Basketball is (maybe, hopefully) on the horizon. To help reintegrate us to a life of Giannis hammer dunks, James Harden dribbling for 24 seconds, and 76ers fans yelling at you for some reason, we’re rolling out top-five rankings in 20 different categories. All rankings were voted on by The Ringer staff unless noted.
We’re not comparing legacies or careers, but deciding who is the best right now. Without further ado, let’s break down the NBA’s best coaches in 2020.
5. Brad Stevens, Celtics
Few college coaches have had as much success transitioning to the pros as Stevens (he’s no slug). After leading Butler to back-to-back title games, the Celtics plucked Stevens from the college ranks in 2013 in hopes he could squeeze as much juice out of the Celtics as he did his scrappy Bulldogs. After overseeing a rebuilding phase his first year, Stevens has led the Celtics to the playoffs in each of the past five seasons, averaging 49 wins and establishing himself as one of the league’s premier tacticians and defensive specialists. Much like he did at Butler, Stevens has shown a rare knack for getting his players to over-deliver. He unleashed Isaiah Thomas in 2016-17, and the 5-foot-9 guard averaged 28.9 points per game and led the Celtics to the Eastern Conference finals. The next year, he retooled on the fly, with and without Kyrie Irving, and reached the conference finals again. Now he’s got a different point guard, Kemba Walker, and has the Celtics back in contention (43-21, no. 3 in the East heading into the restart). It really doesn’t matter who is on Stevens’s team—he will find a way to win. Whether it’s his savvy lineups, after-timeout plays, or presidential aura, Stevens has proved he belongs in the pros.
4. Rick Carlisle, Mavericks
When you think of Mavericks fixtures, you think of Mark Cuban and Dirk Nowitzki. But Carlisle’s name deserves to be in the conversation. Carlisle is now in his 12th year with the franchise and has piled up the third-most wins of any active head coach. He won a championship with the team in 2011, but he’s kept the franchise steady for more than a decade, keeping the team competitive amid overhauls, big moves, and big misses. He’s racked up four 50-win seasons in Dallas and helped the Dirk-to-Luka transition proceed smoothly. After missing the playoffs the past three years during a rebuilding stage, Carlisle has the Mavericks lurking in the West once again. With Luka Doncic installed at the point, the Mavericks recorded the best offensive rating in history (116.7 points per 100 possessions), according to Basketball-Reference.
Not bad for a team built around a 21-year-old with just one other All-Star on the roster.
3. Gregg Popovich, Spurs
No one would blink if you called Popovich the NBA’s best coach. Nor would they if you said the five-time champion and three-time Coach of the Year is one of the greatest of all time. So why is he third on our list? You can probably chalk that up to (deserved) recency bias.
Popovich has staying power that few coaches in any professional sport have ever experienced. He won two titles 15 years apart with the same franchise. He’s made the playoffs an inexplicable 22 consecutive seasons. The last time the Spurs missed the playoffs was the year before Michael Jordan’s Last Dance archival footage was filmed. Pop’s postseason streak has been going on longer than Doncic has been alive. Unfortunately, that streak is likely about to come to an end barring a remarkable LaMarcus Aldridge–less run to the no. 8 seed; San Antonio is four games back with eight to go. Still, Popovich’s 1,272 wins are the most of any active head coach and only 63 behind all-time leader Don Nelson (Pop has also coached for just 24 seasons, compared to Nelson’s 31). His winning percentage (.676) is the highest of the 10 head coaches to oversee 1,700 games. And he’s undefeated in 987 sideline interviews. Pop is a legend in every aspect.
2. Erik Spoelstra, Heat
It’s almost impossible to fill Pat Riley’s Italian leather shoes. It’s even harder to do so when the best player in the world kind of wishes the other guy would come back and coach. But Spoelstra eventually proved he belonged and pulled off one of the most stunning coaching ascensions the league has ever seen, going from “The Dungeon” to the end of a title-winning bench. At first, it was tough to separate his success from LeBron’s. The Big Three Heat started 9-8 out of the gate in their first season, but eventually made the Finals. The next two seasons, they won back-to-back championships. Had Riley unearthed an all-time coaching gem? Or was Spoelstra just the beneficiary of the Big Three era? While both might have some truth, it proved to be more of the former. Winning with superstars isn’t as simple as it sounds—and keeping them happy while convincing them to take unprecedented sacrifices is downright daunting. Add in Riles as your boss and it’s a full-blown pressure cooker. Yet Spo pulled it off, putting LeBron, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh in the right spots and creating lineups around them to maximize their potential.
When LeBron left, many assumed the jig was up for Spoelstra, that without the King he would be exposed as just another coach. But despite being left with a pretty meh hand, Spoelstra kept Miami competitive, playing .500 basketball the last five seasons and remaining a tough out on a nightly basis. When Jimmy Butler arrived this year, South Beach started to look like the home of a basketball powerhouse yet again, with mix-and-match lineups that pushed the limits of positionless basketball and led to the best winning percentage (.631) since LeBron was around.
1. Nick Nurse, Raptors
There’s no NBA coach hotter right now than Nurse, which is a pretty funny thing to say about a guy who spent a decade coaching in the British Basketball League. But Nurse managed to grind his way to the top of his profession, eventually leaving England for an assistant coaching gig in the United States Basketball League. He was able to parlay that opportunity into becoming the head coach of the then–D-League’s Iowa Energy in 2007. Six years later, he got the call from Dwane Casey to become an assistant on an NBA bench.
Nurse didn’t waste the long-awaited opportunity. He helped the Raptors reach the playoffs in each of his five years as an assistant. In 2017-18, he became the team’s unofficial offensive coordinator and helped fuel a franchise-best 59 wins behind more pace and space.
When Casey was fired in the offseason for not advancing further in the playoffs, Nurse inherited a strong playoff team—but his tweaks (and the trade for that Kawhi guy) led to newfound success in Toronto. Known as an offensive wizard willing to push even the furthest of boundaries, Nurse helped the Raptors realize their potential, ranking in the top five in both offense and defense in 2018-19, and eventually going on a postseason run for the history books, culminating in the first championship in franchise history.
When Leonard left in the summer, everyone (yes, everyone) assumed the team would take a massive step back. Instead, the Raptors have gone 46-18 this season, earning a .719 winning percentage that’s actually higher than the Raptors’ mark with Kawhi last season. Whether it was unlocking Pascal Siakam, giving Fred VanVleet even more freedom, or discovering gold on the bench like Terence Davis, Nurse has given the rest of the league a new blueprint to work off. His .712 winning percentage is the highest all time of any NBA head coach. That’s a long, long way from the BBL.
Others receiving multiple votes: Mike Budenholzer, Doc Rivers, Steve Kerr