The only job less stable than sports media these days might be NBA head coach. Erik Spoelstra (Miami Heat) and Steve Kerr (Golden State Warriors) are the only two active head coaches with more than five years of experience at their current teams.
Billy Donovan (Chicago Bulls), Tyronn Lue (Los Angeles Clippers) and Mark Daigneault (Oklahoma City Thunder) all took over their respective teams in 2020. Beyond that, every other head coach was hired in 2021 or later.
Four head coaches lost their jobs either at the tail end of last season (Mike Malone, Taylor Jenkins) or in the offseason (Mike Budenholzer, Tom Thibodeau). Although Budenholzer ended up being one-and-done in Phoenix, it's rare for a team to fire its head coach after only one season, so their replacements are likely safe for the time being. The same can't be said about some of their other colleagues around the league, though.
When teams fail to live up to expectations, the head coach is often one of the first heads to roll. That has the following head coaches perched precariously on the hot seat heading into the 2025-26 season, ranked in order of likelihood that they're no longer employed by next summer.
Honorable Mention: Quin Snyder, Atlanta Hawks
The Atlanta Hawks are a chic pick to make some noise in the East after adding Kristaps Porziņģis, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard this offseason. With increased expectations comes increased pressure, though, particularly if the Hawks remain at a standstill in extension negotiations with star point guard Trae Young.
By all accounts, Young and Snyder have been simpatico ever since Snyder's arrival in 2023. When $200-plus million dollars are on the line, though, that relationship will be under higher scrutiny than ever this year.
The East is so soft that the Hawks should waltz into the playoffs if they stay healthy. But if they get off to an unexpectedly slow start, chatter about Snyder's job security could begin to pick up, particularly since he only has two more years left on his contract beyond this season.
5. JJ Redick, Los Angeles Lakers
If you're the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, you're going to be under the microscope no matter what. If you're a first-time head coach, that only ratchets up tenfold.
JJ Redick's debut campaign with the Lakers arguably went better than expected, especially after he had to pull off a midseason overhaul to accommodate the arrival of Luka Dončić. With a full offseason of planning and scheming, Redick should help Dončić hit the ground running this season. However, this could wind up being LeBron James' final season in Los Angeles, if not the NBA entirely.
Klutch Sports superagent Rich Paul made it clear in late June that LeBron is still hoping to compete for a fifth championship before he retires. If the Lakers fall short of that standard, does LeBron have one more power play left in his bag before he hangs up his sneakers for good? (Would he even consider doing so to his former podcast partner?)
Redick will soon be operating a new owner in Mark Walter, which often spells trouble for incumbent employees. Walter might prefer to handpick his new head coach and/or front office executives as the Lakers head out of the LeBron era and into the Dončić-led future.
Redick appears acutely aware of how his inexperience could be used against him. He demonstrated that during the playoffs after snapping at a reporter who questioned whether he consulted his assistants when deciding to stick with a five-man rotation in the entire second half of Game 4 of the Lakers' first-round loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. Walter figures to pay close attention to whether that was an anomaly or a sign of things to come from his wet-behind-the-ears skipper.
4. Darko Rajaković, Toronto Raptors
This could be a make-or-break year for Darko Rajaković's tenure with the Toronto Raptors.
In late March, Michael Grange of Sportsnet reported that the Raptors "quietly reached out" to Rajaković last offseason and picked up their team option on his contract for the 2026-27 because they wanted "to be a good-faith partner heading into a rebuilding season." They also believed Rajaković "had shown he was the right person to help them pivot towards being competitive again sooner than later."
This season will be Rajaković's chance to reward the Raptors' faith in him. They made a big splash at the February trade deadline by acquiring Brandon Ingram, but he didn't play a single minute for them last season due to an ankle injury and/or tanking. The question is how he'll fit around Scottie Barnes and RJ Barrett, particularly since none of them are efficient, high-volume three-point shooters.
The Raptors are currently $2.8 million above the luxury-tax line—spoiler: they're going to duck the tax by the trade deadline—and just replaced longtime team president Masai Ujiri with incumbent general manager Bobby Webster. The latter could work in Rajaković's favor, as Webster was involved in the decision to hire Rajaković in the first place, but the Raptors' ownership group (Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment) seemingly doesn't have much of an appetite for a long-term, Process-esque rebuild.
If Rajaković and the Raptors don't start showing results this season, his seat could quickly grow hot.
