The Deep 3 Podcast - We Put NBA Coaches In A Tier List | TD3 Clips

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Tier listing the best and worst NBA coaches! #nba Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Mo's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We are going to put almost every NBA coach into a tier list, rank them based on how good they are today, where how much we feel they could lead us to a championship. First off, let's start with Jason Kidd. Where did you go? To make the NBA finals. Are we counting, like, their entire career? Who they are today.

As a coach, how confident you are about winning a championship led by this player. See, Jason Kidd is like the Jamal Murray of coaches where he's going to turn up when the playoffs come around. But also, he has to have. have, like, Alco just have to have one of the best players. I don't think off, I don't know. He's a really good defensive coach in the playoffs. He rises and, like, he's really good at game plans,

trolls in the regular season and waste a lot of games, trying to figure things out and experiment that pisses fans off. I feel like it's a beat to me. B has potential to be A, but B feels good. I mean, when they actually, like, built a team around them and, like, they got to the finals. He did also maximize Kari and Luca as well, forcing him to play off ball. And he has a team now. that is to his vision of long, lengthy defenders.

So it should be good, but I feel like B's fine. Is his vision or Nico's vision? Is there in cahoots? Is the vision aligned? See, he's trying to pretend he wasn't involved in that conversation, but we know the truth. Wow. I feel like he's top of B. I will say that.

Top of B feels good. Choncy Billups, somebody whose job we were calling for before last year, but figure some stuff out, saved his job last year, made that team defend incredibly well. I feel like he's a good defensive coach at the very least. Yeah, if there was a most improved. coach, Chauncey would get it. Yeah. Still C or D though.

He scaved off the F allegations, but still C or D. I would go see just because Portland really started to look like really competent and they could start hanging their hat on something. And so when you're trying to take steps forward and you're trying to create an identity, having something that you know is this is how we play basketball. That's very, very important. So I would put him into the offense. I think he belongs and see because even.

Who's on offense though? Who's on their team? Bro, he ran some bullshit offensively. The amount of times I saw DeAndre just standing around, he got the blame for it. Like, he's garbage because their offense is nonsense. The most stagnant ball screen offense you've ever seen in your goddamn life. I feel like he's got to be D.

There's a lot of good coaches here. Look at the offensive talent, though. Shaden Sharp. He was not maximizing and Scoot. And none of these players are maximizing. But like, I'm not going to fall. I think because he can establish himself on one end very well, which is arguably the most important end on the basketball court.

I think he belongs to C's. D is like, we can move off. You guys are incredibly generous, but okay, well, you'll see. I'm out voted. Incredibly generous. Eric Spolstra. S. He's the longest tenured coach in the league.

That's so crazy. We're at that point now where he's like, he's the veteran. Yeah. And he's never won a coach of the year too, which is just straight up politics. I mean, he never won 50 games without Brown either. Oh. Shut up. There's been two finals runs that everybody attributes it to Jimmy Bullitt.

I guess so. I guess so. Yeah, he's a big part of this team somehow. being relevant for the 2020s and 2010s without LeBron like you said half pitch to me Butler half of it's air exposure the stuff that he did to maximize talent utterly ridiculous

he gets the most of the shitty role players to the point where they go and get mid-level exception contracts in other teams and their garbage and other dead weight like given some yeah we see it time and time again and then also too I remember when Braun just like immediately left and they were running the Chris Boss

era and he was like the number one option for a little bit even that after that era too they were like somewhat still mediocre when we all thought they were going to be a straight lottery team yeah so us okay i'm a udoca i'm going i'm going it i think you've seen even and obviously like this is in his last stop but made the finals had was very very instrumental damn you're us in the in the turnaround with boston comes to houston one of the most pitiful franchises in that moment and has turned it around they got 50 wins yeah i minimum it the only thing that's stopping him from being

S is that he hasn't won a championship just yet and that's a straight-up timing. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Made a finals run with one team, helped get him over the hump of always being in the conference finals, goes to a new team, takes him from rebuilding to two-seed right away,

easy A tier. Okay, this is a fun conversation with him being a. Joe Missoula, the guy who took that finals team and helped him win it all. With the help of Chris Hofzinger and Drew Holiday,

so it's not just Joe Missoula, but he was there for that. Revolutionized their offense and their approach with volume three-point shooting. They kind of perfected NBA math for his season because of him? Yeah.

