Billy Donovan and the Oklahoma City Thunder decided to part ways, putting the franchise at a crossroads. They were one shot away from winning their first-round playoff series, but with Donovan’s departure and the comments Adrian Wojnarowski made reporting his exit, it’s clear the Thunder intend on rebuilding. On the Locked On Thunder Podcast, host Rylan Stiles explains why Becky Hammon and Jerry Stackhouse should be the top candidates for the rebuilding Thunder’s coaching search.

Rylan Stiles: A horrible spot for Becky Hammon would be going to a contender right now, just right out of the gates go to contender, because that's hard for anybody to be learning on the job. And it's no different for a male assistant coach. Anytime you get the head coaching job from being assistant, it's a learning curve. It's a big learning curve.

Oklahoma City would foster that environment for her to handle the learning curve. Show off that she can really do this. She can really coach at the NBA level, be a head coach at the NBA level. And maybe that it would be a home-run hire… If Sam Presti wants to go to San Antonio, it's going to be Becky Hammon and I think that she deserves a huge opportunity. I think that she deserves multiple interviews, and really a big shot in this process.

Not only is Jerry Stackhouse one of my all-time favorite players, but he's a heck of a coach. And the one thing I hate about Jerry Stackhouse again, one of my favorite players, heck of a coach, I hate that he took the Vanderbilt job. To me, that was a lateral step at best and probably a step backwards from being the G-League coach of the Raptors.

He had a fantastic resume for himself with the Raptors with the G-League coach and assistant coach with Toronto. He did a great job developing a lot of the guys you see right now playing for Toronto. Chris Boucher, Fred Van Vleet OG Anunoby, a lot of those guys who have developed into stars, quote unquote, out of nowhere, happen because of Jerry Stackhouse. Look at Brandon Ingram ,who Jerry Stackhouse took under his wing. I love Jerry Stackhouse and I want him to be the next coach of the Oklahoma City Thunder.