The winningest head coach in the history of every NBA franchise

Guerin is notable for being the coach at the end of the St. Louis Hawks' run and the start of the Atlanta Hawks' run. He’s coached the most games in franchise history, and is one of three guys with over 300 wins. Guerin, though, sits just ahead of Mike Fratello with 327 wins. As you can see, he also played for the Hawks back in the day.

It’s quite a leap from Guerin, a fine coach, to Auerbach, an icon of the game. One of the faces of the Celtics franchise, Auerbach won more games than Guerin coached. He had 795 wins compared to 397 losses. Plus, there are the nine rings with the Celtics.

It’s a tale of two existences for Loughery, and if you didn’t want to consider him the all-time wins leader for the Nets, we’d understand. He picked up most of his wins in the ABA. In fact, Loughery coached the Nets to two ABA titles. Then, the Nets joined the NBA. In Loughery’s tenure, the team finished 50 games under .500. All told, 168 of his 297 wins came in the ABA. If you just want to consider the NBA, then it’s Lawrence Frank at 225 wins.

All the history of NBA basketball in Charlotte is part of this franchise today, from the first Hornets tenure to the Bobcats to the Bobcats' rebranding as the Hornets again. It’s not a great history, though. Clifford, with 244 wins in 574 games, is in the lead. This franchise will really have to turn around for anybody to best him.

Jackson was a great coach, but it certainly helps to have Michael Jordan (and Scottie Pippen) by your side. In addition to the six rings, Jackson and company won a ton of games. His record as Bulls head coach was 545-193. That .738 winning percentage is truly remarkable.

Coaches for LeBron James teams in Cleveland tended to have high winning percentages, but also would get tossed to the curb at LeBron’s whim. Thus, none of them tops the Cavaliers in wins. That would be Wilkens, one of the winningest coaches in NBA history. He coached the Cavs for seven seasons in the ‘80s and ‘90s, picking up 316 wins.

The Mavericks have three guys who were long-tenured head coaches, but Carlisle tops them all. He coached the Mavs for over 1,000 games, winning most of them. Just barely most of them, to be fair, as he finished his Dallas tenure with 555 wins. Hey, they did win that one title, the only in franchise history. That’ll keep him in the fans’ good graces forever.

Malone’s tenure ended unexpectedly and ignominiously. Akin to many a great soccer coach, Malone burned out those around him after a while, but the success on his resume speaks for itself. Malone won 471 games over (nearly) 10 full seasons, and of those, there is that title as well.

Nobody in Pistons history is anywhere near Daly. He’s the only coach with over 200 wins…and 300 wins…and 400 wins. Daly picked up 467 wins, including two titles. There is no question who the best coach in Pistons history is.

First, shout out to Al Attles. You might presume Kerr is comfortably the winningest coach in Warriors history, but Attles actually isn’t that far behind him. Of course, for now, Kerr is adding to his total, and he will likely clear 600 wins by the end of the 205-26 season. There are also the four rings, of course.

Rudy T. has the benefit of having been a very good head coach who also laps the rest of the Rockets head coaches in games played. He has 503 wins, and nobody else has coached the Rockets for more than 410 games. His .559 winning percentage is quite strong, but Tomjanovich does benefit from coaching seven more seasons than anybody else in Houston.

Almost all of Leonard’s wins came in the ABA, where the Pacers were three-time champs under his watch. He’s such a beloved legend of the franchise, though, that we feel it makes sense to give him the love. Leonard coached the Pacers to a 142-186 record in four NBA seasons, but when you include the ABA years, he had 529 wins. NBA-wise, the leader is Rick Carlisle, just so you know.

There hasn’t been a lot of competition for Rivers in terms of the best coach in Clippers history. Tyronn Lue is making a run, but for now it’s Doc. Taking over at the long-moribund franchise, Rivers ended up with 356 wins in seven seasons. The only thing he couldn’t do was get the Clippers to their first NBA Finals.

Jackson is a popular pick for best coach in NBA history, and the fact that he leads the Bulls and Lakers in wins is a big part of that. Plus, there are all the rings. Once again. Jackson was coaching an excellent duo, but Jackson was a guy you hired in part because he could handle big egos (having one of his own may have helped). He picked up 610 wins in 902 games and won five titles.

That’s right, the guy the Grizzlies fired in the middle of the 2024-25 season. They let Jenkins reach 250 wins, and then they fired him. It’s going to be a long time until Jenkins isn’t the winningest coach in Grizzlies history. That’s got to be fun for the ownership group and the front office.

