Five names to watch in Charlotte Hornets coaching search

One thing is clear in the Charlotte Hornets’ search to replace Steve Clifford as their head coach — they are going young. Charlotte is targeting top young assistants known for player development to take over and hopefully become their Mark Daigneault.

The Hornets have already gotten permission to talk to four assistant coaches, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, and other names have been floated. It’s early, but here are five names to watch in the coaching search (in alphabetical order).

David Adelman (Denver Nuggets)The son of legendary coach Rick Adelman, the younger Adelman has been a coach focused on player development at the NBA level for 13 years. He spent a season with the Orlando Magic but since 2017 has been with the Denver Nuggets, moving up to associated head coach and drawing praise from Nikola Jokic while being part of the team that won a ring last season. He interviewed for the Toronto head coaching job last summer.

Jordi Fernandez (Sacramento Kings)Fernandez already has a busy summer in front of him as the head coach of a stacked Canadian National Team headed to the Paris Olympics (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, maybe Jamal Murray, Dillon Brooks, RJ Barrett and more NBA names). Fernandez coached Canada to a bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup last summer. Fernandez also was part of the Denver staff but left to become the associate head coach in Sacramento, and he’s got a couple of years of G-League head coaching experience with the Canton Charge. He has been part of the interview process for several head coaching vacancies in the past couple of years.

Charles Lee (Boston Celtics)Lee has been an NBA assistant for a decade now, most of that under Mike Budenholzer, first in Atlanta then following him to Milwaukee where Lee was part of the 2021 NBA championship staff. Lee is a guy who has been seen around the league as head coaching material for a while, has been part of several interview processes. When Budenholzer was fired last summer, the Celtics hired Lee as a lead assistant for Joe Mazzulla in Boston. Lee interviewed for the Hornets job back when they hired Kenny Atkinson (but that fell apart and suddenly the Hornets were calling Clifford).

Chris Quinn (Miami Heat)Quinn is another name who has come up for head coaching jobs for years. He has the resume: A former NBA player who has spent the last decade in Miami learning under (arguably) the best coach in the game in Erik Spoelstra. Quinn has been the guy in charge of developing players for a franchise known for getting the most out of young players, that is a huge plus.

Kevin Young (Phoenix Suns)Young was one of the finalists for the Suns job when Phoenix brought in Frank Vogel, and with that, overturned the coaching staff except for the highly respected and well-liked Young (who is reportedly the highest-paid assistant in the league). He has head coaching experience at the G-League level plus has been a lead assistant now on the staff of Monty Williams and Vogel — he’s a person a lot of front office people around the league think deserves his shot.

Whoever becomes the next head coach in Charlotte will take over a rebuilding team but one with talent such as Brandon Miller and LaMelo Ball (if Ball can stay healthy). The Hornets are on track to have a top-five pick in this June’s NBA Draft.