The Charlotte Hornets haven’t had many head coaches in their brief history in the NBA, but one certainly does make a case for being the best, though his stay in the Queen City was not without failure.
The Charlotte Hornets have had a total of 11 head coaches in their 30-plus year history. James Borrego is the current one, of course, trying to work his way all the way from the bottom to cement his name in purple and teal history.
Paul Silas may be considered the best of that bunch, depending on who you ask on any given day. The 76-year-old former player and head coach was with Charlotte for two different stints and they could not be any more different in terms of success.
Silas first got into basketball as a player, attending Creighton University, where he would make his name known as a very proficient rebounder. After going pro and winning two championship rings with the Boston Celtics and Seattle Supersonics, Silas would immediately transition into coaching.
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Silas coached the then-San Diego Clippers for three seasons, with very little success to show for it. After that, he would spend time as an assistant for teams like the New York Knicks, New Jersey Nets, and Pheonix Suns. He even spent a year as an assistant for the Charlotte Hornets before ultimately taking over for Dave Cowens in 1999.
Silas would end up being the fifth head coach in team history, but he quickly proved that he could become one of the better leaders the team had ever seen. Taking over for Cowens after he was fired due to the team’s abysmal start, Paul Silas finished the lockout-shortened season 22-13, but it was not enough to make the playoffs as they would finish just one game shy of the eighth spot in the Eastern Conference.
The next season, Silas was able to work his magic, leading the team to a 49-33 record behind names like Eddie Jones and Anthony Mason. Those 49 wins are still the third-highest total for a Charlotte team. Sadly, the Hornets would be bounced out of the first round by the Philadelphia 76ers.
The next season would see continued success as the team won 46 games and reached the Eastern Conference semifinals and nearly reached the Conference finals, taking the Milwaukee Bucks to seven games.
The team would make the playoffs in the next two seasons, as well, making the Conference semis again and losing in the first round after the team’s first season in New Orleans. Surprisingly, Silas was fired after that season, much to the chagrin and amazement of fans and players alike.
He would then go on to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers for a pair of seasons, before being fired due to butting heads with players not named LeBron James. He would then work as an analyst for ESPN for a few years before being hired again in Charlotte as a replacement for Hall of Fame coach, Larry Brown.
This is where his legacy with Charlotte took a major blow. In fairness, a lot of it was not his fault as the team’s roster was arguably the worst the franchise has ever seen, including the team that infamously finished 7-59. If there is a knock against Silas, it’s this period of time as Bobcats head coach, but again, it was the Bobcats.
Following that wretched 2012 season, Silas finally hung it up. After everything was said and done, he finished with the third-most regular-season games coached, third-most regular-season wins, and third-best regular-season winning percentage in franchise history.
Where his record really shines, though, is the playoffs, where he has the most games coached, with 23, the most wins, with 11, and the highest winning percentage, at 48%. His 23 games coached are almost twice that of the second-place Allan Bristow. His 11 wins are over twice that of Bristow, and his winning percentage dwarfs Bristow’s 39%.
Silas certainly makes a strong case for being the best head coach the team has ever had and were it not for that godawful couple of years coaching the Bobcats, his legacy would be more impressive.
Fans certainly still seem to love him, too, as he frequently appears at Hornets games even to this day. It’ll be interesting to see if James Borrego, or any future coach, can make a run that could eclipse Silas’. Charlotte Hornets fans certainly hope so but in the meantime, Paul Silas definitely belongs in the conversation for the best coach in Charlotte basketball history.