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SALT LAKE CITY — It happens periodically every single year: an NBA coach will underperform and then be dismissed.
Already this season, it’s happened to six coaches (Maurice Cheeks, Mike Woodson, Tyrone Corbin, Mike D’Antoni, Mark Jackson, Mike Brown) and it may not be over for the season yet. With so many coaches being dismissed, one has to wonder why the firing of NBA head coaches takes place.
With that, it’s time to list the top five reasons what an NBA coach gets fired.
1. Doesn’t work well with management
This reason may explain why all of the aforementioned coaches have been fired. Cheeks had disagreements with Detroit executive Joe Dumars; Woodson didn’t get along with new Knicks president Phil Jackson; Corbin wasn’t chose by Utah general manager Dennis Lindsey — the list goes on down the line. Mark Jackson may have been the perfect picture of this, as he went out of his way to argue with management on a variety of issues.
The simple fact of the matter is if a coach isn’t agreeable with the philosophy of a general manager or team president, they will systematically remove that coach. It can be an argument over styles of play, or arguments over player personnel, but it doesn’t matter — the general manager will always win that argument.
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2. Doesn’t develop talent
Again, Tyrone Corbin and Mike Brown are victims of this issue. At the start of the season, Corbin was tasked with improving Utah’s defensive presence, while Brown was tasked with upgrading Cleveland’s skills. Both disappointed on that mark, and that is why they were dismissed. For Utah, which famously went young this season, Corbin’s teams were responsible to have more defensive intensity, and to instill principles of growth in one of the NBA’s youngest rosters. Utah’s defense wasn’t good, but also wasn’t terrible, as it gave up 102.2 points per game. However, the Jazz’s offense was abysmal, coming in a third-worst in the league by averaging 95 points a game.
Mike Brown was rehired by the Cavaliers to also improve Cleveland’s defensive intensity. And, while the Cavs improved mightily defensively, they also were mired in issues offensively despite having one of the league’s up-and-coming stars in Kyrie Irving. Indeed, Brown wasn’t able to develop Irving, and wasn’t able to turn 2013 overall first-pick Anthony Bennett into much of a contributor.
3. Doesn’t maintain unity among the roster/coaching staff
For all of the reasons that Mark Jackson was dismissed by Golden State, his lack of ability to maintain cohesiveness may be the biggest reason why he was dismissed. During this past season, he had two assistant coaches reassigned for personality conflicts. Also, he famously has had conflicts with a variety of opponents in the NBA. Ownership groups don’t enjoy employing coaches that can’t effectively manage personalities.
Now, every NBA team has situations that can become toxic, but it is the job of an effective coach to manage those. Phil Jackson was able to maintain harmony in Chicago — despite Dennis Rodman’s antics and Michael Jordan punching Steve Kerr in the nose — and then he maintained harmony in Los Angeles, with Kobe Bryant’s various spats with teammates and issues with management.
A coach that can unify a team can win a championship, as Doc Rivers illustrated when he brought Boston’s “Big Three” together to win a title, in spite of never having played together before. Also, look at the job Jerry Sloan did for so many years, unifying various players and coaches while keeping confrontations to a minimum. Did Utah have confrontations? Absolutely. Did Sloan mitigate those with straight-talkin’ sense? Absolutely. It’s important to have a coach that can manage the egos of all parties, whether assistant coaches, players, or his own.
4. Can’t meet the expectations of fans
Again, Corbin is victim of this, as following Jerry Sloan is a nearly impossible task, but Los Angeles’ Mike D’Antoni may be the biggest example of this. In Los Angeles, winning isn’t good enough — a coach has to win championships. Of course, D’Antoni came into a bad situation, as the Lakers had just fired Mike Brown and had a chance at rehiring Phil Jackson, which the fans greatly enjoyed the prospects of. Instead, when Lakers fans were left with D’Antoni, there was almost a sense of disappointment. D’Antoni, who led the “seven-seconds-or-less” offense in Phoenix, was never able to build his offense in Los Angeles. He had to fight to create some type of system that worked with a roster that included a bunch of players that won’t even be remembered two seasons from now. Although fans in Los Angeles still expect titles, regardless of how good or bad the roster is.
5. Doesn’t win
In today’s NBA, losing doesn’t always indicate a firing is imminent. For example, Sacramento’s Michael Malone lost 54 games in his first season with Sacramento, but he appears to be on the way to a fruitful career with the Kings. However, whether a coach gets fired or not is all dependent on ownership. If ownership believes the coach is improving the roster, ownership will rarely just change a coach to change a coach (thought it has happened before — think Orlando and Stan Van Gundy). Instead, coaches who don’t win as quickly as ownership thinks they should get fired.
Remember Avery Johnson and the Nets? When Johnson took over the Brooklyn/New Jersey franchise, the Nets lost plenty. However, when ownership assembled a large group of talent, the expectations were on Brooklyn to win immediately. When the Nets came out of the starting gate flat, Johnson got flattened by ownership.
