More Firings To Come?

An unnamed scout for an Eastern Conference team believes that the recent firings of P.J. Carlesimo, Eddie Jordan and Sam Mitchell means that more coaches will get the axe.

Iavaroni and Sacramento's Reggie Theus are facing the most immediate threat in the wake of Sam Mitchell's dismissal in Toronto. Both of them heard plenty of firing-line speculation last season as rookie head coaches, too, but Iavaroni -- unlike Theus -- received less-than-lukewarm public support this week from his ridiculously young team.

"The number of people who've been fired already means that the next few guys that are teetering -- [Reggie] Theus, [Marc] Iavaroni, [Randy] Wittman -- will probably get axed soon, too. The earliness of the firings makes it easier for teams [to follow] because there's no surprise factor. It won't look like you're jumping off a cliff. But Minnesota probably has a little bit more patience being so young. It would be more dangerous for Wittman if he had a good veteran player or two to make more of a ruckus."

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The Minnesota Timberwolves fired Randy Wittman, who will be replaced by vice president of basketball operations Kevin McHale on the bench.

Going Backward

Randy Wittman has coached some bad teams and they haven't gotten better in his tenure.

McHale will step down from his front-office duties to concentrate on coaching. The team has called an afternoon news conference.

There were certain goals and expectations that we had for this team at the start of the season, and we have not lived up to them," Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor said in a statement.

"I am disappointed in our record and believe that we have more talent than our record indicates. A change had to be made and with three-fourths of the season remaining, there is still time to make substantial progress this year. I want to thank Randy for all of his contributions to the Timberwolves through the years as both a head coach and an assistant coach, and wish him the best in the future."

It is the NBA's fourth firing already this season, following dismissals in Oklahoma City (P.J. Carlesimo), Washington (Eddie Jordan) and Toronto (Sam Mitchell).


McHale was successful as an interim coach before, guiding Minnesota to a 19-12 record in the second half of the 2004-05 season after firing Flip Saunders with the Wolves at 25-26.


"Kevin has assembled the players on this team, and believes in their talent and skill level," Taylor said. "It is my expectation that Kevin will be able to get the most out of our team and our players in his new role as head coach. He has been involved in the NBA game for almost 30 years, is a tremendous teacher and has a wealth of basketball knowledge. I am confident that our players will respond to the new voice and perspective that Kevin will provide."

When McHale coached previously, his roster was built around Kevin Garnett and still featured Sam Cassell, Latrell Sprewell and Wally Szczerbiak from the group that went to the 2004 Western Conference finals under Saunders in the most successful season in franchise history. These Wolves are much younger and still early in the rebuilding process after Garnett was traded to Boston in July 2007.

"I truly believe that we have a talented group of players in our locker room who have a great amount of potential," said McHale. "I'm confident that we can get this turned around and get back to playing a brand of basketball that our fans can be proud of."

McHale nonetheless said coming into the season that he thought that this team -- using last season's respectable 17-26 finish as a springboard -- could make a run at .500 ball. The Wolves are well off that pace, losing 15 of 18 games since an opening-night win over Sacramento and looking increasingly disengaged under Wittman, judging by their four consecutive double-digit losses this week. The last two defeats, away to New Jersey and the loss at home to the Clippers, came by a combined 52 points.

"It's obvious that something has to change," one team source said Sunday.

Al Jefferson, who replaced Garnett as the Wolves' cornerstone forward, touched on the growing effort concerns Saturday night after a loss to the Clippers when he told local reporters: "It starts in this locker room with us. They could have Jesus Christ himself come and coach us, but if we don't go out there and play hard and play together, it won't mean nothing."



Wittman leaves the Wolves' bench with one of the lowest career winning percentages of all time at .326. He has a career record of 100-207, going 62-102 in two seasons as Cleveland's coach (1999-2000 and 2000-01) and a record of 38-105 since taking over from Dwane Casey on Jan. 23, 2007. The Wolves were 20-20 in the 2006-07 season when Casey was dismissed, then went 12-30 under Wittman in Garnett's last days in Minnesota.



