BOSTON — The 2015-16 NBA season hasn’t been kind to coaches and we’re still a few days away from the All-Star break.
The New York Knicks fired head coach Derek Fisher on Monday. He became the fifth head coach fired this season, joining David Blatt in Cleveland, Jeff Hornacek in Phoenix, Kevin McHale in Houston and Lionel Hollins in Memphis. Rumors have circulated that George Karl in Sacramento could be next.
Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers doesn’t have to worry about being fired. His Clippers occupy the No. 4 seed in a tough Western Conference entering Wednesday night’s game against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. They have gone 18-4 since their best player, Blake Griffin, left the lineup with an injury after Christmas.
Still, he’s not happy with what’s going on regarding coach firings around the league.
“I’m almost raw to it,” Rivers said Wednesday at the Clippers’ morning shootaround. “Like I said, I was lucky — I hate these firings where a team is rebuilding and at the beginning of the rebuild, they come to the coach and say we’re going to lose some games here, we want you to hang in here. And then right when the heat starts, they fire the guy.”
Most of the coach firings reek of impatience. Fans want results and they don’t want to wait. Owners and general managers are guilty of being impatient and making foolish coaching decisions, too, and Rivers praised the Celtics for having the patience to stick with the plan leading up to their 2008 championship.
“I say it about (Celtics president of basketball operations) Danny Ainge every day — the more we lost, the more he came in and apologized to me and said, ‘hey, hang in there,’ ” Rivers said. “Danny was the guy telling me to hang in there, and ‘we’re going to get this right, we’re going to get you a team, we’re going to get you players.’
“And that tells you you’re working with the right guy. When you see these other situations where guys are getting fired, where they start the same way, and then when the heat starts they bail on the coach. It is what it is, but you don’t like it, from my perspective. It’s bad for my profession. I don’t enjoy it.”
Rivers made the playoffs but lost in the first round in his first season in Boston. The next two seasons were painful, as the Celtics struggled to a 33-49 record in 2005-06 and bottomed out at 24-58 in 2006-07. Despite all of the losing, Ainge and the Celtics’ ownership group knew Rivers was a quality coach, and that patience was rewarded the next season when Boston raised its record 17th NBA championship banner.
Rivers also got more out of the aging Paul Pierce-Ray Allen-Kevin Garnett trio than anyone would’ve imagined before that group broke up after the 2011-12 season when Allen left.
The lesson is that patience usually leads to good results. More teams should follow Ainge’s example, and not just rebuilding franchises. Contending teams could learn from this approach, too. Just look at the Miami Heat’s success when they decided not to fire Erik Spoelstra after LeBron James arrived in 2011.
Thumbnail photo via Richard Mackson/USA TODAY Sports Images