A lot of people have an itch to get Spoelstra a Coach of the Year award, and it makes sense. He’s one of the best coaches in NBA history and a future Hall of Famer, but he doesn’t have that award yet. Now that he’s coached the Heat for over 15 seasons, it does make you wonder if he’s being taken for granted. Riley’s selection to replace him as the head man, “Coach Spo” is going to cross 800 wins in the 2025-26 season, and he has taken the Heat to six NBA Finals, winning two.

Nelson is living in Hawaii and living the high life by all accounts, but he earned that retirement plan with a Hall of Fame career. It started with the Bucks, where he won 540 games over 11 seasons. Some impressive names have coached the Bucks, but Nelson has more wins than all of them.

Sadly, cancer swiftly ended Saunders’ second tenure as head coach of the Timberwolves, and also his life. He passed away at the age of 60, comfortably the best coach in franchise history. While Chris Finch is making a run, he has a ways to go to catch Flip. Saunders had 427 wins, and Finch will still need a couple of seasons to even clear 300.

Do recall that the Pelicans' history technically begins in 2002. Nobody has coached more than one full season with the Pellies and managed a winning record. Scott leads the way with 203 wins (against 216 losses), and he also leads the way with a whopping eight playoff wins. Hey, franchise history has to start at some baseline level.

It’s a tough beat for Holzman to be the second-best head coach named “Red” in NBA history, but he was no slouch. He led the Knicks to the team’s two NBA titles, and he coached over 1,000 games for the team. His 613 wins are almost double anybody else in Knicks history.

Time to enjoy some tossed salad and scrambled eggs, because we're heading to Seattle for this one. For now, the Thunder franchise holds onto SuperSonics history, and that will remain true until if (when?) the Sonics return. Wilkens coached for over three decades, which enabled him to accumulate numerous wins across multiple franchises. His first gig was in Seattle, where he won 478 games. One imagines that, in time, Mark Daigneault will best that, should he choose to stick around.

If not for the kneecapping of Stan Van Gundy, he would be the winningest coach in Magic history. Technically he is if you include playoff wins, but that’s not what we’re doing. Hill picked up 267 wins, and he was the head coach during that NBA Finals run in the ‘90s that resulted in a swift sweeping. Hey, it was still cool for the Magic to make it, even if Shaq deserves a lot of the credit.

All that Process work was just trying to get the Sixers back to the glory days when Cunningham was in charge. This era of the 76ers is historically underrated. Over eight seasons with Cunningham in charge, he put up a 454-196 record. Philly made three NBA Finals, winning once. Then, at the age of 41, Cunningham retired as a head coach. Seriously, he decided to never coach again.

MacLeod was a good coach, but mostly he was in charge in Phoenix for a long time. He coached 1,122 games for the franchise. While he barely had a winning record, his 579 wins are over 200 more than anybody else. Many coaches have won a higher percentage of their games coaching the Suns, but nobody has won more.

Ramsay coached the Blazers for 10 seasons, and the team made the playoffs nine times. In one of those postseason appearances, Portland won its only NBA title. Ramsay ended up with 453 wins, and while Terry Stott got close, neither he nor anybody else has bested Dr. Jack.

The Kings, having a lackluster history in Sacramento, may have led you to imagine the winningest coach in franchise history would have come from the Rochester days. Well, Lee Harrison is second with 295 wins. Adelman, though, won 395 games coaching the Kings in Sacramento. If you think the difference there is just in quantity, Adelman’s .633 winning percentage is actually best in franchise history.

There was no question about this one. We’re talking an unbreakable franchise record. Famously, Popovich was a front office guy for the Spurs when he fired Bob Hill and said, “I know just the guy for the job…me!” This was not hubris, though. Pop coached the Spurs for over 2,000 games. He won 1,390 of them and led the Spurs to five titles. He’s the winningest coach in NBA history, and the choice of many for best NBA coach full stop. Must have been a good front office guy, too, based on his hiring decision.

Casey is exhibit A when it comes to how harsh life can be for an NBA coach. The Raptors fired Casey, the franchise’s winningest coach, after a season for which he won Coach of the Year. Of course, the Raptors then won the title with Nick Nurse on the sideline, so it’s hard to argue against the decision. In the end, Casey picked up 320 wins with Toronto.

Sloan is to Utah what Pop is to the Spurs. He is another head coach with over 1,000 wins with a single franchise. Though Sloan and the Jazz never won a title, the team won 1,127 games with the Hall of Famer in charge. Still…a title would have been nice.

Shue seemed to have trouble quitting teams, though not locations. In addition to coaching the San Diego Clippers and later returning to coach the Los Angeles Clippers, he did the same with this franchise. Shue began his career coaching the Baltimore Bullets, but then moved on to coach the 76ers and the aforementioned San Diego Clippers. Then, with the Bullets in Washington, he returned. Shue coached the Wizards franchise for over 1,000 games, winning 522 of them. And losing 505. Hey, that’s still a winning record.