By Jordan Long
The NBA regular season is winding down. The NBA’s Play-In tournament starts on April 12th and ends on April 15th. Once that is completed, the playoffs will start on April 16th. With that, some coaches are on the hot seat.
There has been one coach fired during the NBA season this year, Luke Walton. Walton was in his 3rd year with the Sacramento Kings but was let go 17 games into the season. At the time Sacramento stood at 6-11. Walton was 68-93 with the Kings, a winning percentage of .422.
The Kings decided that Alvin Gentry would be the interim head coach. He has put himself on the hot seat. The Kings haven’t improved under him as they stand at 23-39. Sacramento is going to miss the playoffs for the 15th straight year. The fact is Gentry didn’t make them a playoff team with the switch. He is most likely going to be fired and the Kings will be searching for a new head coach. It isn’t official, but it looks like Gentry’s time is over. The Kings may have a change of heart and give him a full season but it doesn’t look like it.
Frank Vogel’s seat is only getting warmer in L.A. The Lakers thought they produced an “all-star” team when they agreed to contracts with Russell Westbrook, Dwight Howard, and Carmelo Anthony to add to the mix of Anthony Davis and LeBron James. This was supposed to increase their odds of winning the NBA Championship.
Right now, the Lakers are 31-47, 2 games back of the Spurs for the last play-in spot. The Spurs own the tiebreaker over the Lakers. The Spurs went 2-1 against the Lakers this year. The only way the Lakers get into the Play-In Tournament as the 10th seed is if the Spurs go 1-3 and the Lakers go 4-0. This still may not be enough to save Vogel’s job.
Vogel needs to win the Play-In Tournament to be the 8th seed and then go on a run to the Western Conference Finals. The odds of that happening are very slim. Vogel has been successful with the Lakers though. This is his third season in L.A. He has coached them to a record of 125-96, a winning percentage of .566. L.A. went to the playoffs under him the past 2 years and won the NBA Championship in the COVID shortened bubble year in 2020.
The problem with the Lakers is that is not enough. The Lakers’ goal, which is the same for most NBA teams, is to win the NBA Championship every year. This was done once with Vogel and it won’t happen this year. L.A. will let him go. It doesn’t seem fair since Vogel is not the general manager who signed all these players. He did well with what he was dealt even if they are going to fall short of the postseason.
The coach that shouldn’t be on the hot seat but is on the list is Utah Jazz Head Coach Quin Snyder. Snyder’s team is most likely going to be in the playoffs as a top 6 seed. They are the 6th seed right now, 1.5 games ahead of Minnesota. Utah even owns the tiebreaker over Minnesota since they went 3-0 against them.
Snyder has been the Head Coach of the Jazz since 2015. Utah is an impressive 369-263 under him or a winning percentage of .584. The Jazz earned a playoff spot 5 years straight and it looks like 6 this year. They would be foolish to let him go. Another franchise would pick him up because of how successful he has been in Utah.
Once the NBA’s regular season ends this upcoming Sunday, there will be tough decisions. More coaches could be let go. Of course, Snyder’s decision with the Jazz won’t come until either they are knocked out of the Play-In tournament or the NBA playoffs. Teams will do what they hope is best for their franchises moving forward. The goal is to win an NBA Championship.
Leave a Reply