3. Nick Nurse, Philadelphia 76ers
If Nick Nurse didn't have the resume that he does, he might not have survived last season. The Philadelphia 76ers scuffled through an injury-ravaged debacle of a year, although that did result in them jumping up to the No. 3 pick in this year's NBA draft and landing Baylor guard VJ Edgecombe.
There's no guarantee that the Sixers will have significantly better fortune on the health front this coming season. Paul George is currently recovering from surgery on a knee injury that he suffered during an offseason workout, while Nurse recently issued a lukewarm endorsement of whether star center Joel Embiid will be ready for training camp after he played only 19 games last season.
Just as team president Daryl Morey promised, the Sixers did get younger and more dynamic this offseason by adding the likes of Edgecombe, Trendon Watford, Jabari Walker and Dominick Barlow. Still, the season—and perhaps Nurse's job—may come down to how well they can navigate any absences from Embiid and/or George this year.
The Sixers won't be a championship contender without a healthy Embiid and George, but at least they shouldn't be as much of an eyesore as they were last season thanks to their young backcourt. It's up to Nurse to lean into the likes of Edgecombe, Tyrese Maxey, Jared McCain and Quentin Grimes—even when Embiid and George are healthy—and resist the temptation to overplay his stars, as he is wont to do.
But if he leans too heavily on his starters and that leads to another avalanche of injuries, that could spell the end of his tenure in Philadelphia.
2. Doc Rivers, Milwaukee Bucks
Has anyone coasted on a nearly 20-year-old accomplishment quite like Doc Rivers?
Since guiding the Boston Celtics to the 2007-08 NBA championship, Rivers has only made it back to the conference finals twice, both of which came with Boston in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Since then, his teams have become notorious for blowing 3-1 series leads. (That narrative appears to drive him a special brand of crazy.)
The Milwaukee Bucks hired Rivers midway through the 2023-24 season—after they fired Adrian Griffin less than a year into his debut campaign as a head coach—although he didn't engineer the drastic turnaround they were hoping to see. The Bucks finished only 17-19 under his watch during the regular season and lost to the Indiana Pacers in the first round of the playoffs with star forward Giannis Antetokounmpo hobbled.
The Bucks won 48 games this past season, and Rivers got Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard to operate more synergistically, but it was all for naught. Lillard wound up missing time late in the season with a calf injury, only to return in the playoffs and tear his Achilles in Game 4 against the Pacers in their first-round series.
The Bucks are now desperately trying to convince Antetokokunmpo to stay in Milwaukee. In mid-May, ESPN's Shams Charania reported that he was "open-minded about exploring whether his best long-term fit is remaining in Milwaukee or playing elsewhere" for the first time in his career. According to Marc Stein of The Stein Line, the Bucks are hopeful that Rivers "can provide some sort of boost," as he and Antetokounmpo "are believed to have a strong working relationship."
If the new-look Bucks struggle with Point Giannis running the show, they might look to jettison Rivers in a last-ditch effort to stave off an Antetokounmpo trade request that would shake the NBA to its core.
1. Willie Green, New Orleans Pelicans
To some extent, it's surprising that Willie Green still has a job with the New Orleans Pelicans. Shamit Dua of the In the NO Substack reported earlier this year that Green "has virtually zero player support left in the locker room" and "the team has tuned him out." However, Dua added that Green "is beloved by ownership," and former executive vice president of basketball operations David Griffin lost his job in part because he sought permission to fire Green.
The Pelicans already flipped Brandon Ingram for an underwhelming return last season, and they made one of the most genuinely baffling trades in recent memory during the 2025 NBA draft, when they traded up 10 spots to select Maryland center Derik Queen. Starting point guard Dejounte Murray is expected to miss a decent chunk of the season to recover from the torn Achilles that he suffered in January, so the Pelicans figure to lean more heavily into Point Zion Williamson until Murray returns.
Is Green the right man for that job? Is he innovative enough to fully optimize Williamson as a 6'6", 280-pound jumbo playmaker? Can he keep opponents off-balance? What happens if (when) Zion misses time? Who can he have step in to fill that void?
Until Murray returns, the Pelicans figure to start Williamson, Herb Jones, Trey Murphy III, Jordan Poole as their nominal point guard (even though Williamson will handle a majority of the playmaking) and either Queen, Yves Missi or Kevon Looney at center. There's plenty of individual talent on this roster, but the pieces might not quite fit together cleanly.
If Green can't figure out how to optimize them quickly, he might be the first head coach to get canned this season.