Do we want to call it? Listen, you win a championship. It does, it does take a lot to get there, obviously. And he did get better. Like in the, in the years, like from 23 to 24 to win the title, like you did see improvement from him. I kind of think you have to go A. Yeah, top of A probably.

You can't be S tier. You don't have the sustained excellence of the top end, making them most out of nothing. with mediocre talent, rising them up, like some of the guys next year. That's really, like, I think what the top trick cook does. It's like, can they get more out of these players than get out of themselves? I wouldn't say Joe Mazzulu does that. But, I don't know about that because he'd be having you questioning life sometimes of the craziest shit that he says.

You're right. I'm talking about Peyman Pritchard is the top fucking 15 point guard in some weeks. So maybe he is like that. But I think top A is fine. You think he's better than Ame Adoka? I don't think so. I think Aimei deserves a spot. I don't know how to parse it.

But it's weird. Yeah. Yeah, you're weird. It's weird. I made an amazing defensive coach. Isn't, he hasn't led brilliant offenses. They really blow your mind. It's not like he's incapable,

but like the Rockets' offense wasn't a sight to behold in the half court last year. I don't think any coach couldn't make that a thing, though, with the talent that they had. But I think Rockies fans would tell you there was a lot, there was some meat left on the bone offensively that they don't feel like he got the most out of that group. And Joe Mozilla, it's not like he's a nonsense defensive coach. It's pretty simple, switch everything.

He's very, like, modern in that way. But led one of the best two-way teams. of all time. Okay, that's fair. As long as they are going to, no one can go ahead. Yeah, right next to each other. Okay. Kenny Atkinson, coached the year.

I love him. I think he deserves the BNA. Revolutionized the Cleveland Cavaliers with a whole new offensive approach that completely maximized their talent. Listen, I think... He changed Evan Moby's offensive life. He's also made Donovan Mitchell

and... Him and Garland... Darius Garland is a lot more. Darius Garland is a corner three-point merchant. I really like I really like Kenny Atkinson because even in Brooklyn when he was there

was maximizing talent he goes to Cleveland they were already a good team to take them from whatever they were last year to now be at 64 wins in your first year on the team that had drama going into the offseason had potential trade requests

you brought everything together it's minimum A and I guess like if we're reserving S tier for like championship level coaches then fine, we can do that. But Kenny Atkinson is at the top of the league as a coach. Okay, we can go ahead. Yeah, it's between A or B.

And we can go ahead. That's fine. Chris Finch, he's kind of the opposite, Jason Kidd. He's really good at building a program and having a floor in the regular season, putting his players in right positions to succeed. Dog shit at adjustments within season, within playoff series. Does zero adjustments, their fans will tell you. So I feel like he's the same level with Jason Kidd.

Just completely opposite. I think he belongs in B. There's nothing like revolutionary necessarily. that he's done for the game, especially in the playoffs when it matters the most. And he'd be complaining to the media. Yeah. I have like, I'd scarred in my brain hearing him cry about the refs at the posting your press conference trying to like play the mental game and get the refs to get those calls.

And it worked. Yeah. The OCC got less calls the next game. But it was shameless. And you know what? I respect the coach for being shameless for the betterment of the team. Shout out to him because I hear coaching on one leg. I like.

True. Oh, that is true. That's so random. He was coaching on one leg. Did he tear his ACL? He did. Wait, was it an ACO? I think he was an ACO.

It was something bad. He tore Zs and he was out there. Oh, the God. J.J. Reddick. Ricky head coach. See, this is why Chanty Bopes has to be D. Because J.J. Reddick is unproven. He's had good stretches, but also some flaws.

But overall, like, he led a three seed with so much in the air, turmoil in the air. he still found a way to make them succeed, gimmick their way to a solid defense post-Luca trade, and found a way to be decent in the regular season. To me, he's the definition of a C-tiered coach right now. I think, yeah, the amount of turmoil that they went through, I haven't seen any NBA coach or the last few years be able to have wild highs and lows,

change your entire, not your entire starting lineup, but change important pieces to your starting lineup and, like, be better, just maximize your outcome as well. I think me personally, I might put him in B. Now, he's too flawed still. His offense wasn't great for most of the year.

