2022 NBA Draft:

Plenty of Black Head Coaches in Lottery

By: Michael A. Chase Jr.

06-23-2022

With the NBA Draft commencing this evening, one noticeable trend among the teams picking in the NBA Draft this year is the number of Black head coaches leading franchises. The NBA over the past few years has seen an increase in the number of Black head coaches across the league. The interesting thing is that currently most of them lead teams near the back end of last year’s standings, putting a large number of these teams early in the draft order. NXT LVL looks at the number of black head coaches leading NBA teams in this year’s lottery, discussing the outlooks of the franchises they lead and the range of success each may have.

As of today, there are 13 NBA franchises with Black head coaches out of 30 NBA teams. Of these 13 coaches, eight of them lead franchises that are currently in the lottery. These include Jamahl Mosley (Orlando), Stephen Silas (Houston), Mike Brown (Sacramento), Wes Unseld Jr. (Washington), Dwayne Casey (Detroit), Chauncey Billups (Portland), Willie Green (New Orleans), and J. B. Bickerstaff (Cleveland). From Orlando owning the 1st overall pick to Cleveland picking 14th, you have diversity among the top picks these black coaches are inheriting.

The interesting thing is to look at with these top draft picks being owned by these teams is which coaches are best setup to succeed with their lottery pick additions? The only coach who had a winning record this past year was Bickerstaff who coached his Cavaliers to a 44-38 record and 9th place in the East. Of the remaining seven coaches, four had under 30 wins (Mosley, Silas, Casey, and Billups), two had over 30 (Unseld Jr., Green), and newly named Kings coach Mike Brown is inheriting a team that won 30 games last season. All these bench bosses had their struggles, but some are certainly better positioned to succeed than others, with their lottery picks adding to the winning potential.

Stephen Silas of the Rockets, Dwayne Casey of the Pistons, and Willie Green of the Pelicans all have young cores in place that, with further development, could transform them into consistent playoff contenders soon.

On Houston, adding a 3rd overall pick to a roster that includes players like Jalen Green, Kevin Porter Jr, and Alperen Sengun will only strengthen their young core and give them a chance to make a solid jump in the standings from this past season’s 15th place finish.

Casey and the Pistons are coming off a 23-win season, where they saw much growth by their young players. They saw their 1st overall pick Cade Cunningham show glimpses of stardom, while others like Saddiq Bey, Hamidou Diallo, and Isaiah Stewart showed growth as well. Now with the Pistons owning the 5th overall pick, the team seems poised to add to a core Dwayne Casey had steered in the right direction down the stretch of the season.

Willie Green is hoping to add a #8 pick to the Pelicans’ core of Brandon Ingram, CJ McCollum, Zion Willliamson, and Herbert Jones to make them into a perennial playoff contender for years to come. For a team that finished 8th in the West made it out of the Play-In Tournament and took the top seeded Phoenix Suns to 6 games, adding another lottery pick should have coach Green well-stocked in terms of talent to work with.

Chauncey Billups of the Trail Blazers and Jamahl Mosley of the Magic both lead teams with young rosters, and while they are about to add a lottery pick, they’re still in search of direction.

 For Billups and the Trail Blazers, they are looking to rebound from a 27-win season this past year. With superstar Damian Lillard still on the team the Blazers are caught in between building for the future and trying to build a team around Lillard to win now. They’ll need sooner to make their choice sooner rather than later on what direction they want the franchise to go in to get back to being even a playoff contender.

Mosley and Orlando have the 1st overall pick in this year’s draft and this pick is important for a couple of reasons. First, they need to make sure they get a sure-fire franchise-changing prospect as the first pick of the draft. With this pick they’ll also need to make sure the prospect they choose falls in line with whatever team building strategy they plan to incorporate. With Orlando having so many young players at various positions, Mosley and the franchise must determine which young players are going to be apart of their core. if they do this it will make it much easier for them to draft and incorporate their first overall pick with a clear direction.

The last two teams and coaches to address are Mike Brown of the Kings and Wes Unseld Jr. of the Wizards. These two teams are in interesting positions as both are caught in between being playoff teams and constant lottery participants.

The Kings finished with a 30-52 record, placing 12th in the West, and missing the Play-In tournament. Now after the hire of Mike Brown, the question becomes – how close to a legit playoff contender are they? With players like De’Aaron Fox and Domontas Sabonis you would think the trajectory would be at least playoff squad. But with them picking high in the lottery at #4 overall, the Kings must decide how this pick will fit under their franchise vision – if they even have a feasible one in place.

Unseld Jr. and the Wizards went 35-47 this past season finishing 12th in the East. They have a huge decision to make on whether to pay or trade star shooting guard Bradley Beal. It’s time to decide whether it’s worth building around Beal to be a backend playoff team or rebuild and start over.

The Wizards and the Kings must decide what route they want to go before the Draft, as that will determine what these franchises provide these two coaches with their respective lottery picks.

In the end, the number of NBA franchises with Black head coaches in the lottery is eye-opening. It will be interesting to see which prospects these coaches end up with and how these franchises set up these coaches to hopefully prosper this coming season. Hopefully all these Black coaches get have major success the coming year so the number of these black coaches leading lottery teams is lower going forward.

Summary: The NBA Draft this year has a number of teams led by Black head coaches in the lottery. NXT LVL delves into the teams in the lottery led by Black head coaches and their outlooks going into their drafting and team building.