'Round and 'round they go. A midseason stint here, a firing there. A resignation one week, an extended losing streak and player mutiny another week. Just pay a quarter and hop on a roster, you're on the carousel that is NBA coaching today.
An unprecedented amount of coaching movement has taken place over the last year, and as a result, job security for NBA coaches is at an all-time low. With strict salary cap restrictions in the league today and the difficulty that comes with making trades, no longer do coaches have the time to build teams to play within their system. It is much easier for today's general managers to bring in a coach that fits the players already on the roster.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the pitiful excuse for basketball that is called the Eastern Conference. Every team in the Eastern Conference except the Atlanta Hawks has a different coach than the one who started last season.
The Philadelphia 76ers have had three coaches in less than a year, most recently naming former Brandeis men's basketball head coach Chris Ford to the interim head coaching position. Larry Brown left Philadelphia to sign with conference rival Detroit. The Pistons had just fired Rick Carlisle to get Brown, so Carlisle signed on with Indiana. The Pacers had just fired Isiah Thomas to get Carlisle, so Thomas signed on as president of the floundering Knicks. Only days had passed before he had fired Don Chaney and replaced him with old-timer Lenny Wilkens.
Sometimes these firings make absolutely no sense. Carlisle was fired after two consecutive 50-win seasons. Paul Silas had more success with the New Orleans Hornets than any coach in franchise history, but was fired after failing to make it to the conference finals despite being a player favorite. His replacement was none other than Tim Floyd, a man who set a record for coaching incompetence with the rebuilding Chicago Bulls. Don't fret for Silas though, he immediately found a job teaching Lebron James as the Cavaliers new head coach. Doc Rivers was fired after the Orlando Magic started the season 1-10, despite winning Coach of the Year only four years ago. He was replaced by Johnny Davis, a guy who had absolutely no success while coaching in Philadelphia.
Sometimes general managers don't even have a chance to fire their coaches. After incredible success with the Boston Celtics, Jim O'Brien saw new general manager Danny Ainge tearing apart his team at the heart. He traded away Antoine Walker before the season even started. He traded away O'Brien favorites Eric Williams and Tony Battie to bring in basket-case Ricky Davis. With Ainge seemingly only waiting for the off-season to bring in a coach more fitting for his up-tempo style, O'Brien decided not to wait around. He resigned midway through the season, not even giving Ainge the opportunity to can him.
The pinnacle for coaching success in the Eastern Conference has come out of Atlanta, where coach Terry Stotts has the longest tenure of any coach in the conference, with just over a year and a half on the job. Stotts has done absolutely nothing to secure the job, but rebuilding Atlanta seemingly sees no point in firing a coach who has no players to work with anyway.
What's going on? Why can't these coaches keep a job? Perhaps it's because being an NBA head coach has never been harder. With players coming into the league at younger ages, player development has never been more important. With more and more international players coming to play at the highest level of competition, coaches need to be able to relate to players from different cultures.
The strangest part of it all is that a firing has never meant less on a coach's resume. There is seemingly always a team out there willing to give a coach a second and third chance no matter how many times he has failed.
With the exception of Utah's Jerry Sloan and Los Angeles' Phil Jackson, absolutely no one is untouchable. Anyone can be fired, any time and any place. But all these coaches have to do is throw in another quarter, ride the carousel a couple more times around and they are bound to find a team in need of a coach.