5 NBA coaches on the hot seat
By Seth Partnow
With NBA training camps starting this weekend, every team has goals and aspirations for the coming season. Invariably, every year several teams fall short of their own expectations. When that happens, the first domino to fall is usually the coach. Poor performance isn’t the only reason NBA coaches get canned. Other times, they lose out due to organizational politics, especially when a new general manager or owner comes in and wants to have “his guy” in charge of the team.
On the other hand, some coaches are fairly safe almost regardless of results. For example, coaches in their first year at the present club are unlikely to get the axe during the season. Mo Cheeks being let go by Detroit last year was an aberration, brought on by a confluence of events: the Pistons mismatched roster, Cheeks own lack of imagination in trying to make it fit, Joe Dumars looking for a scapegoat to save his own job as GM and so on. This means in all likelihood Jason Kidd, Quinn Snyder, Lionel Hollins, Steve Kerr, Derek Fisher, David Blatt and Byron Scott aren’t getting fired in-season.
In other cases, the coach is either the main power center in the organization or is tight enough with the GM to be virtually untouchable. Gregg Popovich, Stan Van Gundy, Doc Rivers and Flip Saunders fit this bill. Others are widely recognized as among the best in the league; results would have to go horribly for the likes of Rick Carlisle, Erik Spoelstra or Tom Thibodeau to be dismissed. Brad Stevens in Boston and Brent Brown in Philadelphia aren’t expected to win this season given their young rosters, and either would have to demonstrate colossal ineptitude to get pink-slipped, as would Jeff Hornacek in Phoenix, even if the Suns take a step backwards this year.
Thus, more than half of the head coaches are reasonably safe going into the year. So, which coaches are on the shakiest ground?