It’s not uncommon for there to be several coaching changes during an NBA cycle, but they usually occur for teams that are either in the cellar or are trying please a star player to avoid impending turmoil. So far, there have been six coaching changes since December, and all of them have been surprising to a certain degree because they didn’t seem to meet that criteria. They all came out of nowhere, half of them were in-season, and they were all big-name coaches who had decent job security, or so we thought:
Mike Brown, Sacramento Kings — fired Dec. 2024 Taylor Jenkins, Memphis Grizzlies — fired March 2025 Mike Malone, Denver Nuggets — fired April 2025 Mike Budenholzer, Phoenix Suns — fired April 2025 Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs — retired May 2025 Tom Thibodeau, New York Knicks — fired May 2025
Of course, we all know why Pop retired (stroke), but none of the five fired coaches are ones who were considered on the hot seat heading into this season. The Kings, Suns, Nuggets and Knicks all made the 2023-24 playoffs, and the Grizzlies had the excuse of the Ja Morant saga, plus a rash of injuries that had them trotting out a G League roster at times, in some cases even wondering if they could meet the minimum requirement of 7 active players for any given game.
For the 2024-25 season, it can be argued that four of those five teams underachieved to various degrees — definitely the Suns, to a lesser the extent the Kings, Grizzlies and Nuggets — but how much of that was for reasons off the court, such as poor roster management (which can often be pointed to the front office) or clashes with other team leaders or disgruntled players? The Suns may have disappointed the most, but Coach Bud inherited a flawed roster with disgruntled, indifferent stars and was given little chance to fix it. After their firings, there were rumors of such clashes surrounding Brown, Jenkins, Malone and Budenholzer.
Even if you could make a case for those four coaches to be fired despite Brown, Jenkins and Malone taking their teams to new or rarely seen heights in their teams’ in recent history, the Thibs firing is the most shocking. He just led his team to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time this century, so they turn and fire him? The Knicks’ reasoning in their statement is they want to win championships, so they’re implying they don’t feel he can get them there, but is it really that simple, or is there more behind the scenes that we don’t know about yet? (Clashes with James Dolan, Rick Brunson, etc.) This could also just be a case of “the Knicks gonna Knick,” which for that organization is not a compliment; they only know disfunction.
Regardless, the point of this article is not just who was fired (or retired, in Pop’s case), but who is replacing them, and there is a very obvious trend coming into focus. Below is the list of new coaches for the teams that have hired them, along with their age and years of heading coaching experience in the NBA (not counting on an interim basis):
Kings: Doug Christie (55) — 0 years Grizzlies: Tuomas Iisalo (42) — 0 years Nuggets: David Adelman (44) — 0 years Suns: Jordan Ott (40) — 0 years Spurs: Mitch Johnson (38) — 0 years
All of these new coaches have plenty in common. They’re on the young side (even Christie), have zero prior years of head coaching experience in the NBA, and four of them were the interim head coaches when their predecessors were fired (or on medical leave) before being promoted to head coach. Ott, who was just announced as Suns head coach today, came from the Cavaliers but, coincidently or not, began his career under Bud in Atlanta.
Since the Knicks just fired Thibs yesterday, they are still in the process of vetting new hires, and rumors are all over the place from an experienced coach (like Malone), to their own assistant Johnnie Bryant, and on into the college world such as Jay Wright and Dan Hurley. Three of those four options would also have zero NBA head coaching experience, and Bryant in particular would continue the trend of hiring an assistant from within.
It may seem odd for teams who all have playoff or even championship aspirations moving forward to go this route, but it suggests two things. One is, especially in the cases of the four teams who have hired from within, there is value in continuity, and if players are especially happy with a specific assistant, the front office will try to keep them happy since this is very much a players’ league. (It may also suggest the issue behind the firings were more with the coach himself, not his style or staff.)
The other is old school coaches may be getting phased out if they show any resistance to change. Thibs in particular is known for being stubborn and adverse to making adjustments. Contrary to the modern, fast-paced NBA, he plays his starters heavy minutes and usually sticks to the same 7-8 man rotations. That may lead to more regular season wins, but accurate or not, the perception is it wears out his players and leaves them more injury prone, which is why his teams can never seem to make the finals.
Whether it was the right move or not, perhaps that’s why the Knicks said they want a coach who can win a championship: Thibs can build a contending team, but his old school ways won’t win it all. Whatever move they make next, they could end up looking like geniuses, or they could end up fools. They same could be said for everyone else who is going with fresh faces instead of a known commodity at head coach, but then again, even the best coaches had to start somewhere, and few came from lower on the totem pole Pop himself, who is now considered the GOAT.
Change is inevitable in the NBA. Coaching careers may last longer than players, but like every job, they eventually come to an end. And while coaches like Pop may seem invincible, the fact is even if the game doesn’t take the job away, Father Time eventually will. We very well may be witnessing a changing of the guard in the NBA head coaching circle. There’s still some of the old guard like Rick Carlisle, Eric Spoelstra and Steve Kerr to lead the way, but as time goes by, expect to see more and more new faces standing on the sideline.
What the Spurs will do with the second pick Open Thread: The Spurs passed on the 2003 NBA draft attempting to chase down Jason Kidd The Spurs can upgrade the wing without adding a superstar