Is firing a fix-all? Part 1

USATSI

A few disclaimers before we get into the heart of this article:

• I think Scott Brooks is a very good coach. I wasn’t so sure when the team finished 22-47 after he was named the interim coach in 2008. I came around when the team made an enormous leap the following season. It baffled me why he played Kendrick Perkins so much against the Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals. I thought he was a very good coach when the team won seven games in a row earlier this season. I still think he’s a very good coach even though the best way to describe the team’s recent two game California road trip is with a steaming pile of manure emoji.

• To echo the sentiments of Royce Young and Darnell Mayberry, I wonder whether Brooks is the right coach to navigate this team to a championship. I may have said as much in a mailbag article recently. The Peter Principle may apply here.

• If you think Brooks should be fired or should have been fired already, you’re not altogether crazy. Some of you fans are, however, crazier than a Trevor Booker shot with 0.2 seconds left on the shot clock.

Oklahoma sports fans can be passionate and rabid. There’s nothing particularly wrong with that, but there comes a time when we need to take a big collective breath and actually think about things. Fans of sports teams in this state are quick to call for a backup to get more playing time or to demand that coaches be escorted to the nearest state border. When it comes to the Thunder, it’s mostly the latter. The calls for Brooks’ head on a silver platter are probably the loudest I’ve heard. Ever.

To be fair, I believe most of this is coming from a vocal minority. It’s not fair at all to paint the entire fan base with such a broad brush. I wonder, though, what the expectations of those particular folks are. Some people just like to be FIRST! and be on the bleeding edge of things (“I knew Brooks was a bad hire when the Sonics hired him as an assistant in 2007!”). If so, congrats I guess? I suppose others just want to see someone fired because changes are fun, or they just hate to see perceived incompetence rewarded. Maybe fans think a coaching change will result in a guaranteed title this season. Or, maybe some have thought this through and think the sooner a new coach is installed, the better the team will be in the long run.

I’m going to address that next-to-last idea, because I rarely see the FIRE BROOKS crowd follow up with a well-thought out argument as to who should realistically take over. So how often has a team won a title, or made the Finals, after an in-season coaching change?

And how many teams advanced to the NBA Finals within two seasons of making a coaching change? I’ve compiled those in a separate piece.

I’m also looking back only as far as 1979. I consider this the “modern era” of basketball because that’s when the NBA adopted the 3-point line. Plus, the fact that Charles Eckman took over the Fort Wayne Pistons from Paul Birch in 1954 and went to two straight Finals probably doesn’t resonate much today.

1979-80 Los Angeles Lakers

Assistant coach Paul Westhead took over the Lakers 14 games into the season and eventually beat the 76ers 4-2 in the NBA Finals. The Lakers were 10-4 at the time Westhead took over, but he didn’t slide over to the Big Chair because of issues with the team. On November 8, 1979, first-year head coach Jack McKinney suffered a near-fatal head injury in a bicycle accident. McKinney eventually recovered, but the team moved on without him.

An interesting aside: McKinney’s absence opened up a spot on the coaching staff. It was filled by Pat Riley, who had been broadcasting Laker games with the legendary Chick Hearn. More on this in a moment.

Like, right now.

1981-82 Los Angeles Lakers

The aforementioned Westhead took the defending champions to the playoffs a year later, but lost to the No. 6 seed Houston Rockets in the first round. This brought growing frustration to a head with a number of players, most notably Magic Johnson. Eleven games into the 1981-82 season, the Lakers management decided to side with Johnson and fire Westhead. Riley took over and the team won 50 of the remaining 71 regular season games. Once again, they beat the 76ers 4-2 in the NBA Finals.

(Don’t feel too bad for the Sixers. They swept the Lakers in the 1983 Finals.)

2005-06 Miami Heat

Here’s an interesting scenario. Coach Stan Van Gundy resigned after 21 games, citing a need to spend more time with his family. This was often mocked over the years but some have backed Van Gundy and said there was a real family situation he needed to address. Pat Freakin’ Riley descended from the front office to take over the team and they went on to win the 2006 Finals against Dallas.

That’s it. That’s the list. Those are the only teams in modern NBA History that have made the NBA Finals after an in-season coaching change.

What about instances where a title contender (real or imagined) made an in-season change?

2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers

The Lakers entered the 2012-13 season full of championship aspirations and a pair of Hall of Fame players in Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol. They acquired former 2-time MVP Steve Nash in a sign-and-trade, a move that caused ESPN’s Mike Greenberg to tweet this:

A month later, the Lakers swung a deal for All-Star center Dwight Howard. Two months later, the Lakers went 0-8 in the preseason. Then Nash suffered a freak leg injury in the second game of the regular season. Then Coach Mike Brown was fired after a 1-4 start.

Mike D’Antoni was eventually hired after a brief flirtation with the idea of bringing back Phil Jackson. Injuries continued to pile up. Pau Gasol was weirdly hoisting three-point shots. An “Earl Clark” got significant burn and eventually a starting nod over Gasol. And this was before Bryant blew out an Achilles tendon after averaging 73.6 minutes (more or less) per game under D’Antoni. The Lakers limped to a 45-37 finish and a quick 4-0 sweep in the first round by San Antonio.

2004-05 Minnesota Timberwolves

After seven consecutive seasons that ended with a first round playoff exit, the Timberwolves finally made a big breakthrough in 2003-04, winning 58 games and reaching the Western Conference Finals. The West looked ripe for the taking. The Lakers, who beat the Wolves in those Conference Finals, were disassembled. A powerful Sacramento Kings squad was on the decline. The Spurs and Mavericks were still formidable, and the Phoenix Suns weren’t the “:07 or less” Suns yet.

The Wolves returned most of the players from that Conference Finalist team, a core of Kevin Garnett, Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell, and Wally Szczerbiak. But by January 19, 2006, the team was only 19-19 due to age and injury. A few weeks later, coach Flip Saunders was fired with a 25-26 record. Team GM Kevin McHale took over for the rest of the season and finished 19-12, but 44 wins wasn’t enough to snag a playoff spot. The Wolves haven’t been the same since.

There’s also a third scenario: the “be patient” scenario. From the moment LeBron James announced he was taking his talents to South Beach in 2010, a death watch was put in effect for coach Erik Spoelstra. The groupthink opinion was that Pat Riley would eventually return to the bench once more to coach this group. Riley instead continued to stand behind Spoelstra every step of the way. The calls for Spoelstra’s job reached fever pitches after the Heat lost in the 2011 Finals. He was considered a Dead Man Walking after the Heat fell behind 3-2 to the Boston Celtics in the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, Spoelstra coached the Heat to two NBA titles as well as another Finals appearance.

Past isn’t necessarily pretense, but the track record on championship-quality in-season changes isn’t stellar. Frustration with the Thunder coaching staff is understandable. Expecting an in-season coaching change to fix everything probably isn’t.

That is, unless Pat Riley is in a mood to move to Oklahoma City.