Some of the biggest coaching names in all of basketball have swapped teams since the end of the regular season; six teams will now attempt to rebuild with new head coaches at the helm; follow the 2023 NBA Draft with Sky Sports, late overnight on Thursday June 22
Friday 16 June 2023 10:43, UK
We're only a few days out from crowning the NBA champions and already this has been a historic offseason in terms of coaching changeover.
A truly stellar list of head coaches have landed new jobs since the NBA regular season came to a close - with some heavyweights, such as Doc Rivers and Mike Budenholzer, also finding themselves off the hotseat and out of a job at the end of disappointing seasons.
End of season coaching churn is always expected, but this has been different - four out of six hires being recent NBA Finals coaches is unprecedented.
Frank Vogel and Nick Nurse have both guided teams to the NBA title within the last five years and Ime Udoka and Monty Williams were the beaten finalists in the two seasons prior to the one just gone.
Add into the list the Toronto Raptors electing to go with a rookie head coach in Darko Rajakovic and the Bucks doing likewise with Adrian Griffin and it makes for a fascinating spin of the coaching carousel.
Let's take it team by team...
The Detroit Pistons are in the middle of a comprehensive rebuild, focused on bringing a cast together around 2021 No 1 pick Cade Cunningham that can compete in the Eastern Conference.
Veteran coach Dwane Casey has guided the franchise through the dog days of said rebuild, at least that's what they're hoping, and now he has stepped upstairs into the front office and the team has appointed 2021-22 Coach of the Year Monty Williams to take the team forward.
Williams departed the Suns after crashing out of the Playoffs at the conference semi-finals stage to the eventual champion Denver Nuggets, but his spell in Phoenix was distinguished as he took the team to the Finals and established them as a Western Conference contender.
The 51-year-old later revealed that has wife Lisa had been battling breast cancer during the team's playoff run, and that may have precluded him from taking the Pistons job.
"A week ago, I was not sure what the future would hold," Williams said. "But, after talking with [the Pistons hierarchy]. They had a thoughtful plan and I am so appreciative of the emphasis they placed on the personal side of this business. They showed tremendous consideration for me and my family throughout this process.
"They also showed a commitment to success and doing things the right way. I realised that this would be a great opportunity for me to help a talented young team and build a strong culture here in Detroit. This is obviously a special place with a deep basketball history, and my family and I are looking forward to the opportunity to be a part of this city and organisation."
With the fundaments of that culture established by Casey, can Williams now build on it and bring the consistency? He managed to do exactly that with Phoenix where the Suns won 34 games during his first season on the job in 2019-20, a 15-game improvement, and then 51 during his second year when he led the team to the Finals.
Repeating that trick would be some feat, but regardless, Detroit has got itself a great hire.
Doc Rivers and the Philadelphia 76ers did just about everything they could to make it work but failure to make the Eastern Conference Finals once again cost the veteran coach his job and they replaced him with arguably the hottest coaching property on the market in Nick Nurse.
Over the course of his 10 years in Toronto (five as assistant, followed by five as head coach) only Golden State (.661) had a better winning percentage than Toronto (.613).
But after winning a championship in his first season as an NBA coach and following it up with Coach of the Year the following season, sustaining that level of success was always going to be a tough ask.
After settling into some semblance of mediocrity in the Eastern Conference hierarchy in the past couple of years, it became clear that a change would be best for all concerned and Nurse has swapped his job in the north for the most intriguing of landing spots.
Joel Embiid was crowned MVP last season and James Harden's level of play improved on what he'd shown the previous year in Philadelphia but there was nothing to suggest that those two would be enough to get it done without a special injection of something different.
The 76ers are reportedly not desperate to re-sign Harden while Fred VanVleet, an undrafted player who owes much of the success of his career to Nurse, refused to accept his player option in Toronto. Could a reunion be on the cards?
Either way, this is such an intriguing job for Nurse to take because there is pressure to deliver but also a puzzle to solve. In his favour, he has got the best of Cameroonian talent before with the way he elevated Pascal Siakam to All-NBA levels. Philly will be hoping he can work some sort of similar magic with Embiid, who has failed to deliver when the chips are down in the postseason throughout his career.
To thrive, the pair will have to bury some beef. Last year, in the latest of a number of bruising encounters between Nurse's Raptors and the 76ers, the All-Star center barked at Nurse - in a quite PG-13 fashion - to stop whining about foul calls.
Embiid's beef with Nurse didn't end in the playoffs. After the two-time NBA scoring champion was 'held' to 28 points in a 2022 regular-season game, Embiid suggested the Raptors "don't care about winning" as long as a player of his stature was held below his scoring average.
In the playoff series, the Sixers triumphed 4-2 - and what is it they say: if you can't beat them, join them?
In another universe, Ime Udoka would still be in charge of the Boston Celtics and trying to get one of the most successful franchises in sports its first ring since 2008.
But Udoka was dismissed from his position as Celtics head coach following a trip to the 2022 Finals after being given a year-long suspension by the NBA following the disclosure of an inappropriate relationship with a female staffer.
Now, 45-year-old Udoka heads to a Houston Rockets team with exciting young talent but looking for a culture shift following the unsuccessful tenure of Stephen Silas, who was fired after three dreadful seasons.
The Rockets had the worst record in his first two seasons in charge and finished tied with the Spurs for the second-worst record in the most recent campaign, earning another lottery pick in this year's draft.
Given the reasons for Udoka's dismissal and some reticence from teams to employ him, the Rockets have managed to get a top-class coach in to help their rebuild that they might otherwise not have got.
Rockets owner Tilman Feritta insists they aren't concerned about the behaviour that led to his year-long suspension from the Boston Celtics.
"The NBA told me that they felt very comfortable with Ime becoming the coach of the Houston Rockets," Fertitta said. "And so that made me feel really good after a lengthy, lengthy conversation."
