Ranking the best available NBA head coaching candidates

The NBA coaching carousel is in full swing. Who are the hottest candidates to fill each opening?

At the moment, there are only four NBA head coaching vacancies — the Charlotte Hornets, the Atlanta Hawks, Milwaukee Bucks and the Orlando Magic . That leaves a lot of very qualified candidates fighting over precious few opportunities. Of course, it’s very likely that another couple of jobs could open up once the playoff dust has settled.

Let’s start off by talking a bit about the methodology behind these rankings. The NBA is all about trying to win a championship. As such, retreads who’ve received multiple opportunities at other stops are not going to show up high on this list. You’ll notice some big names like Jason Kidd, Frank Vogel and Mike Brown are going to miss out on the top ten altogether. They’ve had more than enough chances to prove themselves to be elite. All have failed.

Instead, we’ll give real credit to hires with serious potential upside. That means you’ll see some lesser-known names pop up on this list as well. Just because an assistant isn’t already a household name doesn’t mean they aren’t ready to get their shot to run a team. Not everyone in the country knew Erik Spoelstra’s name before he led the Heat to multiple NBA titles.

Now that all that’s been established, let’s get down to work.