As NBA coaching changes mount, some lament the lack of job security

MIAMI (AP)— Miami’s Erik Spoelstra and Denver’s Michael Malone are two of thefour NBA coaches to have spent at least eight years with theircurrent team.

They knowhow rare that is — especially as the league’s coaching changesmount.

Championship-winning or title-contending coaches aren’t safe in theNBA these days. In recent days, 2019 NBA champion Nick Nurse, 2021champion Mike Budenholzer, 2021 Western Conference champion and2022 Coach of the Year Monty Williams and most recently 2008 NBAchampion Doc Rivers were all fired.Nursewas fired by Toronto,Budenholzerby Milwaukee,Williamsby PhoenixandRiversby Philadelphia.

“It’sdisturbing,” Spoelstra said. “Doc’s a Hall of Famer. ... There’sonly so many teams that can advance. It’s just a really hard thingto do. Yeah, it’s been a tough couple weeks, hearing the news ofjust some really surprising firings.”

It doesn’tmake sense to Spoelstra, or likely to many other coaches. Spoelstrahas the NBA’s second-longest current tenure with one team. SanAntonio’s Gregg Popovich has coached the Spurs since 1996,Spoelstra took over the Heat in 2008, Steve Kerr became coach inGolden State in 2014 and Malone became coach in Denver in 2015.

“Iunderstand this business,” said Malone, who’ll lead Denver into theWestern Conference finals starting Tuesday against the Los AngelesLakers. “You look around the coaching landscape, if you want asecure profession, coaching is not the one to get into. I shouldhave been a TV reporter.”

Of the lastnine coaches to take a team to the NBA Finals, only two — Kerr andSpoelstra — are still with the franchise that they went to thetitle round with.

Three ofthe last four championship-winning coaches — Budenholzer in 2021,the Los Angeles Lakers’ Frank Vogel in 2020 and Nurse in 2019 –have since been fired by those clubs. Also no longer with theirteams for various reasons after recent runs to the finals: ImeUdoka in Boston, Cleveland’s David Blatt and then Tyronn Lue aswell, and now Williams by the Suns.

“This isthe nature of this league and I think sometimes it’s thechemistry,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN in a televisedinterview before the draft lottery on Tuesday night. ”They don’t gofrom being great coaches to bad coaches from one year to the next.It has to do with the chemistry of the team, the style, maybesomebody believes the players need to hear a new voice. But I’mincredibly sympathetic. It’s a rough side of this business and Ithink they understand it. They choose this profession. They’re myfriends and I hate to see it.”

Budenholzer’s dismissal left Kerr upset, as he revealed earlierthis month — but noted that all coaches understand how vulnerablethey are.

“My firstresponse is not necessarily shock, it’s more disappointment becauseBud is a fantastic coach,” Kerr said. “He just won a championshipand has been wildly successful in his coaching career. But this isthe business we’re in. … Expectations every year for every team areso high, and only one team can win. It’s sad news for the coachingprofession.”

At leastsix teams will have new coaches next season — Phoenix, Milwaukee,Toronto, Detroit and now Philadelphia are looking,andHoustonhas hired Udokaas the replacement for Stephen Silas.There were two in-season moves as well: Brooklyn’sJacqueVaughn was hired by the Netsin November, andAtlanta’sQuinSnyder was hired by the Hawksin February. And two coachesin the conference finals are in Year 1 of their careers: theLakers’ Darvin Ham, and the Celtics’ Joe Mazzulla, who had to takeover unexpectedly in Boston last fall followingUdoka’ssuspensionfor an inappropriate relationship with aCeltics employee.

Mazzullawill meet Spoelstra and Miami in the Eastern Conference finalsstarting Wednesday. Spoelstra has faced Boston three times for theEast title in four years, going up against three different coaches— Brad Stevens in the NBA bubble restart in 2020, Udoka last yearand now Mazzulla — and says while the coaches change,organizational stability exists and is crucial.

“Joe was inthe bubble. ... He’s been part of some really good teams,”Spoelstra said. “That does have an impact. Probably more thananything in this league right now, you’re looking for some kind oforganizational stability between the front office and coachingstaff.”

Therearen’t many examples of that in the league right now. At minimum,13 of the NBA’s 30 teams will open next season with a coach who hasbeen in place for no more than one season.

Rivers saidSunday that he expected to stay with the 76ers. “No one’s safe inour business. I get that,” Rivers said.

Furtherproof of that came two days later, when he was dismissed.

“It’s justthe business of basketball,” Miami guard Kyle Lowry said. “And onething about our business is sometimes it gets a littlecut-throat.”

Spoelstrahas long said part of Miami’s strength is consistency. Managinggeneral partner Micky Arison, CEO Nick Arison, team president PatRiley, general manager Andy Elisburg and others have been with theHeat for decades — and from the very beginning, in Elisburg’s case,since he’s been with the franchise for all 35 of its seasons.

Spoelstrahas been with the organization for more than half his life as well;he was 24 when he started in the video room, and now he’s 52.

“It takesso much time and energy to restart something,” Spoelstra said. “AndI think that’s part of the reason why we’ve been able to reboot somany times, over and over and over. We’re not reinventing a newculture and then trying to teach everybody and then all of asudden, two years later, it’s going to be somebody else doing theexact same thing. But particularly to have proven veteran guys(fired), it’s just been stunning. It really has beendisturbing.”