the general manager who hired him – Ryan McDonough – is no longer in the front office, so the new management group might want to bring in its own coach this spring.
Elsewhere in the Western Conference, Alvin Gentry finds himself in a similar spot to Kokoskov. The GM who hired him has recently been fired, and his team hasn’t met expectations in 2018/19. On the other hand, Gentry has had to deal with unusual circumstances, including an Anthony Davis trade request, and he still has his team playing hard. He’s reportedly well-liked by management and ownership, so the Pelicans may stick with him beyond this season.
Ryan Saunders (Timberwolves), Larry Drew (Cavaliers), and Jim Boylen (Bulls) took over for recently-fired head coaches during the season, and while the odds are against all three keeping their jobs in 2019/20, they’ve all gotten pretty good reviews so far. It wouldn’t be shocking to see any combination of the three return for next season.
Scott Brooks‘ Wizards have underperformed in 2018/19. The club has insisted all year that he’s not on the hot seat, but his job security appears more tenuous than many of his fellow lottery-bound coaches, who either have a track record of success (like Rick Carlisle) or were recently hired (such as David Fizdale, J.B. Bickerstaff, and Lloyd Pierce).
With the home stretch of the ’18/19 season approaching, we want to know which teams you expect to make a coaching change this spring. Which coaches are in the most danger? Will we see plenty of turnover once the season ends, like we did a year ago, or will it be a fairly quiet spring for head coaching turnover?
Head to the comment section below to weigh in!
jim boylen was given a contract extension jan 2019 should’ve of been left off the list
He was given an extra year (for 2019/20) at a very modest salary. All indications are that he’ll stick around, but it’d be very easy to replace him if they want to. Almost everyone mentioned here is technically under contract for next season.
public backing by the owner during a rebuild process isn’t close to a hot seat situation – vegas prolly has lines, smart money say he’s not in the bottom third of potential candidates
I don’t think public backing ever means much, happens all the time to coaches who immediately get fired after the season. BUT the bulls are cheap, and if he’s owed any money he probably stays.
There was also a lot of unrest between coach and his players, that kind of sentiment doesn’t fade quickly. I would say he is in the top five of coaches sitting in hot seats. Chicago is also known for fuelling backing someone right up to the monemt they get rid of them.
The way NBA firings have gone the past few years, I think the ones to look at will be the playoff teams making quick exits. I think a couple of possibilities would be Billy Donovan of the Thunder or James Borrego of the Hornets. Personally I don’t think either should be fired, but the way the NBA has worked I think they might.
Borrego is probably lucky that Charlotte was oddly inactive at the trade deadline, and that Kaminsky remains on ice. He could easily succeed in a limited way for another team, just not in a Spurs kind of way. (Borrego came from the Spurs.) CHA has 4 decent centers but may draft another one.
Taking Kaminsky 9th overall instead of trading that pick to the Celtics for 4 1st rounders so Ainge could take Winslow must hurt for their fans. One of the picks was an unprotected BK pick. They had recently drafted Zeller then they draft Frank. Trade two 2nds for Hernangomez when they also had Dwight Howard. Now Biyombo in the mix and they’re gonna draft another center?
Borrego is not happy with any of them… prob bc none are in the Spurs mold.
Only 2 are contracted for next year, and Zeller should be tradeable, PER 18, plus numbers. Not really a force though and he never gets written about!
Had to check my statement… These are perfect:
link to msn.com
link to m.youtube.com
I don’t know much about Kokoskov, but wasn’t he an assistant coach in the NBA who a lot of people liked and respected?
Maybe he could do better if the front office could put a decent team together. Instead of having million bigs and SF. How about actually getting a PG
It’s a lot different being a very respected assistant riding someone else’s coattails, then taking the reigns of your own team. It just doesn’t work out the way it was imagined sometimes.
I like the way Kokosov barks (though that may not endear him to the players). I think that may be the Euro ‘style’ of in-game communication.
Still, it seems the Suns have been intentionally tanking, due to their continuing PG problem, so the FO can’t blame him too much for the W-L record. Can they?
This scream tank if your badly not trying to improve the biggest weakness on the team
I don’t want luke to be fired but if the Lakers want to be Cavs 2.0 they will let LeBron run things. Luke not that bad of a coach he just has alot going against him.
I agree he shouldn’t be fired. I think he deserves a shot at coaching the team once more. This year was hard with the only additions besides Lebron being a bunch of one year guys. Spolstra wasn’t liked by Lebron at first and it was Pat Riley standing strong saying he was the guy for things to change. Luke could be like that too. Just call this year a mulligan.
I don’t know about that. It’s not just LeBron, Luke just hasn’t been great since he came to the Lakers.
I wish Blatt would return to the NBA, I was a fan of his in Cleveland before LeBron helped get him fired
He kinda got screwed by the situation. The Cavs hired him to develop a young team then Lebron decides to come back to Cleveland after he already was hired. I think he deserves a second chance with a young team to establish himself as a coach.
That is probably the truest thing that can be said about that situation. And now it has repeated itself in Cleveland! However it was actually KLove that did not thrive under Blatt, and he is still there.
Saunders must stay a full year, also why is Lloyd Pierce in the list, his Hawks have way outperformed what everyone thought they would do, one of the success stories of the year with Trae & Collins been real good.
Not every name that shows up in the post is a coach that I believe is (or should be) on the hot seat.
Pierce’s name only shows up because I was contrasting him with Brooks, whose job is far less secure despite the fact that their teams are in similar spots in the standings.
My bad Luke, didn’t understand it then, makes sense now, sorry! Many thanks for clearing it up!
No worries. It’s a reasonable gripe, as I probably shouldn’t have grouped him in with Fizdale and Bickerstaff — Atlanta’s season has easily been the most promising of those three teams.
Brett Brown.
Are you trolling?
If the Lakers fire Walton, they’d better do well next season or Magic could be next to be fired. They’d better have enough cap space to sign to sign Anthony Davis.
I love Draymond Green signing with Rich Paul. He and LeBron are enemies. Draymond doesn’t deserve a max contract. If I’m Warriors, I let him go, especially if Durant leaves. Nobody else will sign him to a max.
To remember about Love, give him some credit, he was the 3rd option behind LeBron and Kyrie. He wanted to leave after his first year. Recruiter LeBron begged him to stay.
Kareem has 4 title rings going up for auction. If LeBron buys them he can say he has 1 more ring than M.J.
This is Green’s worst season since his rookie year in several categories. A max contract would be crazy at this point.
If the Lakers fire Walton I would like to see them give Brian Shaw the job of get Mark Jackson back in coaching and give him a shot. One of those two. Been a huge Walton supporter but I can clearly see his flaws and I know everyone wants to blame it on LeBron is he loses his job but the fact of the matter is that he’s not evolved at all and seems to be getting worse. His in game coaching really isn’t very good, his substitutions/ rotations are very questionable so I think if he gets fired it’s actually deserved
Jeff Fisher is campaigning for the job.