After Saturday's heavy loss to the Clippers, when asked about his job security, Wittman told reporters: "If you start worrying about it, there's nothing you can worry about. When you get hired, you're bound to get fired. No, you don't worry about it. I'm not. I've got to prepare these guys on where they need to get better, and that's what I've got to do."


Said Wolves rookie Kevin Love, who had 13 points and 15 rebounds in the defeat: "As you can imagine, no one is particularly excited. We have hit rock bottom."


The Wolves could have as many as four first-round picks in the June draft, but McHale continues to absorb heavy criticism for his front-office moves. In addition to the controversial Garnett deal, McHale preferred Randy Foye over Brandon Roy in the 2006 draft, used the No. 7 overall pick in 2007 on Corey Brewer -- only for Brewer to struggle mightily as a rookie and then suffer the misfortune of a season-ending knee injury on Nov. 29 -- and surrendered Memphis' O.J. Mayo in a draft-day deal last June that brought back Love and perimeter specialist Mike Miller. Even in a deep rookie class, Mayo is widely regarded as the most serious threat to Chicago's Derrick Rose in the NBA's rookie of the year race.

As recently as two weeks ago, Wolves owner Glen Taylor said Wittman's job was safe, telling the St. Paul Pioneer-Press: "If I worried about the short term, and I looked at the economy and all my companies, if I based things on that, then I'd fire all my presidents because they had a bad month. I've been through ups and downs. You've got to be patient. I think Randy has prepared [the players] well. We've just got to get them some confidence. They're still young."


But the Wolves have looked increasingly uncompetitive since a stunning 26-point victory in Detroit on Nov. 23 which appeared to ease some of the pressure on Wittman

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Randy Wittman is out the door in Minnesota -- which means it took only six weeks for 13.3 percent of the NBA's head coaching positions to turn over.
The NBA has shown itself to be a league of a few elite teams and an exponentially larger number of sad-sack, empty-seat outfits, many of whom are now invoking that time-honored exercise of pointing the finger of blame at the head coach.

P.J. Carlesimo lasted just 13 games in Oklahoma City, Eddie Jordan was axed two days later (11 games into Washington's season) and Sam Mitchell was fired after the Toronto Raptors lost nine of their first 17.

We all knew job security was tenuous in the NBA coaching profession, but this season has driven that point home like a Dwight Howard slam. And barring a couple of quick turnarounds in Memphis and Sacramento, the number of coaches who have lost their jobs since the season opener could rise to six before Christmas Day.

Let's have a look at who remains on the hot seat, along with our own odds on who will be the next coach sacked in this season of discontent.


Marc Iavaroni, Grizzlies
A well-connected source assures us Iavaroni will be coaching the Grizzlies on Monday night against the Houston Rockets, after spending several days barely hanging on.

The question appears to be not whether Iavaroni will be canned, but when. The next question is whether one of Iavaroni's assistants, namely Johnny Davis or Kevin O'Neill, will step into the same shoes Tony Barone filled two years ago, when Barone took over as interim coach after the Grizzlies fired Mike Fratello.

Memphis owner Michael Heisley might have moved even faster had Iavaroni not coached the Grizz to a victory over the Clippers on Friday night. Then Saturday night's debacle in New Orleans (the Grizz trailed by 21 after one quarter and lost by 19) put Iavaroni right back on the hot seat. Now Heisley has to decide by Tuesday whether he wants a new guy to have a chance for a running start, with four of Memphis' next six games appearing to be winnable -- Wednesday's game at Oklahoma City, plus home games against Chicago, Miami and Charlotte. Odds: 1-1


Reggie Theus, Kings
The ankle injury that sidelined Kevin Martin for more than three weeks bought Theus some time, but Sacramento enters this week's back-to-back set against the Lakers with an eight-game losing streak -- and of the past four losses, three have been by 26, 23 and 33 points.

