During this offseason, there have been some coaches who previously held front office positions, who have been removed from their executive roles, to focus more on calling the plays for their teams on the sidelines. The Hawks’ Mike Budenholzer and Clippers’ Doc Rivers are examples of these, and the developments that have happened over the past couple of months has now made Adam Silver make his thoughts about it known publicly.
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski recently reported that the NBA commissioner has expressed some concerns about the president-coach model that some franchises still have in place. His points could be that it may work for some, but becomes a problem when a team is not doing well, and moving a coach-executive could turn out to be a serious issue for them, if faced with that situation.
“NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes that Rivers did a great service to the franchise's value, and to the NBA, with how he held together the organization and its star players through the tumult of the Sterling nightmare. Silver wasn't necessarily against Rivers' ascension to the top of the Clippers masthead, but the commissioner has privately expressed concerns to owners and senior franchise officials in several instances, case by case, about the dynamic of the coach-in-charge model, league sources said.”
While there are still some franchises that believe in that model, like the Detroit Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves, it has not been the most popular one used in the league today. There's definitely some advantage when it comes to decision-making for a team as the coach-executive has a deeper understanding with the needs of the team on the court, and also outside of it, however, Silver appears to not be a fan of having a central ruler that runs the entire organization.
Offering dual roles may entice the coaches even more to pursue job openings, but Silver's concerns over it could lead to less of it happening in the NBA soon. It's also likely that teams may just follow the footsteps of the San Antonio Spurs, who have remained very successful in the last two decades. Gregg Popovich may only have the position of head coach, but he is working closely with the general manager, and often brainstorms first before coming out with a decision, making him arguably as influential as a front office executive.
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