And then the playoff stuff in that elimination game where he ran the starters for like 48 minutes, trying to big brain it. He's way too, way too green right now to be B. Way too green. This looks way too stressed all the time. So I think he should be C and Billups should be D personally. Okay.

Let's put him top of C tier. In the same tier as Billups? Yep. For now. Bro, who do you all think Johnson Billups is? He's a decent defensive coach. bro he sucks we could put him in d but we got to we got to see who else lies in c first ah all right man billy donovan

feels like a c top of g or d he might belong in d now we can move chauncey down to d because because billy donovan is the definition of c tier coach correct the most average coach coaching the most average team for a long time so average that he likes it he signed an extension with the bulls like four days ago what's crazy because He's like, what do you do? What do you do? Dude, I remember he was actually beefing with the front office a couple months ago saying, like, I'm not sure what our direction is. And there was just a clear disconnection.

Yeah, nobody knows the Bulls direction. And nine people in the building. They obviously, he's going for like year four of playing championships every year, making it to the 10 seat every single season. You know what? And like, I'm listening to, they gave him a bag. But like, I don't know. He's like the... Right now, guess what Billy Donovan's record with the Bulls is.

Probably exactly 500. Maybe a little bit below 500. A hundred and ninety five wins to two hundred and five losses. Damn near 500. Yeah. Is that like 49% win percentage? It's as close to 500 as you can get. Like,

does you want more for yourself in the life? One playoff appearance in five years. And he just got the extension. That's great. Keep out he gave money, man. Good for him. He's a third longest. Yeah, he's, he's secured a spot for the third longest in the NBA compared to every

other coach. is just him, Steve Kerr and Spolstra. That's crazy. He's a definition of fine. I can't even say you don't maximize your talent or you don't succeed.

You're the coach of the Bulls. I have no clue what the ceiling is of these bullshit rosters. Perfectly fine, see. So you go in, you work with the talent.

You do what you can. Hopefully JJ and Reddick can elevate this coming season we think he can, but right now with him being so young in a mixed bag, it makes sense to put like the perfectly neutral coach

right there next to him. Yeah, I guess. Quinn Snyder. Very clear that when Quinn Steider is coaching your team, you go have some good offense. Yeah, that is very clear. Yeah, the Hawks have like the weirdest holes and flaws of the roster over the last few years. And this past year, it's looked better, but again, we've like just gone through injury. So it's hard to gauge him as a coach.

But I feel like he just belongs and see he's going to try to maximize your defense, stunting a lot of passes and all that. he's more talented on the offensive end as a coach, most definitely more creative. But he hasn't done anything like game breaking or change of my life necessarily. He hasn't had the opportunity to, so I think he belongs to see. Yeah, he's a good offensive coach that, yeah, maybe

he could prove to be as good as Chris Finch if he had Anthony if he had Anthony Edwards as the lynch bit of his team and the DPOI, but yeah, see feels fine. And he had the DPOI way back in Utah. Doc Rivers. Oh yeah, I forgot. He had D. Mitch and go there. Yeah. Oh, maybe he is the same level. They both were just making runs and getting shit on by better teams. Maybe he's beatier, I don't know.

He could be beater, but right now, I think your team right now also kind of attributes to that. But he's also kind of swaggy with the red glasses. He wears Ferragamo belts a lot. Put him in B tier. Put him in B tier. His team is his ass. For the Farragamo belts.

Doc Rivers. Listen. So we hate on Doc a lot. Like, also dessert, you know. And we're going to do it some more right now. Now he is D-tier. D-Tier. He doesn't do anything.

When he got hired, I understood it. Okay, you want to get Griffin out of here and bring in somebody that can be competent? We want a professional who's been here before, yada, yada, yada. Name me one identifiable thing about the team that got better after that. Respect. No, we did not. I respect them so much less than that did the first half of last year.