When he was brought aboard, Theus was the choice of the Maloofs, the Kings owners, who have now said any decision on the coach's future is in the hands of team president Geoff Petrie.

"I believe that they want me to just fight the battle and in the end to allow them to make their decision ... and I'm OK with that. I really hope that I have the opportunity to finish out. And that's not a plea in and of itself, that's just me saying that to you," Theus told the Sacramento Bee's Sam Amick this past weekend. "I believe in the plan. I believe in what Geoff and the Maloofs have in mind. And, whether it is a success on my side or not, I understand what we're trying to do. My job is to try to do what they've asked me to do. I think I'm at least moving in the right direction."

Theus told ESPN.com's J.A. Adande: "They [the Maloofs] asked me, 'Reggie, this is what we want to do. We want you to create a style of basketball that the fans like. We want you to keep the locker room together.'"

But Sacramento is down to 29th in average attendance, with catcalls coming from the fans who remain. That plus a dissatisfied locker room means that a team-record ninth consecutive home loss might be one too many. Odds: 3:2


Maurice Cheeks, 76ers
If we were looking for the leading contender to be the seventh coach fired this season, Cheeks would be at the top of the list.

None of the Eastern Conference teams expected to be contenders (with the possible exception of Toronto) has been a bigger disappointment than the Sixers, whose 9-12 record to begin the week has them sitting in 10th place in the East, a half-game behind New York.

Cheeks' footing is solidified by a couple of things: He just signed an extension, and he is engineering a fundamental shift in offensive emphasis to account for the addition of Elton Brand (currently day-to-day with a strained hamstring). But there has been measurable regression in the production of Andre Iguodala, Samuel Dalembert and Lou Williams, and it wasn't a good sign when team president Ed Stefanski said, "You'll never hear 'patience' coming out of my mouth."

Watch to see how the Sixers look in their back-to-back set against the Cavaliers later this week. Two blowout losses, and the line on Cheeks moves shorter. Odds: 19-1


Mike Dunleavy, Clippers
Upon his return to the Knicks' locker room a day after he was dealt from the Clippers in the Zach Randolph trade, Tim Thomas was asked how bad the chemistry dynamic had been in Los Angeles. "Oh, man. You have no idea," Thomas said, laughing and shaking his head.

Still, Dunleavy has recently emerged standing from the power struggle that led to the ouster of longtime general manager Elgin Baylor. And owner Donald Sterling isn't exactly enamored of the idea of firing people when he is still obligated to pay them.

Even with the 4-16 start and the poor chemistry between Dunleavy and point guard Baron Davis, there is still plenty of time for the Clips to work their way north from their current No. 14 spot in the Western Conference standings. And Dunleavy might have another move or two to try -- there isn't enough room in one frontcourt for Randolph, Marcus Camby and Chris Kaman, and Davis becomes trade-eligible on Dec. 15. Odds: 32-1

The Field, including Flip Saunders' former Detroit assistants
Are Terry Porter and Michael Curry, who moved into the big chairs in Phoenix and Detroit, respectively, after serving as Pistons assistant coaches last season, in trouble already?

OK, maybe it's a reach to include either of these first-year guys in a hot-seat list column, but the Suns and Pistons are accustomed to winning a lot more than we've seen lately from these two teams.

The changeover in Phoenix from Mike D'Antoni's offensively-oriented system to Porter's defensive-minded schemes is running into resistance from certain corners of the Suns locker room, something that has been well documented at ESPN.com (click here and here). One plugged-in, rival assistant coach described the Suns as "a bad mix and not on the same page."

And then we have Saunders' successor in Detroit, Curry, who pledged after Sunday's sleepwalk loss at New York to change his starting lineup -- dropping Kwame Brown -- and find more minutes for Rodney Stuckey, Arron Afflalo and Walter Herrmann. We'll see how that sits with the veterans -- namely Allen Iverson, Richard Hamilton, Rasheed Wallace and possibly Tayshaun Prince -- whose minutes will have to be cut. Odds: 49-1

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