Now that Johnny Davis was finally sacked in Orlando, and Don Nelson has resigned in Dallas -- the seventh and eighth coaching changes this season -- there could be as many as nine coaching vacancies this summer.
You want a list?
New York (Herb Williams), Orlando (Chris Jent), Minnesota (Kevin McHale), Lakers (Frank Hamblen) and Portland (Kevin Pritchard) all have interim coaches, presently.
On top of that, there is a great deal of uncertainty in Detroit (who knows if Larry Brown will come back next season?), Philadelphia (Jim O'Brien has had a serious disconnect with the organization and some of its players), Seattle (Nate McMillan is and has been a lame-duck coach), and New Orleans (who knows if Byron Scott will survive).
The rapid firings, quite naturally, have the coaching fraternity on edge
Rockets coach Jeff Van Gundy recently went on a wonderful rant about the wrongful treatment of ex-Blazers coach Maurice Cheeks. Van Gundy, like many others throughout the league, believes that Cheeks was the scapegoat for a whole lot of front-office mismanagement.
"It starts when you fire a quality coach like Maurice Cheeks. That's where it starts," he said. "That has nothing to do with chemistry. That's decision-making. That's bailing. No coach has a chance in this league without support.
"Nothing will fit if you don't support the coach. Nothing. If you don't support your coach, nothing works because then there's no order. And if there's no order, there can be no discipline or accountability. And if there's no discipline or accountability, it follows that people will be talking about chemistry. But I don't really think it's necessarily chemistry amongst the players."
