With star players in control and fans eager to see their teams make the playoffs, owners often pin the blame on the head coach for a disappointing season in the NBA.
Entering the 2024-25 campaign, which begins Oct. 22, a handful of HCs are already on hot seats, and a slow start by their teams could lead to a firing. Here are the five hottest seats at the start of the new season.
Quin Snyder | Atlanta Hawks
After years as a college coach with Missouri, Snyder built a solid reputation by consistently leading the Utah Jazz to the playoffs. After the team went into a rebuild and Snyder resigned in 2022, he landed in Atlanta in the middle of the 2022-23 season, replacing a fired Nate McMillan. So far, he’s been unable to replicate the success he found in Utah, posting a 46-57 record.
Atlanta’s tumultuous culture and the uncertain state of the roster have left Snyder as the one to blame if Trey Young and the Hawks start poorly.
First overall draft pick Zaccharie Risacher will bolster the bag of tricks for Snyder, who loves to mold young players into stars. That’s something he did with Donovan Mitchell in Salt Lake City and with future NBA players with the D- League’s Austin team in the late 2000s.
If the Hawks get off to a slow start, though, his time in Atlanta will soon end.
Billy Donovan | Chicago Bulls 
The Bulls have found themselves in NBA purgatory, never truly contenders but also never awful enough to secure a high draft pick and a chance to land a franchise-altering star (39-43 and 40-42 the past two seasons). Donovan, 156-162 as coach of the Bulls, will be blamed if they falter this season and ownership wants to spice things up at midseason. It’s difficult to say whether Donovan is even that great of an NBA coach, going 243-157 with the Thunder. He has never replicated his college basketball success (two national championships at Florida) in the NBA. All of his mentors are in the collegiate game (such as St. John’s Rick Pitino) and he bowed out of his first NBA gig in 2007 with the Orlando Magic before ever coaching a game.
It seems Donovan is afraid of change, and so are the Bulls. This is a parting that would benefit both parties.
Willie Green | New Orleans Pelicans 
The New Orleans Pelicans are a major what-if story seemingly every season in the Western Conference. Stars Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson should be enough to lead the Pels into the upper echelon of the playoff bracket. Instead, the team falters at the finish line and then in the playoffs (eliminated in first round two of past three seasons).
Green, 43, is a bright, young coach, but we all know who gets the blame after quick playoff exits. Green, who has a 127-119 record in three seasons with the Pels, probably won’t be good enough to survive the 2024-25 season unless New Orleans plays fantastically.
Chauncey Billups | Portland Trail Blazers 
Billups always seemed like he’d be a great head coach. A champion and an NBA Finals MVP with the Detroit Pistons, he often showed off his abilities as a floor general. What he lacked in talent he often made up for in leadership and a knack for building camaraderie — first as a player over 17 NBA seasons and then as an assistant coach with the Clippers.
The only thing keeping Billups employed with the Trail Blazers, though, is the low bar the franchise has set for itself in the aftermath of the Damian Lillard trade. Portland, which finished 21-61 last season, is in tank mode, hoping for its next superstar to save them from the cellar of the Western Conference.
If this is the season the team expects to start winning, Billups will be fired shortly after it begins. His 81-165 record with Portland is one of the worst in the NBA over the past three seasons.
Will Hardy | Utah Jazz 
The Utah Jazz are a proud franchise. Under HCs Jerry Sloan and Quin Snyder, the team went to the playoffs 25 times from 1989-2022.
GM Danny Ainge is slowly rebuilding in Salt Lake City, so Hardy, 36, should have a decent leash to lose for maybe one more season. Entering his third season with the Jazz, he has a good reputation as a fine, young coach, even being ranked in the top 10 by some.
But sterling reputations have never stopped other great coaches from being fired. Do you remember when George Karl got fired by the Denver Nuggets after winning Coach of the Year in 2013? Ditto for Dwane Casey with the Toronto Raptors after winning the trophy in 2018.
In Utah, Hardy has gone 37-45 and 31-51 in his two seasons leading the bench. The seat of an NBA coach can turn from freezing to blistering hot in the blink of an eye. Hardy must be mindful of that.
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