A Bumpy Ride

The NBA's regular season ended yesterday, and the playoffs (the ones that seemingly last longer than the regular season itself) are just around the corner. In the meantime, the coaching carousel is in full motion. For three previously successful coaches, their time on the carousel has come to an abrupt conclusion. Lawrence Frank, Byron Scott, and Doug Collins have all lost their jobs in the hours since the final whistle of the season; for all three of them the writing has been on the wall for quite some time.

Doug Collins is the only one of the three to not have been fired. Instead, Collins has chosen to step down and instead take a position in the 76ers front office for the remainder of his contract. Collins started the year with so much promise. His team had a talented roster and they were supposed to be a real contender to challenge the Miami Heat for supremacy in the East. All that promise and hope was dashed when their big free agent acquisition, Andrew Bynum, was lost for the year due to injury and, as far as I'm concerned, a bad attitude. I understand that Bynum has a rather extensive history of injury, but I really think that his biggest problem is his attitude. If he had been a determined player, I think he could have made a comeback this year and had an impact on this team. Instead, he decided that he wanted to shut it down for the year, and will most likely never put on a Philadelphia jersey again. What looked at the time like a great move for the franchise ended in the demise of Collins' coaching career in Philly, and perhaps anywhere else.

Byron Scott was brought in to Cleveland the year after LeBron made the decision to "take his talents to South Beach". While it is understandable that Scott has had some struggles after losing the greatest athlete to put on a basketball jersey, it's not as if Cleveland is devoid of talent. Kyrie Irving is fast becoming one of the NBA's biggest young stars. He's got a phenomenal all-around game and is a stud at the Point Guard position. They also have some pretty decent talent around him, so while no one has realistically expected Cleveland to be a consistent playoff contender since the departure of Lebron, Scott's record of 64-166 is unacceptable and, unlike Collins, is completely worthy of being fired.

Lawrence Frank, much like Doug Collins, seems to be a victim of circumstance. The Detroit Pistons roster has been, unlike Cleveland, essentially devoid of talent since the recent glory days of the franchise. Since the departures of Ben Wallace, Chauncey Billups, and Richard Hamilton from their repeat Eastern Conference Championship teams, the talent pool in Detroit has been shallow to say the least. Detroit's leading scorer this season was Greg Monroe at 16 points per game. That average was only good enough for 40th in the league, in a league with only 28 teams. While it's not Frank's fault and I don't think ANYONE could be successful with the current Pistons roster, a change had to be made. When a change has to be made, it almost always means that the coach is going to lose his job, no matter how justified or not it may be.