Hoops Habit
Fansided

NBA: Greatest head coach in each team’s franchise history

By Josh Cornelissen

Gregg Popovich, Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Gregg Popovich, Manu Ginobili, San Antonio Spurs. (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
5 of 31
Next
Paul Silas, Charlotte Hornets
Paul Silas, Charlotte Hornets. (Photo credit should read NELL REDMOND/AFP/Getty Images) /

Greatest head coach in Charlotte Hornets history: Paul Silas, 1999-02, 2010-12

The Charlotte Hornets are one of the league’s youngest franchises, with a total of just 29 seasons and 11 different head coaches. With just 10 playoff berths and four series victories, there is not a lot of dominance to go around in this team’s history.

Only one Charlotte coach totaled more than five playoff wins and that was Paul Silas. He coached the Hornets for three seasons from 1999 to 2002 before the team (and Silas) moved to New Orleans, totaling 161 wins in 281 regular-season games for a 57.3 percent winning percentage.

In the postseason, Silas was the only Charlotte coach to garner any real success, winning playoff series in back-to-back years in 2001 (3-0 over the Miami Heat) and 2002 (3-1 over the Orlando Magic). As a franchise, Charlotte has 23 playoff wins and 11 of them came under Silas.

Silas returned to the franchise in 2010 and coached two moribund seasons, including overseeing the 2011-12 NBA season when the then-Bobcats won just seven wins, the fewest in league history. It’s simply an indictment of Charlotte’s bumpy history that no other coach can beat out Silas for this honor.