So much less. I have zero respect for the bucks as a roster or an organization and a motherfucking group. One thing that I do hate the most is so enough. knowing is how he eliminated Andre Jackson Jr. from the starting lineup. Never plays young guys. No, the league passed him by offensively. He's not some genius anymore. Didn't even necessarily

made their defense better. The defense is fine. He's not an incompetent coach, but he does not elevate in really anyway. If not respect from you, he's at least a respectable name in the locker ring. I guess he can go see because Billy Donovan's, I see I suppose they can be next to each other. Like, just like blank slate, average as coaches. I don't know. I don't know if he can really do that too.

Dog River stinks. I put him in D. He runs rudimentary schemes. He has great, he's at MVP's to holster him and get him solid results. I think if you put him on an average team and tell him go make them competitive with, without one of the best players in the NBA, I don't imagine there's any super strength that are going to make him. I agree with you. I think, yeah, I think he definitely belongs in. MVP merchant.

If you give someone like Quinn Snyder or Chris Finch, like Dame and Janus, you're going to definitely figure out a way to maximize those. guys together, more than they already are. He's just closing off a name. And again, he's not even, he's not like you hire him and you're going to completely collapse. Your team's disgusting. You can't win. He's competent. He's been here for a war.

He knows how to do the basic stuff to be a team that can win and gain depending on your players. But there's been so many years now where he's done literally nothing to make it seems better in any tangible way that you can identify. They're better because they have him. Put him back on ESPN, man. Please. Who's next? Tailu. S.

I think he belongs in S to you. Fantastic. defensive coach. He won an NBA championship. He's a part of the big part of the reason why the Clippers have been so respectable. Talk about maximizing your talent and like having the most random players just have star years. Like Lou Williams, Mantras Harrow won a sixth man of the year. Dude's out of the league now. Um, Zubosh had a fantastic year as well, 17, 14-4-game scored. Like, I love, I love Tyloo.

Yeah, listen, you didn't need to sell me, but you sold me. That's here for Tyler. Yeah, it's pretty easily. You could argue him as being the best coach in the NBA. You know who else is there's esteer now on the topic? Rick Carlyle. He does. What can we say? Listen, the name or the word that we've been throwing out this whole time is maximized

and Rick Carlyle clearly figured out how to do that in Indiana. Everywhere he goes, he wins, he has a title, he's done all that. Okay. He had his, he didn't win the championship this year. Nevertheless, it was still a championship level coaching accolade. This was one of the best three rounds of. in-game adjustments i've ever seen from a coach he put you know he put okays he's coach in a fucking blender he put everybody to blender it was a crazy run at least for this year he deserves

us here we'll see if you can do it again without halliburton and show he's still on that level or whatever maybe next year we'll maybe not feel as great and pastures we didn't feel as great and i don't i don't care when you lose the best player on your team for an entire year clearly things are going to be different so what he with him and the pacers did this year that means a lot he is he is he is a to you okay will hardy offensive mastermind on the jazz but he's on the jazz and that's why i feel bad because he probably could be a beat he could be but the jazz are holding him back he's a better coach in quince knighter i think i think he's a better offensive mind his offensive system is legitimately brilliant

and legitimately like made lower mark in the star and if you get competent players in there and play into his motion scheme and get the right type of wings in there like like hopefully a's barely that can do all the cutting do all the running off the screens like he has a tangible skill set that can elevate players so you want to go be i think yeah i don't know if we can listen and we're not just i think j reddick has a tangible skill set too to elevate players not like that he just had like i don't know he had lebron and luka and anthony davis he did not not like that he also had d and zor russell too on his team brats chancel russell not the worst player in the league not a big deal hardy like hardy is i think a top four or five offensive coach in the league it's hard to

Yeah, again, you know, do it. Just put him in the defense is so weird too. Yeah, again, the jazz are so dog shit. Like, how can you talk about what he does on the defensive end? Exactly. That's why I feel comfortable being with a beat, putting him in C, though, because it's just questions, you know?

