CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Steve Clifford’s red eyes betrayed his calm exterior as the Hornets’ 62-year-old head coach explained his decision to step down at the end of the season Wednesday afternoon. “This has been going on for weeks as we discussed things,” Clifford told the assembled media at Spectrum Center. “I just don’t see myself having the right energy level in the coming months. I’m just like you. Your best days start when you feel good. If you drive in and you’re not feeling your best, you’re not going to have a great day. You have to get up. And one thing about this is that you are dealing with the best players in the world, and the motivation starts with you every day.
Clifford had gathered his assistants early that morning to reveal the news, league sources told Yahoo Sports, and then had to gather himself before addressing the players and support staff in the Hornets’ practice facility shortly afterwards. There are few coaches who live and breathe the learning element of basketball as much as Clifford, someone who watches the tape to the point. All-Star guard LaMelo Ball, when healthy, even started adapting Clifford’s post-game cliché of having to watch the film before answering. special question. But with Clifford it always sounded sincere and pure. Even with the numerous injuries that have sidelined Ball and other players over the past two seasons in Charlotte, after Kenny Atkinson turned down the Hornets’ job and the franchise returned to its previous head coach, Charlotte’s staffers have all retained the hard-nosed approach and Clifford’s daily approach is praised. daily investment in his program and in the people in his building.
There was a team option in Clifford’s contract for 2024-2025. as first reported by The Charlotte Observer, and it appears the Hornets’ new leadership under Governors Rick Schnall and Gabe Plotkin, plus new chief of basketball operations Jeff Peterson, would have welcomed Clifford to remain on the club’s sidelines. However, beginning this transition this week will allow the Hornets to sync their coaching staff with a still-evolving front office structure under Peterson. To be clear, Clifford will remain with the organization, whether in a front office role or in an advisory role to the coaching staff, similar to how Clifford once provided advice for Brooklyn when Peterson worked for the Nets. They sat together watching practice and picking each other’s basketball brains. Now Clifford said he would be intrigued by that dynamic and “just as interested in learning the design, learning how to do free agency.”
With six games left in this regular season, Charlotte immediately wades into the coaching market that league figures expect will see quite a bit of turnover this season. “That’s one of the things Cliff and I talked about in terms of timing,” Peterson said Wednesday. “That certainly played a role. I think there will be a handful of teams looking to replace their current coach or find a new coach. So it is very important that we can take a small lead in that area.”
Peterson’s former Nets will be on a search at the end of the year after parting ways with Jacque Vaughn midseason. The same goes for Washington after the Wizards lost former play caller Wes Unseld Jr. to their front office, and interim head coach Brian Keefe is considered a strong candidate for the full-time position, according to league sources.
Veterans like Mike Budenholzer and James Borrego have strong connections in San Antonio with a Brooklyn front office teeming with former Spurs staffers, starting with general manager Sean Marks. Consider Hawks coach Quin Snyder, another Spurs product once heralded as a strong Nets target also in the wake of Steve Nash’s firing. There is a growing sense around the league that Brooklyn will consider some of the same younger, rookie head coaches as the Wizards and Hornets in addition to veteran names.
And so Charlotte has already requested and received permission to interview several candidates who fit that profile, as first reported by ESPN, including Nuggets assistant David Adelman, Kings assistant Jordi Fernandez and Celtics assistant Charles Lee, as well as Suns assistant assistant Kevin Young. Miami assistant Chris Quinn and Utah assistant Lamar Skeeter are two additional names expected to factor into the Hornets’ search process, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Lee was part of Budenholzer’s staff in Atlanta when Schnall was a member of the Hawks ownership group and Peterson served in that front office. Before joining the Celtics this season, where Lee has played an integral role in acclimating former Bucks player Jrue Holiday to Boston, Lee was a finalist last summer for the Pistons job that would go to Monty Williams. His status as a former pro player and his ability to connect both up and down the roster, in addition to his connections to Hornets leadership, appear to position Lee quite strongly in Charlotte’s upcoming process. According to league sources, Quinn left a big impression among Hornets figures when he interviewed for the job in 2022, when the job ultimately went to Clifford. Of further note, well-regarded Mavericks assistant Sean Sweeney also met with the Hornets at the time, sources said, and remains a rising name in coaching circles.
NBA personnel believe the search in Brooklyn will be broad, with less of a specific candidate archetype compared to the strategy in Charlotte or Washington, where the emphasis will be on finding the right developmental coaches to strengthen a youth movement . By all accounts, the Nets still have ambitions to add to a core that already includes a complementary piece in Mikal Bridges. There could be a solution to hiring an assistant who has passed the playoff test like Fernandez or Young. Fernandez’s experience in guiding Canada to this summer’s FIBA World Cup bronze medal, and his connections with multiple All-Star talents within the national team program, will add value to his candidacy. Young has earned the support and respect of Phoenix’s star players dating back to Chris Paul’s time with the Suns. Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant is another name being floated as a potential first-time head coaching candidate in Brooklyn, sources said.
The coaching market will evolve in different phases. There is always the possibility of multiple coaches being fired after missing the postseason. It could also serve experienced prospects like Budenholzer, Borrego and Atkinson well as they wait for potential openings that could come from early playoff casualties. Entering the postseason last spring, few predicted that both Budenholzer and Williams would leave Milwaukee and Phoenix, respectively.
For now, there is ongoing speculation at the bottom of the rankings among rival front offices about a possible change to Detroit’s organizational chart after the Pistons’ struggling campaign. At this time, according to a source with knowledge of the situation, there is no expectation that Williams would be open to a buyout of his six-year, $78.5 million contract.
NBA coaching figures have also circled Portland, which currently has the fifth-best pick in next month’s draft lottery, as a potential coaching situation to watch due to the Blazers’ position in the standings. But Chauncey Billups, who learned Wednesday that he had been inducted into the Hall of Fame class of 2024, answered a question from Yahoo Sports the same day, indicating that he would love the opportunity to take Portland to the playoffs in 2024- 2025 to lead. , with a healthier roster better built to take on the game’s best opponents.
“It’s been a tough few years for us, three now. We’ve just had so much influx on our roster and so much bad luck with health and things like that. And I’m here every day, just going through it. I’m helping my guys the best I can and just hoping that hopefully next time, next year, we’ll be healthy, we’ll be better and our roster will be ready to really, really compete,” Billups said. “Because I know personally that I’m light years ahead of where I was when I took the job because obviously I was a first time [head] coach. And I’m really ready for that challenge and that pressure to go out and compete with these best teams and everything. I’m really ready. So I just hope we can get into that position, that’s all.”