The NBA has officially completed its 2023 head coaching cycle, and we’ve got some intriguing new coaches leading some of the league’s more talented teams.
Superstars like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Devin Booker and Trae Young will have new coaches to lean on in the years to come, and teams like the Detroit Pistons, Toronto Raptors and Houston Rockets will have new leaders to help guide their rebuilding processes.
While we won’t really know the full extent of how these hires will work out until years down the road, we do have a good idea right now of how they look for the teams that made them.
Let’s break down the seven coaching changes that happened this year, from the Atlanta Hawks making a change toward the end of the 2022-23 season to the Raptors hiring their coach within the past week.
7. Houston Rockets: Ime Udoka
It’s not that former Boston Celtics coach Ime Udoka isn’t a talented coach; he certainly is. However, Houston is taking a risk in hiring Udoka so soon after he was fired from Boston and suspended for a full season for reportedly having an inappropriate relationship with a member of the Celtics organization.
Our Prince J. Grimes detailed all the questions that Houston will face with the hire, questions that other franchises won’t have to answer as they went in opposite directions than hiring Udoka.
On the court, the former Boston coach may well be what Houston needs to get back into playoff consideration. Off the court, however, the questions linger. It feels like Houston could’ve gone in another direction here that would’ve better fitted its rebuilding process. Time will tell.
6. Phoenix Suns: Frank Vogel
The Phoenix Suns have been tantalizingly close to an NBA title in recent years, and the franchise is banking on former Los Angeles Lakers coach Frank Vogel to get them over the finish line.
Will this hire pay off? It’s hard to say. In Los Angeles, Vogel had a championship-winning team led by none other than LeBron James. That’s the kind of boost that could make any coach look good. Vogel will inherit a talented roster in Phoenix, but will he really be that much of an upgrade over Monty Williams?
The Suns seem to think so, but it’s going to take more than hiring Vogel to get this team to a championship. It feels like, at best, the new coach will be as good as Williams was, not better.
5. Philadelphia 76ers: Nick Nurse
Former Toronto Raptors coach Nick Nurse won an NBA title in 2019 with one of the more talented rosters in the league at that time, one with superstars like Kawhi Leonard, Kyle Lowry and Marc Gasol.
The 76ers have an uncertain future after parting ways with Doc Rivers this offseason. Franchise star Joel Embiid is the incumbent MVP and locked in with the team, but James Harden could leave the team in free agency.
Will Nurse get Philadelphia to where Rivers couldn’t: an Eastern Conference title and an NBA Finals berth? Nurse did it with Toronto, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he can find success with Philly.
It’ll take replacing Harden with an equally talented player to really get the most out of this situation, however. It’s also fair to note that Nurse’s Toronto tenure wasn’t quite the same after Leonard and Lowry left the Raptors.
4. Atlanta Hawks: Quin Snyder
The Atlanta Hawks hired Quin Snyder before the 2022-23 season ended after parting ways with Nate McMillan. Snyder’s going to be tasked with reviving the early promise that the franchise enjoyed from drafting superstar Trae Young.
Can Snyder get there? The team will have to do work to its roster in the offseason to give Young and Dejounte Murray more help. The Hawks will also have to figure out if John Collins is part of the future or a possible trade candidate after plenty of conjecture to the latter in recent memory.
Snyder had plenty of success with the Utah Jazz, winning the league’s top honor for its coaches in 2018. However, he never was able to get the Jazz far in the playoffs. Will he have different results in Atlanta? It’ll take maximizing the roster for that to happen. Still, this is a good hire for the Hawks.
3. Milwaukee Bucks: Adrian Griffin
New Milwaukee Bucks coach Adrian Griffin walks into a fortuitous situation with his first head coaching job.
After leading the Toronto Raptors briefly as an acting coach in wake of coach Nick Nurse’s in-season exit, the longtime assistant got a taste of what it would be like to run the sideline himself.
His NBA playing days and long tenure as an assistant in the league should set him up well to lead the Bucks, and having a world-class basketball star like Giannis Antetokounmpo on the roster certainly won’t hurt.
2. Toronto Raptors: Darko Rajaković
It’s always refreshing when an NBA team hired a deserving assistant coach, rather than cycling through the same coaches we’re used to seeing on the sideline in a leading capacity.
Darko Rajaković has been part of the Memphis Grizzlies’ recent success as an assistant, and he’s more than worthy of taking on the top role with a Raptors team with plenty of questions and a possible rebuild needed to really get the franchise back on track.
Rajaković, like Griffin, has been building to this moment for quite some time, and looking at just how good the Grizzlies have been with him on the bench probably gave Toronto the confidence to make this move.
It’s not a sure thing, but it is the kind of gamble that usually makes teams look really good if it pays off. Rajaković will have the time he needs to get Toronto up and running again.
1. Detroit Pistons: Monty Williams
The Detroit Pistons are not an NBA title-contending team right now.
However, hiring former Suns coach Monty Williams shows that they’re serious about getting back into the NBA playoffs and building a strong foundation for the future.
Williams is one of the better coaches in the NBA, and Phoenix may regret parting ways with him if they don’t get any better results with Frank Vogel. He’s the perfect person to help the Pistons’ rebuilding process, a team with some promising young guys and this year’s fifth-overall NBA Draft pick still to make.
The future is bright in Motor City with Williams leading the charge. He’s the ideal coach for the moment, and he’s going to give the Pistons their best chance at bucking recent failures and winning again.