The Rockets hope to build their team around Jalen Green, the second pick in the 2021 draft and Jabari Smith, taken third in 2022. And they'll have the chance to add another top player this year with the No 4 pick.
"It comes down to the players and I think we have a tremendous amount of young talent and the sky's the limit as far as that," Udoka said. "They talked about cap space and some of the flexibility we have, and I think they've done a great job of building for the future. So, I'm excited to be part of that and look forward to the moves we can make coming up in the draft and free agency."
It's a different kind of challenge for Udoka, but one that he is more than equipped for. Expect a big improvement from the Rockets this coming year.
If you've got Giannis Antetokounmpo in your team (even if he sits out some games) and you don't make it to the Eastern Conference Finals, at least, then something is amiss.
So, despite being the man to guide Milwaukee to their first title in 50 years in 2021, Mike Budenholzer was given the boot by the Bucks after failing to make it out of the first round this year.
To replace him, the Bucks have hired Adrian Griffin, a rookie head coach but a vastly experienced one who brings 15 seasons of NBA coaching experience to the Bucks, most recently spending the last five seasons as an assistant with the Toronto Raptors. Overall, Griffin's 15 seasons as an assistant coach, he has formed part of teams that made the playoffs 11 times, with two Conference Finals appearances in addition to winning an NBA title with the Raptors – and Nick Nurse – in 2019.
"Adrian is a widely-respected coach and former player, who brings great leadership and experience to our team," said Bucks general manager Jon Horst. "His championship-level coaching pedigree, character, basketball acumen and ability to connect with and develop players make him the ideal choice to lead our team. He has earned this opportunity."
Prior to joining the Raptors, Griffin spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Oklahoma City Thunder from 2016-18. His NBA coaching experience also includes stops as an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic (2015-16), Chicago Bulls (2010-15) and the Bucks (2008-10).
With Giannis to deploy, and the Greek Freak reportedly having vouched for him during the recruitment process, the rookie head coach has the chance to make a huge impact in the league right away - and the Bucks were certainly right to move on from Budenholzer, whose coaching had become stale in Milwaukee.
Remarkably, Nurse is not the only title-winning coach in the last five years available on market - step forward Frank Vogel, who replaces Williams at the Suns.
Vogel led the Lakers to an NBA title in his first season in Los Angeles by finding a way to mesh the skills of stars LeBron James and Anthony Davis.
The veteran coach is now in a similar situation in the desert, where he takes over a Phoenix Suns team led by stars Devin Booker, one of the league's best scorers, and 13-time All-Star Kevin Durant.
The blueprint is there. Vogel just needs to make the pieces fit.
"The first thing I can apply is direct belief," Vogel said during his introductory news conference. "Now because I've done it, I've been a part of it. If the talent is in place, that you can galvanise a group and take the league by storm."
Vogel did just that with James and Davis, leading a team that went 37-45 the year before to the franchise's 17th NBA title in the Florida pandemic bubble.
Vogel's new team is already on the rise. Williams took over a team that won 19 games in 2018-19 and guided it to the NBA Finals within two years.
When two embarrassing playoff exits followed - Phoenix trailed by 30 at halftime in both home losses - new Suns owner Mat Ishbia and general manager James Jones decided a change was needed. The Suns fired Williams on May 13 after four successful seasons, hoping a change in message could get the franchise back near the pinnacle.
"I just felt we needed an injection of a different voice, a different energy. It's really that simple," Jones said.
Vogel takes over seeking to provide that energy, as the franchise decides how to plot course after deciding to waive legendary point guard Chris Paul and with question marks also surrounding the future of center Deandre Ayton, who has failed to deliver on the promise that made him the top pick in the 2018 draft, which also contained Luka Doncic, Trae Young and Jaren Jackson Jr.
He has the track record but can he become the first man to deliver a title to Phoenix? Only time will tell.
The Toronto Raptors went for a rookie coach last time and they hit the jackpot with Nurse.
Four years after he led them to their maiden NBA title, Toronto announced Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Darko Rajakovic as their new coach.
Born and raised in Serbia, Rajakovic has immersed himself in coaching since his teens and coached in Spain before heading to the United States.
Rajakovic was a head coach for two seasons in the G League (then called the NBA Development League) with the OKC-affiliated Tulsa 66ers before joining the Oklahoma City Thunder as an assistant before the 2014-15 season. After five years there he spent the 2019-20 season as an assistant with Phoenix, then joined Memphis the following year.
It's not entirely dissimilar to the path taken by Nurse which saw him coach in Europe and the D-League before arriving in Toronto.
Raptors vice-chairman and president Masai Ujiri, who hired Nurse, is hopeful Rajakovic can spur on the Toronto team, which finished .500 for the season before losing in the play-in back to a prominent position in the Eastern Conference hierarchy as it looks to build another team worthy of being considered a contender.
"We're entering a new era - one where we are embracing new ideas, a new attitude, and now a new head coach - but our goals remain the same. A championship. Winning," said Ujiri, in a statement. "Darko shares those goals, and our belief in culture, professionalism, and hard work. His commitment to both learning and teaching our game is elite, and we are all very excited to welcome him to the Raptors family.
"We had many incredible candidates and we wanted to go through the process here. At the stage where our team is, and depending on where we want to be, we're excited to have his knowledge and experience. The process was long and tough but we know we came away with the right candidate here."
Ujiri got it right last time, but there's no Kawhi Leonard circa-2018-19-standard player on the roster right now, so it feels that the road back to contention is much longer for Rajakovic's Raptors.
As a coach who professes to focus acutely on player wellbeing, something he made a point of as he was introduced to the media, then the 44-year-old may well be the ideal candidate to rebuild the team for the long-haul.
