The expectations for NBA teams continue to heighten every season, especially for franchises that have recently made big moves to improve their rosters and staff.
After a dismal season, the Los Angeles Lakers will look to get back into contention under first-time head coach JJ Redick. The expectations to capitalize on LeBron James’ twilight years would be imposing on any tenured coach.
Eyes and ears will also be focused on the Golden State Warriors and coach Steve Kerr, who will have to reconcile with the loss of Klay Thompson. And the Milwaukee Bucks and general manager Jon Horst will hope coach Doc Rivers gets past the first round with a full season to work with.
Our NBA Insiders break down which coaches and front office executives are feeling the heat, and who will need to make their mark this season in order to meet expectations. From the LA Clippers to the Memphis Grizzlies, let’s see who has the most to prove entering the 2024-25 NBA season.
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Billy Donovan, coach
Donovan has been the Bulls’ head coach since 2020, and they have gone 156-162 (.491 winning percentage) in his five seasons. They have missed the playoffs three times and lost a first-round series in five games during their lone playoff appearance in 2022.
Chicago finally made some roster changes this season to pivot to a younger core, and the team is still trusting Donovan as the one to guide it. Bulls executives have consistently remained complimentary about the job Donovan has done coaching, but sooner or later, the team will need more wins.
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Arturas Karnisovas, EVP of basketball operations
Karnisovas vowed to make changes after the team he constructed missed the playoffs for the second straight season and third time in his four-year tenure. Instead of a full rebuild, he made a few roster shakeups to give the Bulls a younger core. But it’s unclear entering the 2024-25 season if the team is in any better position in the Eastern Conference.
Chicago does not expect to compete among the top contenders in Boston, New York, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, and its young core is less talented than rising teams such as Indiana, Cleveland and Orlando. It puts pressure on Karnisovas to prove that his plan to retool the Bulls on the fly can work. — Jamal Collier
Cleveland Cavaliers
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Kenny Atkinson, coach
Atkinson is getting his second shot at a head-coaching position. He coached the Brooklyn Nets from 2016 to 2020, but he was fired less than one season into the Kyrie Irving-Kevin Durant era — before James Harden joined the big three. Before the superstars arrived in Brooklyn, Atkinson led a young Nets team of Jarrett Allen, Caris LeVert, Spencer Dinwiddie and D’Angelo Russell to a playoff appearance in 2019. Now, he gets another shot at building his own identity with a younger team in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers reached the second round of the playoffs last season, and are looking to take that next step forward. They locked in their centerpiece Donovan Mitchell — who signed a three-year, $150.3M extension in July — but Atkinson is tasked with making sure the pieces around Mitchell do their part.
The glaring issue in Cleveland last season, aside from injuries, was the offensive cohesion among its best players. Atkinson’s offensive-minded skill set is just what the Cavs need to guide their superstars. If Cleveland doesn’t take a step forward this season, solidify its direction with Darius Garland and make it deeper into the playoffs, more questions will arise about the structure of the team and what other changes need to happen. — Kendra Andrews
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Calvin Booth, general manager
Booth is just one season removed from winning a title. But the Nuggets lost Kentavious Caldwell-Pope this summer in free agency after losing Bruce Brown in free agency the summer before. Booth would like to see some of the Nuggets’ younger talent get more playing time, but he also has to maximize the championship window around three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
The Nuggets signed veteran guard Russell Westbrook this summer and signed Jamal Murray to a four-year, $208 million max extension on Saturday. But with so many up-and-coming teams in a competitive conference, Denver has fierce competition for the top spots in the West. — Ohm Youngmisuk
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Steve Kerr, coach
Kerr and the Warriors have been searching for a winning recipe since their 2022 title — attempting to thread the needle between relying on their veteran core while incorporating younger talent. But finding that balance has been challenging for Kerr, as Golden State missed the playoffs last season and then lost Klay Thompson in free agency shortly after.
Multiple times last season, Kerr admitted to not knowing who he would turn to on a night-to-night basis, resulting in a revolving door of starting lineups and rotations. Finding a group he can count on is at the top of Kerr’s to-do list this season. After that, it simply comes down to: How good can the Warriors be? For a team that’s used to making the playoffs and winning titles, their barometer for success is rings. And Kerr has to get them back into contention.
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Mike Dunleavy Jr., general manager
In his second offseason as the Warriors’ general manager, Dunleavy made splashy moves, but perhaps not in the best way. Instead of bringing in a star, he lost the third-longest-tenured Warriors player in Thompson. He followed that up by signing Kyle Anderson, Buddy Hield and De’Anthony Melton.
But how much better does that make Golden State? Dunleavy has the tall task of taking over the franchise from Bob Myers, a man who built a dynasty. Dunleavy signed front man Stephen Curry to a one-year, $62.6M extension in August, but Thompson’s departure hangs heavy on Dunleavy’s progress toward bringing a Warriors dynasty back into contention. — Andrews
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Stephen A. wonders why stars aren’t clamoring to play alongside Steph Curry
Stephen A. Smith is curious to know why the Warriors haven’t been able to get another superstar to play along side Steph Curry since Kevin Durant left the team.
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Ty Lue, coach
Lue just signed a five-year contract, but he is still looking to prove that he can lead the Clippers to a successful season despite losing Paul George in free agency. Lue led the Clippers to 42 wins and the play-in tournament during the 2021-22 season with Kawhi Leonard out for the entire season recovering from ACL surgery and George available for only 31 games due to injury.
