Becky Hammon became the first full-time female assistant coach in the NBA when she was hired by the San Antonio Spurs last summer and she continued to blaze a path this offseason when the team announced she would be the Spurs’ Summer League head coach.
Hammon led the club to a Summer League title as the first woman to serve as a head coach in that league and there are some around the league that feel she would already be a better head coach than some of the 30 head coaches currently employed.
Derek Fisher, New York Knicks
In a recent poll ranking the 30 active NBA coaches, Derek Fisher was at the bottom of the list, so it’s no surprise we start with him when breaking down potential coaches that Hammon is better than right now. Fisher’s first year as an NBA head coach was an absolute disaster as he guided a Knicks team most thought would be a playoff contender to the worst record in franchise history at 17-65. There were some obvious growing pains in Fisher’s first year and it didn’t help that the team was gutted by trades after some early injuries took their toll on the team’s star players. Regardless, right now Fisher is at the bottom of the list when it comes to ranking the NBA’s active head coaches from best to worst.
Randy Wittman, Washington Wizards
Wittman carried a 191-329 career coaching record into last season before the Wizards went 46-36 and made the playoffs as the fifth seed in a watered down Eastern Conference. Yes, they won a playoff series but that isn’t enough to let him off the hook. Many people forget that this team slumped badly down the stretch of the regular season as they started the year 31-15 but finished the season with just 15 wins in their final 36 games.
Washington’s talent alone is enough to think they should be perennial playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference and after nine seasons as an NBA head coach, Wittman has little to show for other than a pair of playoff appearances the last two seasons.
Brett Brown, Philadelphia 76ers
Brett Brown mostly gets a free pass because he’s the head coach of the team that’s considered the worst in the NBA. Over the last few seasons, their roster has been stripped to bits as they’ve been going into full-on tank mode so that they can get high draft picks and rebuild. However, this is still a league where success is measured by wins and losses, and Brown has failed to deliver. He is just 37-127 in two seasons and the worst part is that the team doesn’t look like it’s developing. Other than Nerlens Noel, who came on strong in the second half of last season, the 76ers don’t look like they have many foundational pieces. The front office thought so little of Michael Carter-Williams and K.J. McDaniels and they sold them for pennies on the dollar.
Although he’s in a tough situation, Brown has still accomplished very little. The 76ers don’t look like they’ll be good any time soon and when a coach can’t provide a glimmer of optimism, that’s when it’s time to make a change.
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Byron Scott, Los Angeles Lakers
Some were willing to give Scott a free pass last season in the same way they gave Fisher a free pass because of injuries and an overall lack of talent, but even at the start of the season the Lakers were an absolute mess. Stops at New Jersey, New Orleans, Cleveland and now Los Angeles have all resulted in disappointment for Scott and it’s hard to envision him transforming this current Lakers roster. The expectation is to somehow get this team to compete for a title in the final few seasons of Kobe Bryant’s career but it doesn’t look like Scott will make that happen. Nobody believes Scott is the man to take this team to success but hiring Hammon could deliver some much-needed optimism in LA.
