017.87%
Overall leader
Brian Keefe and the Wizards set the pace
Brian Keefe of the Washington Wizards drew the highest overall share at 7.87%, finishing 1.39 percentage points ahead of JJ Redick.
RotoGrindersU.S. NBA fan survey · Head coach firing picks
4,398U.S. NBA fans surveyed
30NBA team fanbases represented
50U.S. states represented
Oct 2–62026 survey fieldwork
We asked 4,398 U.S. NBA fans“Which NBA Head Coach do you think will be fired first?”
Key findings
Six quick takeaways from the coaches fans were most and least likely to pick first.
026.48%
Second and third place
JJ Redick held second, with Nick Nurse third
JJ Redick ranked second overall at 6.48%, while Nick Nurse followed in third at 4.89%. That kept the runner-up gap over third place at 1.59 percentage points.
03
Fanbase hot seats
23 fanbases ranked their own coach first or tied for first
7Exceptions
In 22 of the 30 fanbases, the home-team coach received the most firing-first selections outright. New Orleans tied for first, while seven fanbases picked another team’s coach more often. Each fanbase chose from all 30 coaches.
048.74%
Age split
Joe Mazzulla topped both younger age groups
Joe Mazzulla led among fans ages 18–24 with 8.74% and ages 25–34 with 7.89%. Brian Keefe led each age group from 35 upward.
057.87%
Eastern Conference
Brian Keefe was the highest-picked Eastern Conference coach
Among coaches from Eastern Conference teams, Brian Keefe ranked first at 7.87%, ahead of Nick Nurse at 4.89% and Tiago Splitter at 4.82%.
066.48%
Western Conference
JJ Redick was the top Western Conference coach
Among coaches from Western Conference teams, JJ Redick led at 6.48%, ahead of Dusty May at 4.52% and Will Hardy at 4.46%.
Top 10 and Bottom 10 coach selections
Switch between coaches most frequently and least frequently selected to be fired first. Both rankings use the same national survey question; a smaller share is not a prediction of job security.
Top 10 fan selections
Highest response shares across all surveyed NBA fansRanked from the highest overall share. Select a coach to see age and regional details; ranks preserve ties.
The bar scale stays fixed across both views at the highest overall response share (7.87%). Percentages reflect fan selections, not dismissal probabilities.
Which NBA Fanbases Put Their Own Coach in the Hot Seat?
Fans of 23 NBA teams selected their own head coach most often as the coach they thought would be fired first (22 outright, one tied). Explore the seven exceptions by the percentage-point lead of another coach over their own.
23
Own coach ranked No. 122 outright · 1 tied for first
7
Another coach ranked No. 1Seven fanbases broke the pattern
The seven exceptions
Seven fanbases picked another coach more often. The gap shows how far their top selection led their own coach.Another coach ranked first · Seven fanbases
Each percentage is the share of that fanbase selecting the named coach. Gap (pp) is its leading coach’s share minus its own coach’s share; a positive gap means another coach led. “Ranked first” means the highest share of 30 options, not a majority or a firing probability. Ties share first place. Some fanbase samples are small; see the methodology.
The NBA Hot Seat: Who Your Fans Picked — and Who Picked Your Coach
Pick any NBA fanbase to reveal its leading firing predictions, or select a coach to see which fanbases chose him most often and how age groups compared.
Washington Wizards fans
Which coaches did this fanbase select to be fired first?
Top firing selections
Share of fans selecting each coach
Own-coach selection
20.99%
Share of Wizards fans selecting Brian Keefe
All figures are within the selected fanbase or age group; the coach view's national figure uses all surveyed fans. “No selections recorded” means no respondent in that particular fanbase picked the named coach, not that the coach cannot be fired. These are opinions, not firing probabilities; subgroup results vary in precision.
Full survey rankings and group breakdowns
Start with all 30 coaches ranked nationally, or switch to an age, gender, relationship, region, NBA fanbase or state breakdown. Results update within this table, without leaving the page.
Explore the results
All surveyed NBA fans · 30 coach choicesSurvey methodology and limitations
Question 5 of a commissioned U.S. NBA fan survey, conducted October 2–6, 2026.
Survey design and question
A commissioned online survey gathered 4,398 responses from U.S. NBA fans. The 23-to-7 fanbase comparison ranks each team’s own coach against all 30 coaches within that fanbase; a first-place tie counts toward the 23, and a first-place share is not necessarily a majority. The question analyzed here was: “Which NBA Head Coach do you think will be fired first?” The results contain 30 named coach-and-team response options, retained as listed in the survey.
What the percentages mean
Each overall percentage represents the share of all surveyed fans selecting that coach. For gender, age, relationship status, NBA fanbase, region and state, percentages use the named subgroup's own respondent base. These are fan perceptions recorded before the 2026–27 NBA season, not forecasts of real coaching departures or probabilities of dismissal.
Rankings and rounding
Coaches are ranked by their underlying response shares, with ties sharing a competition rank. Percentages are shown to two decimal places, so displayed values may not add to exactly 100.00%. Percentage-point differences are calculated from the underlying shares.
Subgroup and state sampling cautions
Gender, age, relationship, NBA fanbase, regional and all 50 state breakdowns are provided. The team-and-coach explorer compares nationwide age groups for a selected coach, not age groups within an individual fanbase; the supplied tabulations do not contain that cross-breakdown. “No selections recorded” denotes a zero observed in the supplied subgroup, not evidence of zero underlying public support. Subgroup sizes vary, sometimes substantially, so differences should be interpreted descriptively. State results describe this survey's respondents and are not representative state polling estimates.
Statistical and sourcing limits
The supplied survey summary does not specify recruitment methods, sampling frame, response rate, quotas, statistical weighting or a margin of error. No significance testing was provided. The individual respondent-level dataset was not supplied, only aggregate Q5 tabulations. Differences across coaches or groups should not be presented as statistically significant or causal.
Source and timing
Source: Commissioned U.S. NBA fan survey, October 2–6, 2026; Question 5 tabulations. Coach–team pairings are from the October 2026 survey response options and are not a live coaching roster.