The preseason NBA coaching hot seat rankings

We had six offseason coaching changes, and (technically) two during last season. Who's on close watch heading into 2026-27?

Good morning. Let's basketball.

The coaching carousel had a fairly normal NBA offseason with a half-dozen replacements following a season in which two head coaches – Chauncey Billups in Portland and Willie Green in New Orleans – were replaced. Billups, of course, was a special case due to federal indictment tied to gambling. Green's ouster was more normal, as were most of the summer replacements. As a refresher, those were:

• Doc Rivers out in Milwaukee, replaced by Taylor Jenkins
• Jamahl Mosley out in Orlando, replaced by Sean Sweeney
• Interim James Borrego out in New Orleans, replaced by Mosley
• Interim Tiago Splitter out in Portland, replaced by Micah Nori
• Billy Donovan out in Chicago, replaced by Splitter
• Jason Kidd (the biggest surprise) out in Dallas, replaced by Dusty May

In the ever-cyclical nature of NBA coaching, Green is now an assistant under May, and Donovan took Sweeney's spot as Mitch Johnson's top deputy in San Antonio. It doesn't look like either Borrego or Kidd are on staffs this fall, and Rivers claims he has retired for real this time.

In the interest of taking accountability for past work, here's last preseason's hot seat rankings. Of the 10 on that list, two were fired during the season and two were replaced in the offseason. The other six remain gainfully employed by the same team.

The question now pivots to which coaches are under pressure as the 2026-27 season gets underway. Here's a top-8 list in increasingly likelihood of an in-season replacement from an outsider perspective. To be clear, there is no expectation that there will be more than one or two in-season replacements. These are the most likely candidates.