Yeah, but again, like, it's one of those things where we're not just looking at every coach's record. You know, the same thing for Quinn Snyder. We're like, he's not on that level in terms of accomplishments, but we know he's like that. I feel similarly about Will Hardy. Okay. What do you guys want to do with J.B. Bickerstaff? C. I think. Good coach. Okay. Yeah, he's clearly, he's clearly somebody who can go in, raise the, raise the floor of your team, you know. And I, like, that, that matters. Being, being able to to be the guy who comes in and fixes teams and makes them competent again. Like, think about how bad the, the piston situation was. And then J.B. Biggerstaff comes in, stabilizes that along with, you know, free agents and everything. And we finally get to see a.

version of Kate Cunningham, and we're like, oh, that's, that's the all sign that we thought was going to be here when we, when we, when we took him with the top pick of the drive. Is he who they want Doc Rivers to be? Uh, at this is he, he, like, he's like, new age, Dr. Rivers. Yeah, like, everyone said, talks about Doc Rivers, like, when they got hired by the bucks, like, he'll stabilize them. That's what everyone was saying is that he'll make them good enough.

He won't hold them back. That's, that's picker stuff. He's done that twice now, too, with the, obviously the pistons. And also he did that with the Cleveland Cavaliers when he first got there as well. He was in the mud. With them back when they had Lorry marketing and all that And built them up to the highest point Until he wasn't able to be more creative

As an offensive coach So you know, okay, yeah, I like that Let's see. I think you see. He's a head of Billy Doleman. Oh, for sure, for sure. Okay. I guess, I'm not even worried about the order, but we'll do that.

Jory Fernandez. So unproven so it's hard to gauge him. He's on the nets. He is a great coach. He's smart, though. He's one of the best exes in those coaches in the league. the defensive game plans that he was putting on in these random games that they shouldn't have been trying to win

because they should have been tanking but he was out here locking up Luca Donchish because he has a mad scientist's brain where he's like I gotta blitz him I gotta blitz him and he was putting every opposing star in shackles for no reason I think he's gonna be an S-tier coach

Ooh I think he's going to be S-tier for sure at least But I think right now I think he's already to be I think he's a diamond and rough Yeah okay Like that team that team was like the ninth It was like the eighth and ninth lottery odds they had it was something

it was something like it was mostly because of georgie fernandez was on the team it's it's very clear like also whenever you whenever you're watching like bad teams it's it's clear who has like who's bad but they're not bad they're bad just because like they aren't that good but not because like they like

aren't playing hard or everybody on the team is like truly like should not be in the league like Brooklyn you you watched me like okay like i can by square i can kind of see what you guys are cooking Yeah, Mark Dagnot. Pretty easy A tier to me. Yeah.

He's, see, had he showed up in some moments, he could have been S-tier, but it's the bad moments that he had in this playoff run really, really shined through. His inexperience really came through. So it's like, used to have another level to get through. But if he can go through another year and make sure to not make those mistakes, like fouling up three with so much time left. some of the, you know, however you want to parse the starting lineup changes going into the finals, all that stuff.

He can get to S-tier very easily, though. The lights were a little bit bright, but he did take one of the youngest teams in the NBA to a one-seed and then a one-seed and then a championship. This is the top tier coach. He just has to get better at the small stuff that separates S&A. Yeah. Jamal Mosley. So hard to parse again.

Elite defense builder. Great concepts. Offense is still dog shit. And he doesn't help that at all. So I'm saying these two things. One, the offense being that bad is it's on Jamal Mosley. It's also on the Orlando Magic as an organization because that predates Jamal. However, oh man, this stuff is disgusting.

I don't like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like, I like watching the magic play basketball. I don't, I don't like watching them play an offensive basketball. I don't think Jamal Mosley is necessarily a innovative offensive coach at all, too, because it's like, I don't even see them getting their attempts. up. Now, maybe that could just be like natural player tendencies and all that. But when it comes to the sets that they run and just any, like sometimes how I know you're a good offensive coach is to watch how these players free flow and what their tendencies are. And I don't see anything that confuses me as like a normal pedestrian watching the league at all. I don't know if he's that different than Chauncey Bullock's. And that was my number two where I was like,

should we move Chanty down? Is there other than the same? same? No, I think they're both D. Yeah, I think they're D. Yeah, I think they're both D. I think having offensive competency is a very important thing. And the team, the team doesn't have good shooting. Their star players aren't good enough shooters, aren't going to fitting together. It's on everybody, not just him. So we're not saying he's the reason they're holding them back. But I think there's a tendency with young coaches that help a young team, like breakout, be interesting, make the playoffs off of a strength like his defense, where you're just like, surely he's not the problem, it's the shooting. And we kind of discount the role the coach plays in that.

