The Fierce Five: NBA’s Top 5 Head Coaches

Being a head coach in the NBA is about much more than simply X’s and O’s and setting a lineup. A head coach must manage the personalities of many different people and cultures.

Most believe that the NBA is a player driven league and that a coach’s impact on the game is minimal, but that is not the case. Coaches are responsible for putting players in the best position for them to succeed, both on an individual level and for the team as a whole.

There are many different roles that a coach must play. In general, they can be broken into two categories, either player management or strategy. Good coaches tend to be good at one of the two categories, while great coaches have mastered both. We’re going to look at the coaches who can handle both tasks best. Here are the top 5 coaches in the NBA.

1. Gregg Popovich

Gregg Popovich has set the standard for great coaches in the NBA. The Popovich led Spurs are consistently a top NBA team and always a threat to win the NBA Championship. Popovich is famous for his short interviews and his annoying habit of resting all of his starters to keep them fresh for the post-season. Though Coach Pop has always been graced with some of the best big men in the NBA, there’s no doubt that he puts his players in the best possible position to succeed.

2. Steve Kerr

Steve Kerr is coaching a historically good team. Coming off of a 2015 Championship win, Kerr’s Warriors got off to a 24-0 start (though Kerr was not on the sideline as he was recovering from a surgery). The Warriors continued their unbelievable start by going 46-4 through their first 50 games. The reason Kerr is seen as the top coach is obvious. He took an underachieving team and turned them into the clear cut best team in the NBA.

3. Doc Rivers

Doc Rivers of the Los Angeles Clippers is one of the best play callers to ever coach in the league. He understands the idiosyncrasies of the game and how to put players in a position that will allow them to be successful. Rivers was also a member of one of the greatest teams ever put together, the 2007-2008 Boston Celtics.

4. Brad Stevens

Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics is a relative unknown to the casual basketball fan. But Stevens is putting together a solid season with a team whose best player (Isiah Thomas) was deemed not well enough for the Phoenix Suns. Brad is relatively new to the NBA and is untested, but he must be doing something right the way he has this untalented Celtics team playing.

5. Erik Spoelstra

Erik Spoelstra started as a video coordinator in 1995. Since then he has climbed the ranks and became head coach of one of the most famed organizations in the NBA. Spoelstra became head coach of the Miami Heat in 2008. As everyone knows, two short years later LeBron, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh joined forces in Miami. Though it was widely regarded as LeBron’s team, Spoelstra took this team to three consecutive NBA Finals, winning just one. Though Coach Spo may have been handed the best job in the NBA, he also performed as well as anyone could hope in managing these three huge personalities.

Every coach on this list, with the exception of Brad Stevens, has won an NBA championship. They’ve been a part of some of the most historically good teams we’ve ever seen assembled. Great teams don’t always win championships. No matter how many all-stars are on the court, without proper guidance and the correct system, there is no championship. Teams become great not because of the great players, but because of the cohesiveness of the unit. A coach’s job is to make a group of guys work together as one. And that’s exactly what the guys on this list do. And that’s why they’re some of the greatest coaches we have ever seen.

–Michael Hersey