The challenge this season will be to get the Clippers to the playoffs with a defensive-oriented young roster while managing Leonard’s lingering knee issues.
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Lawrence Frank, president of basketball operations
Clippers owner Steve Ballmer trusted Lawrence Frank’s decision to not give George a four-year contract or a no-trade clause with a potential three-year deal in free agency, citing the new CBA’s harsh landscape for tax-paying. Letting George go after trading five first-round picks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2019 opened plenty of eyes this summer.
But Frank moved quickly in free agency and signed several hard-nosed defensive players to boost the Clippers in their inaugural season at Intuit Dome. And he will look to land another young star, but that opportunity remains to be seen. — Youngmisuk
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JJ Redick, coach
Redick put the ax to the root before reporters could question his credentials at his introductory news conference in June. “I have never coached in the NBA before,” Redick said. “I don’t know if you guys have heard that.”
Darvin Ham, whom Redick replaced, had never been a head coach in the league before getting the Lakers job, but had served years on the sideline as an assistant. Redick will have to prove that podcast poise translates to command in the huddle and strike the balance of beginning his career while shepherding the final chapter of LeBron James’ career.
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Rob Pelinka, general manager and VP of basketball operations
Coming off one of the most disappointing seasons in franchise history in 2021-22, Pelinka signed an extension through 2025-26 — receiving a major vote of confidence from team governor Jeanie Buss. Since then, the Lakers have made one trip to the Western Conference finals, but they followed that up with a first-round exit and Ham’s dismissal.
The only way the next couple of years can be deemed a success for the franchise is if it can contend in James’ twilight years while simultaneously getting Redick’s career off the ground to usher in the next era for the team. Simple, right? — Dave McMenamin
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Taylor Jenkins, coach
The expectation is that the injury-ravaged Grizzlies’ 27-55 record from last season will be a major outlier. The hope is that a healthy Ja Morant can lead the Grizzlies back into contention in the Western Conference. Memphis filled a glaring hole at center by drafting Zach Edey with the No. 9 overall pick in June, but Jenkins’ coaching staff underwent a major overhaul.
There are six newcomers on the eight-assistant staff, headlined by former Paris Basketball head coach Tuomas Iisalo, who is considered one of Europe’s most innovative offensive minds and promising young coaches. — Tim MacMahon
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Doc Rivers, coach
There are few people in the modern NBA who invoke more polarizing opinions than Doc Rivers. He was named one of the 15 Greatest Coaches in league history, but hasn’t won a championship since 2008 or been to the NBA Finals since 2010.
Rivers jumped at the chance to take the Bucks’ coaching job in the middle of the 2023-24 season, but emphasized that expectations shouldn’t get too high given the limited practice time. Rivers took over a 32-14 team and finished 17-19, losing in the first round of the playoffs in a series mired by injuries.
Milwaukee has two superstars in Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard running it back for a second season, and a three-time All-Star and proven playoff performer in Khris Middleton. Now, Rivers will have a full offseason and training camp to mold the team before entering the 2024-25 season. Will he meet the Bucks’ championship expectations?
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Jon Horst, general manager
Horst has not been afraid to shake up his team in the past few years.
He fired coach Mike Budenholzer, who won a championship with Milwaukee in 2021 and guided the Bucks to the best record in the NBA during the 2022-23 regular season, after losing in the first round in 2023. He traded for Lillard the following offseason, parting with Jrue Holiday, who ended up winning a title with the rival Boston Celtics. Then he fired Adrian Griffin, the first-year coach he hired to replace Budenholzer, 43 games into his NBA career to hire Rivers.
Horst has stated the Bucks’ championship expectations remain high. But it remains to be seen if these bold shake-ups will pay off. — Collier
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David Griffin, executive VP of basketball operations
In five seasons at the helm in New Orleans, Griffin’s teams have improved every year. The team has jumped in wins from 30 in 2019-20 to 49 a season ago. Still, that has only produced a pair of playoff berths — both first-round exits.
It’s a crucial time for the franchise as Zion Williamson looks to build off his healthiest season yet. Griffin has the Pelicans entering the season with the lead trio of Williamson, CJ McCollum and Brandon Ingram, and added Dejounte Murray in the offseason. Is this the year New Orleans can finally make it out of the first round for only the third time in franchise history? — Andrew Lopez
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Mike Budenholzer, coach
Coaching the Suns’ star-studded top-heavy roster comes with massive immediate expectations. Ask Budenholzer’s predecessor, Frank Vogel, who was fired after his first season in Phoenix ended with a 49-33 record and first-round sweep.
Like Vogel, Budenholzer brings a head-coaching résumé to the Suns that includes an NBA championship and reputation for being one of the league’s elite defensive tacticians. He’s tasked with squeezing the potential out of the Suns’ max-salary trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal, who played only 41 games together last season due to injuries. — MacMahon
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Mike Brown, coach
Brown is entering his third season at the helm of the Kings with job security, having signed a three-year, $30 million contract extension in July. But he still has some lofty goals.
The Kings are looking to crack into the serious title contender conversations — something that looked possible two seasons ago when Brown led Sacramento to the playoffs for the first time in 16 years and was named Coach of the Year in his first season with the team. But last year, the Kings failed to make serious progress and got bumped out of the postseason in the second round of the play-in tournament.
This season, Brown and the Kings have to improve by sizable margins. The goal is not just to make it back into the playoffs, but to make it past the first round for the first time since 2004. Brown has been known as a defense-first coach, but he will need to get his offense back to where it was two years ago: first in the NBA. — Andrews
