NBA Hot Seat: NBA Coaches On the Hot Seat in 2024

With the regular season concluded and the playoffs now underway, NBA hot seat conversations turn their focus toward the more successful end of the professional basketball spectrum.

Throughout most of the year, the only coaches on the hot seat are the guys at the bottom of the NBA odds tables. But every year, there seems to be one or two head coaches who are dismissed after unsuccessful playoff runs.

The Lakers and Suns were dealt early playoff exits, and both organizations decided a coaching change was in order. 

The Lakers dismissed head coach Darvin Ham on Friday, May 3. Phoenix canned head coach Frank Vogel a few days later.

Phoenix has already committed to hiring former Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer, so their head coaching vacancy is filled. 

Ultimately, though, making a coaching move for either of these teams is likely akin to rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic. Both rosters have real problems – especially Phoenix – that are far more critical to the issues at hand. 

The Lakers and Suns both lost to noticeably better teams. The dismissal of Ham and Vogel only serves to temporarily cast blame somewhere. It doesn’t actually solve anything.

Here are some other coaching names that could be on the hot seat as we move closer to the 2024-25 season.

Monty Williams

Is Monty Williams the right guy to develop Detroit’s talented-but-raw roster? It’s a fair question. The 2024 Pistons currently finished the season with the worst record in the NBA, which they achieved thanks in part to a record-setting 28-game losing streak. 

Williams has always been lauded as a thoughtful leader, but coaching a contending Suns team is a world away from his current situation. Perhaps this marriage was a bad fit from the start. 

Billy Donovan 

Unlike many of the other teams at the bottom of the standings, Chicago is not a team waiting on a young potential star to develop. The Bulls finished under .500 and out of the playoffs despite being nearly $30 million over the cap. 

The likely target to absorb that disappointment remains head coach Billy Donovan, who just finished his fourth season with the team. 

The Bulls lost in the first round of the 2022 playoffs after a 46-win regular season. Last year, they finished 40-42 and missed the postseason. 

Chauncey Billups

Portland hired Chauncey Billups to be the Blazers’ head man back in 2021. Consider how much has changed between then and now – Damian Lillard is gone, and the team finished in dead last in the West.

This team is a total rebuild at this point. Last year’s No. 3 pick, Scoot Henderson, did not have a great rookie year.

Portland’s dreadful record clearly isn’t the fault of Billups. This Portland team is not constructed to be competitive this season. Regardless, the Trail Blazers’ front office will have to ask themselves if the first-time head coach is the right fit for the team as presently constructed.

If they feel he’s not – if they feel he was the right hire for a more competitive team, but it’s now time for a more developmentally-focused head coach – then Billups could be looking for a new job.

Available NBA Coaches

• Terry Stotts
• Mark Jackson
• Kenny Atkinson
• Nate McMillan
• Becky Hammon
• Stan Van Gundy
• Jeff Van Gundy
• Mike D’Antoni
• Dwane Casey
• Stephen Silas
• Dave Joerger
• James Borrego
• Frank Vogel
• Darvin Ham

NBA Head Coaches