As Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype notes, we’re upon the time of the year when the NBA’s coaching carousel is in full swing. And while this time of the year is exciting for new hires like Monty Williams, it’s also a sobering reminder of how NBA head coaches have the highest coaching turnover rate among the four major sports leagues over the past 20 years.
On average, a new head coach is hired in the NBA every 2.4 seasons as opposed to every 2.6 seasons (NHL), 3.1 seasons (MLB) and 3.4 seasons (NFL) in the other three leagues. Ironically, but not altogether unexpected, the teams with less coaching turnover actually have significantly higher records (e.g. see the Spurs and head coach Gregg Popovich).
On the other end of the spectrum, the Nets, Pistons and Knicks all have an NBA-high 12 coaching changes in the last 20 years and all have a winning percentage below .500 during that span. The one outlier is the Lakers, who have a winning percentage above .500 over the last 20 years despite the fact that they’ll be on their eighth coach this summer.
The entire article regarding the study is worth a read, and once you’re finished, check out some more odds and ends from the basketball world below:
- Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz of ESPN take a look at what’s at stake for every team in next week’s lottery, including each team’s likely picks, odds and questions for the teams in the lottery, traded picks and more.
- After having recently averaged 22.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in a Taiwanese league, former NBA guard O.J. Mayo signed a deal in China with Hunan Jinjian, per Orazio Cauchi of Sportando.
- In an article from The Associated Press, it was relayed that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants half of all new referees joining the league to be women — and he would like to see teams hire female coaches, too.
The question is: do teams have better records because they’re being patient with coaches? Or are teams patient with coaches because they have better records?
I’m confused as usual. Next week is the actual draft? Or just the day teams find out where they pick? I’m not clear on the concept. Thanks!
It’s just the day teams in the lottery find out where they’ll be drafting
Will female refs put up with as much crap as male refs?
The newer refs do not want to argue the obvious calls. It used to be for a previous generation, that they did not want to argue the close calls, which is counter-intuitive.
I think officiating has improved under Silver. People just forget the bad calls of the past and so think the officiating has gotten worse.
I will trust Silver’s game-plan at least at this stage. If they indulge player crankiness on obvious calls less I will applaud. No guarantee though.
All calls in the present / real time are “bad calls”. No matter the rule changes. No matter the missed calls or lack of calls or overblown whistles, someone will think the call is bad. Its been like that since forever and will continue to be that way.
Wasnt there a time when only the team captains and coaches were allowed to express to the Refs. Or am I thinking about my days in college ball? Was that a thing in the NBA?
I wanna see OJ Mayo back on an NBA roster
Why don’t they just hire the best possible refs regardless of their gender? If one year the best candidates are all women, hire all women. If the following it’s all men, hire all men. There has to be a reliable, objective way to grade referees by now.
Because Adam Silver is woke.
He is WOKE in capital letters!
It’s an acronym for Will Only Konsider Everyonebutwhitemales.
Because they spent 100 years only hiring men. Simply ignoring history and “starting fresh” with equal hiring today doesn’t undo the imbalance and damage caused in the last century.
How about refs that actually know how to referee games? Maybe making it 4 refs per game because obviously having 3 refs doesn’t work.
4 refs equals more huddles by the monitor.
Assign the fourth to just look at feet– how many steps before shooting or after catching, an how far they jump forward when jumpshooting compared to the defender.
At aome point NBA refs stopped looking down!