NBA Coach Rankings Find Mike Brown in Surprising Spot

CBS Sports ranks the 2023 Coach of the Year as the 13th best NBA head coach ahead of the 2024-25 season.

Mar 31, 2024; Sacramento, California, USA; Sacramento Kings head coach Mike Brown gestures during the third quarter against the Utah Jazz at Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Mike Brown has had a career as a head coach that most aspiring coaches would dream of. He ended the Sacramento Kings playoff drought in his first season with the team, has been named NBA Coach of the Year twice, and has the fourth-best career win percentage (60.7) of active head coaches. In fact, he has the sixteenth-best win percentage of all head coaches in NBA history who have coached at least one full season. 

However, despite Mike Brown’s list of accomplishments as a head coach, a new ranking suggests that he is just average. CBS Sports’ Sam Quinn released an NBA head coach ranking for the 2024-25 season, and Mike Brown was ranked at number 13. While some of the coaches ahead of Brown are deserving, some are much less accomplished than the Kings coach. 

Mike Brown just made NBA history 👏 pic.twitter.com/25G6q1GSdM

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 19, 2023

Quinn did have mostly praise of Brown, despite the surprisingly low ranking: 

“Mike Brown teams are always better defensively than they have any right to be. The Kings were somehow above average on that end of the floor last season when their only major defensive plus -- Keon Ellis -- was in and out of the rotation until March. He clearly picked up some offensive tricks during his time with the Warriors as well, though the league had seemingly caught up to a lot of Sacramento's hand-offs and tempo-based offense last season. This season will be a major test. DeMar DeRozan is a tricky fit on this roster. If Brown makes it work, he could be a top-10 coach.” 

Apparently Mike Brown still has a lot to prove to be viewed as a top head coach, and a deep playoff run would go a long way to showing the league he’s one of the best. 

Miami Heat longtime head coach Erik Spoelstra was ranked as the best coach in the league, while JJ Redick, the analyst and part-time podcaster turned Los Angeles Lakers head coach, was ranked as the worst.

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