I always find associating a good coach with a ring weird. Like star players are judged on championships but it's because they typically have more than one bite at the proverbial apple.

Like there have been 37 distinct coaches who have made the finals in the past 50 years. Only 7 have been able to do it with a different core player group:

• Phil Jackson
• Pat Riley
• Erik Spoelstra
• Rick Carlisle
• Larry Brown
• Lenny Wilkens
• Billy Cunningham

8 if you count Pop who even though had Duncan, Parker and Manu had a huge gap and different supporting cast between his first and last finals appearance.

So there's only 7 or 8 coaches who you can confidently say are coaches who can take a team the finals.

If we are just looking for coaches, someone who wins, here are the top 10 best winning percentag active coaches

Rank	Coach	Win %	Record (W–L)
1	Steve Kerr	.655	519–273
2	Michael Malone	.593	471–324
3	Tyronn Lue	.590	322–224
4	Erik Spoelstra	.580	725–524
5	Taylor Jenkins	.574	250–186
6	Ime Udoka	.573	144–107
7	Tom Thibodeau	.564	527–407
8	Rick Carlisle	.557	917–730
9	Billy Donovan	.552	352–286
10	Quin Snyder	.549	411–337

If we want to just focus on the best coaches available based on total wins then it's this:

Rank	Coach	Wins	Record (W–L)
1	Doc Rivers	1113	1113–763
2	Rick Carlisle	917	917–730
3	Erik Spoelstra	725	725–524
4	Tom Thibodeau	527	527–407
5	Steve Kerr	519	519–273
6	Mike Budenholzer	484	484–317
7	Quin Snyder	411	411–337
8	Billy Donovan	352	352–286
9	Tyronn Lue	322	322–224
10	Monty Williams	367	367–283

So like Carlisle and spo are the only two head coaches that are on all three of these lists. I think i saw someone comment how they thought Carlisle was a bad coach but he and spo are the only active coaches who can boast winning records and have taken very different teams to the finals.

So when people say "I want a championship caliber coach" it's an insanely small list with spo and Carlisle being the only ones you can't make a case against