List of Charlotte Hornets head coaches

An arena packed with spectators. A basketball court is in the center, and a scoreboard is directly above it.
The Hornets have played their home games at the Spectrum Center since 2005.

The Charlotte Hornets are an American professional basketball team based in Charlotte, North Carolina. They play in the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA).[1] The Hornets began playing in 1988 as an expansion team, before relocating to New Orleans in 2002 and renaming themselves as the Pelicans in 2013. Charlotte was then awarded a new expansion team named the Bobcats in 2004, which reassumed the Hornets name in 2014. In a deal with the NBA and Pelicans, the renamed Hornets also reclaimed the history and records of the original Hornets from 1988 to 2002, while all of the original Hornets' records from 2002 to 2013 will remain with the Pelicans.[2][3]

The Hornets franchise have played their home games at the Spectrum Center, formerly known as the Charlotte Bobcats Arena and the Time Warner Cable Arena, since 2005.[4] The Hornets were owned by Michael Jordan[5][6], but are now owned by Gabe Plotkin & Rick Schnall, with Jordan retaining a minority stake.

There have been 10 head coaches for the Hornets franchise. The franchise's first head coach was Dick Harter, who coached for two seasons. Allan Bristow and Steve Clifford are the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season games coached (410); Bristow is also the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season game wins (207); Dave Cowens is the franchise's all-time leader for the highest winning percentage in the regular season (.609); Paul Silas is the franchise's all-time leader for the most playoff games coached (23), and the most playoff-game wins (11). Harter, Bristow, Sam Vincent and Mike Dunlap have spent their entire NBA coaching careers with the Hornets franchise. Larry Brown is the only coach of the franchise to have been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.[7] The previous head coach of the Hornets was Steve Clifford, who returned and coached two seasons as head coach. The current head coach of the Hornets is Charles Lee, who was hired by the Hornets on May 9, 2024.

Key

GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
Win% Winning percentage
# Number of coaches[a]
* Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Hornets
† Elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2023–24 season.

# Name Term[b] GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements Reference
Regular season Playoffs
Charlotte Hornets
1 Dick Harter* 1988–1990 122 28 94 .230 0 0 0 – [8]
2 Gene Littles 1990–1991 124 37 87 .298 0 0 0 – [9]
3 Allan Bristow* 1991–1996 410 207 203 .505 13 5 8 .385 [10]
4 Dave Cowens 1996–1999 179 109 70 .609 12 4 8 .333 [11]
5 Paul Silas[c] 1999–2002 281 161 120 .573 23 11 12 .478 [12]
Charlotte Bobcats
6 Bernie Bickerstaff 2004–2007 246 77 169 .313 0 0 0 – [13]
7 Sam Vincent* 2007–2008 82 32 50 .390 0 0 0 – [14]
8 Larry Brown† 2008–2010 192 88 104 .458 4 0 4 .000 [7]
— Paul Silas[c] 2010–2012 120 32 88 .267 0 0 0 – [15]
9 Mike Dunlap* 2012–2013 82 21 61 .256 0 0 0 – [16]
10 Steve Clifford 2013–2014 82 43 39 .524 4 0 4 .000 [17]
Charlotte Hornets
— Steve Clifford 2014–2018 328 153 175 .466 7 3 4 .429 [17]
11 James Borrego 2018–2022 301 138 163 .458 0 0 0 – [18]
— Steve Clifford 2022–2024 164 48 116 .293 — — — – [17]
12 Charles Lee 2024–present 0 0 0 – — — — – [citation needed]
  • Dave Cowens coached the Hornets for three seasons from 1996 to 1999.
    Dave Cowens coached the Hornets for three seasons from 1996 to 1999.
  • Steve Clifford is the longest-serving head coach from 2013 to 2018 and since 2022 to 2024.
    Steve Clifford is the longest-serving head coach from 2013 to 2018 and since 2022 to 2024.

Notes

  • a A running total of the number of coaches of the Bobcats/Hornets. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
  • b Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.
  • c Paul Silas has a combined total of 401 regular season games coached, with a W–L record of 193–208, for a .481 winning percentage during his non-consecutive tenures in Charlotte.

Franchise leaders

All-time leaders – as of the end of the 2021–22 NBA season. Bold denotes active coach with the team.

Most Games Coached

  1. Steve Clifford – 574
  2. Allan Bristow – 410
  3. Paul Silas – 401
  4. James Borrego – 301
  5. Bernie Bickerstaff – 246

Most Wins Coached

  1. Steve Clifford – 244
  2. Allan Bristow – 207
  3. Paul Silas – 193
  4. James Borrego – 138
  5. Dave Cowens – 109

Best Winning %

  1. Dave Cowens – .609
  2. Allan Bristow – .505
  3. Paul Silas – .481
  4. Larry Brown – .458
  5. Steve Clifford – .425

Most Playoff Games Coached

  1. Paul Silas – 23
  2. Allan Bristow – 13
  3. Dave Cowens – 12
  4. Steve Clifford – 11
  5. Larry Brown – 4

Most Playoff Wins Coached

  1. Paul Silas – 11
  2. Allan Bristow – 5
  3. Dave Cowens – 4
  4. Steve Clifford – 3

Best Playoff Winning %

  1. Paul Silas – .478
  2. Allan Bristow – .385
  3. Dave Cowens – .333
  4. Steve Clifford – .273

References

General
  • "Charlotte Bobcats Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
Specific
  1. ^ "Team Index". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  2. ^ "Twitter / Hornets: All the history of the Charlotte Hornets will return to Charlotte. Not only the Bobcats era '04-'14, but also the original Hornets 1988-2002". Twitter.com. 2014-05-20. Retrieved 2014-05-20.
  3. ^ Hornets all the buzz in Charlotte. ESPN, 2014-05-20.
  4. ^ "Arena Information". Time Warner Cable Arena/Bobcats Sports & Entertainment. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  5. ^ "Bobcats 2008-09 Executive Staff Bios". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on December 1, 2009. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  6. ^ "Robert L. Johnson Adds Nelly To Bobcats Ownership Team". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on December 12, 2008. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Larry Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
  8. ^ "Dick Harter Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  9. ^ "Gene Littles Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  10. ^ "Allan Bristow Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  11. ^ "Dave Cowens Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Archived from the original on May 17, 2008. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  12. ^ "Paul Silas Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved January 26, 2009.
  13. ^ "Bernie Bickerstaff Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  14. ^ "Sam Vincent Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved December 4, 2008.
  15. ^ "Paul Silas Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved April 29, 2011.
  16. ^ "Mike Dunlap Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  17. ^ a b c "Steve Clifford Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
  18. ^ "James Borrego Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved October 23, 2020.