And I think he's probably also to blame just like all the other things you mentioned are. Yeah, I agree. His ceiling, next year we could turn around with this new team with Desmond Bain and all the other good shoes that they have like Jason Richardson and all that. He could be B. If you tell me there's a world where the shooting is fixed and we see that he gets in some improvements on his end too and he shows, okay, he's a beatier coach. That's fine. I believe you. I would also believe you if the offense is also dog shit next year and Desmond Bain is an numerical worker and they end up firing him for somebody else to come in.

I will say the offense, in my mind, they should have a top. like 12 offensive league if it's 15 or lower he's not a good coach it could be a little lower in 12 I think but it can't be like 25 again fuck no you got he got to be fired we have we have to get yeah we have to get out the bottom they got to be top 17 or 18 somewhere on that not I'm I'm I'm with it I think I think top 12 is like their offensive talent still if Franz is like doesn't improve then I could see like top 17 16 or whatever then it's like okay whatever like your second best player literally refuses to improve on that end you're you're used, well, improving that.

You're talking about three-point shooting. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, because Fons and Paolo are just flawed. I think that the day, unless they fix their biggest issues, they're not going to be a great offense, I think, no matter how good Jamal Moseley is. But again, they have to just be decent enough that they can have a top five defense and still win.

So, but moral of the story, D is fine for now. Charles Lee. Do you have our first F tier coach? I only put them on here because we needed an F tier. And we put somebody who, Charles Lee might prove to be a good coach. he's had one year to do it on the Hornets it was a complete fucking disaster class and it's one of those things that

it's hard to parse how much of it is him but I'm sure some of it is him and him being a rookie head coach because they were disrespectful to the game of basketball at times last year you can't walk away saying anything good about the Sawahorn it's nothing good yeah and he set him up to die

he might be a good coach if he was in Jada Redd's spot coaching Lakers coaching LeBron James Luke Adonshage Anthony Davis at times maybe we would also say okay he's a solid coach with strengths, but needs to put it together, he didn't get that opportunity. So F purely because of your situation and your lack of ability to show us something good yet. Jury's not out though.

Man, that fire is so crazy in Charlotte, bro. The smoke is so heavy. You can't even see you, man. Do you know how, like, I do feel bad for him because it is very hard. The entire internet believed that your best player tattooed Cheetos on his toes. And like, that's the, that's the talent and the personnel that you have to deal with on a day-to-day basis. think about that it was so clearly fake and they were like look at what lamella ball did again and he has to go in every day and work with that yeah he's a sorry man last one steve cur

four championships dynasty count the rings i don't care this is estier if you were to talk to warriors fans they will convince you he is a c tier coach and guess what they are ungrateful pricks and i hear that worse is 2012 and i will glad to take all four of their wings. Yeah, they're ridiculous. Everybody in the NBA respect Steve Kerr, except for his own fan base.

They're fucking lunatics. They're a cult of Steph Curry. They think it's all Curry, nobody else. Steve Curry is a legendary coach. Ungrateful bastards. That's what I called. He's not perfect.

He's not the best of developing young talent. Also, young talent they give him sucks. No wonder he doesn't want to develop Omaris Spellman. Exactly. The wonder he doesn't want to develop fucking Jonathan Camingo. Yeah, bro.

They've given them nothing to develop on that as well. Oh, no. He didn't make Eric Pascal a star. He's terrible. Exactly. The best young players that he's developed

and who actually had juice and talent is Jordan Poole. Why isn't Quinn Cook on the roster anymore? Yeah, very great coach. Yeah. And then we are.

We got four S tier, four A tier, five B tier. It's a nice even split. I like this. I like that. Okay. Who can you see making

the biggest leap? Charles Lee, if he had a regular team. Can you imagine going from like an S-tier organization of the Boston Celtics to literally the worst team

known to man? Yeah, no. Tough break. Tough break. Tough break.