No matter the sport, head coach is the toughest job there is. If the team has success, more times than not, players on the court are getting all the shine. On the flip side, when a team is struggling, more times than not, the blame is on the coach, his schemes, rotations, team management, and everything in between. Judging a coach is hard.
All things considered, though, if coaches have a track record, then it gets easier to see a pattern and identify what weaknesses a team has are a fault of the person drawing up the plays. And that's where we end up on this list. These teams have all been struggling so far in the NBA season, and that could cost these head coaches their jobs. We're specifically looking at four NBA coaches who could be fired because of their struggles this season.
As many involved in sports say: coaches get hired to get fired. If these teams don't fix their season, these coaches that once seemed like home run signings could be back on the job search.
4. Ty Lue, Los Angeles Clippers
I will preface this listing by saying that if I was in charge of all of these decisions, I wouldn't make all of them. In an ideal world, Ty Lue isn't one of the main people to blame if the Clippers continue their disappointing season. But, I've been following the NBA enough to know that front offices are capable of such things.
The Clippers got off to a 2-1 start this season, having all of their stars and role players (sans Terance Mann) healthy. However, long mentioned in rumors about acquiring James Harden, Steve Ballmer pulled the trigger to go as all in as humanly possible and got him. Since Harden debuted for the franchise, the Clippers are 4-6, which included losing their first five with the new-look squad, and two of their wins were against the San Antonio Spurs.
In the games with Harden, they're scoring just 107.7 points per game (26th in that span). In the five games before Harden debuted, they scored at least 118 points in all of them, but have only reached that mark in only two of the nine games since Harden started playing. Depending on who you ask, some fingers might be pointed at Lue for the lack of offensive structure in the season in general.
In saying all of that, it should be noted that the circumstances under which Lue has had to operate since becoming coach of the team have been less than ideal. Entering this season, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George had only played in 142 games together, counting regular season and playoffs, out of a possible 345 (41 percent of Clippers' games since both joined the team).
This season, they were healthy to start, finding a groove until the front office traded most of their two-way wings and, up until they got Daniel Theis after his buyout with the Indiana Pacers, they were only playing with one big man. Even prior to this season, Lue hasn't had his full squad: in 2021, they made it to a six-game Western Conference Finals against the Phoenix Suns, in spite of Leonard and George missing 20+ games in the regular season and Leonard getting hurt for the remainder of the playoffs in the second round. In 2022, they were without both for the Play-In Game at New Orleans. And last season, they were without George for their entire first-round series against the Suns, which they lost in five games.
Lue has overachieved every single season with this roster, and I would like to think that would be considered when evaluating his work for this season. Yet, there are always baffling decisions made by front offices every summer. If this team doesn't, at minimum, get eliminated in a competitive Conference Finals series against a superior team (the Denver Nuggets or Suns), Lue's job could be in great danger.
3. Darvin Ham, Los Angeles Lakers
He's the head coach of LeBron James' team. Coupled with that, he's the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. His seat is always going to be hot.
For years, Ham was one of those assistant coaches that always interviewed for multiple openings, but could never land the job. That is, until Frank Vogel was fired from the Lakers in 2022 and Ham landed the gig. His task was a difficult one: immediately compete for a championship with the duo of LeBron James and Anthony Davis, and integrate Russell Westbrook who was acquired in the offseason. The fit was questionable at best and on the court it was tough. However, Ham put him in a reserve role where his fit was maximized until he was traded mid-season. And, when they acquired a guard that fit better in D'Angelo Russell, they played better in the second half, going 12-5 in games where he played.
They parlayed that success into the playoffs, where they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in the Play-In, beat the second-seed Memphis Grizzlies in the first round, the Golden State Warriors in the second round, and lost in a competitive sweep to the eventual champions in the Denver Nuggets. In retaining Austin Reaves, one of the young stars of the playoffs last year, and signing young athletic wings and bigs (Taurean Prince, Christian Wood, Jaxson Hayes, Cam Reddish) and a shooter in Gabe Vincent, one would've thought they could continue their momentum into this season. But that hasn't happened.
The Lakers appeared to have righted the ship in the past two weeks. But if they slide again or get knocked out of the playoffs early, Ham could be the fall guy.
2. Billy Donovan, Chicago Bulls
Billy Donovan has twice now been brought into an NBA franchise with the task of leading a competitive team, and the results have been mixed. He did a good job at leading the 2015-16 OKC Thunder to the Conference Finals, but eventually blew a 3-1 lead to the Golden State Warriors. The team suffered back-to-back disappointing first-round exits in 2018 (vs Utah Jazz) and 2019 (vs Portland Trail Blazers), the latter of which led them to rebuild. And though they had a surprisingly great season the following year, we can all agree that was more of a Chris Paul effect.
In 2020, he was brought to the Bulls as the first head coach of the Arturas Karnisovas regime in Chicago. The next year, they had a quartet of Lonzo Ball, Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, and they were set to compete. They were doing just that, getting off to an elite 27-11 start, but lost Ball to injury and haven't been the same again. This season, they've started 5-13, and that follows a sub-.500 campaign where their stars (sans Ball) were healthy. The offense hasn't played well the last two seasons, there have been various incidents of dysfunction within the team, which include star players being benched and multiple players-only meetings, including one after the first game of this season.
At their best, this team was primed to be super competitive. We can look back at this attempt by management to try to compete as a good one and one that could've worked if it wasn't for injuries. However, at some point, you have to move on from something that didn't work, regardless of the reasons as to why it didn't. Whether it's to try to compete again next season or to move on to a new phase of team building, the Bulls could end up looking for someone new to coach them sooner rather than later.
1. Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors
The Warriors are having a disappointing start to their season, sure, But by no means would you expect them to fire Steve Kerr during the season, and much less if they're still going to compete with this core. By presenting Kerr as a candidate to be fired, I am doing so in a scenario where the Warriors don't win a championship now and blow it up this offseason.
While that's probably an unlikely scenario, it is somewhat plausible: Klay Thompson could leave in free agency, and if he doesn't the team could decide to shed payroll elsewhere. Chris Paul and/or Andrew Wiggins could be moved, which would limit this core's chances to compete, especially with the restrictions the new CBA has that were put in place for a team like this. If Thompson leaves, I don't see a path for serious contention for this team next season, which would in turn lead to some serious thinking on the team's direction moving forward. That, in turn, could lead to Kerr, whether it's by his choice or because of the front office, "mutually agreeing to part ways" with Golden State.
We can argue for days about the Warriors' struggles this season, and the reason for them. Whether it's Thompson's slow start, Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga's inconsistency on both ends or the lack of consistent play at times from Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, the blame can be shared. It's on the players to step up, the front office on their experiment a couple of years ago to try and compete and rebuild at the same time, and on Kerr to manage the pieces better.
Having said that, there is still some equity Kerr has built with this team in being able to win championships with different types of teams, whether it was in 2015 in his first season in an unproven squad, then with managing the super team when Kevin Durant joined, and in 2022 with most of the players that are still on this team. If they finish the season in the playoffs, lose and are able to keep Klay, I don't see a way for Kerr to be fired if management still wants to compete as presently constructed. As many questions as he may raise with his rotations, the Warriors will have a tough task in finding someone as good as him if they want to keep competing for a ring.
