Mike Brown (Los Angeles) gone five games into the season; Avery Johnson (Brooklyn) gone the day after Christmas, 28 games into the season; Scott Skiles (Milwaukee) gone 32 games in, when his team fell to .500 for the fourth time this season. Gentry lasted 41 games.

And somehow, there have been no Phil Jackson (or Stan Van Gundy) sightings.

Since the firings, the Lakers, Nets and Bucks have gone three different directions. The Nets are 9-2 post-AJ, the Lakers are 16-18 since firing Brown, the Bucks 3-3 since Skiles was asked to return the keys. One coach is catching hell (Mike D’Antoni with the Lakers), one is so under-the-radar that hardly anyone knows he is a current head coach of an NBA team (Jim Boylan with the Bucks), one is on pace to have a statue built in his likeness outside the Barclays Center (P.J. Carlesimo with the Nets). With the Suns, it’s too early to tell.

Each team had different reasons for enforcing a head coaching change when it did. The results of each are so all over the place that it’s hard to determine if there is a right or wrong in what each team did, the way the teams went about doing it and/or the arguable timing of them all.

No rhyme, less reason. Nothing seems to fit when the immediate results are so random and varied. Owners flip a coin, hoping it’ll land on the opposite side of their current results.

Just two weeks ago, we watched the NFL fire seven coaches on Black Monday. The NBA? Owners don’t have patience like that. They embrace change in a different way. They react with quickness. Regardless of how the firings are rationalized internally or justified publicly, two things are certain: Job security for an NBA coach is maybe the greatest oxymoron in sports, and there is no assurance that the immediate results under a new leader will give any team the answer it sought.

For instance, there were four coaching changes during the 2011-12 shortened season. Of those four, three of the coaches were retained and have not been pink-slipped. Yet.

Yet, there’s no telling if Randy Wittman in Washington, Keith Smart in Sacramento or Mike Woodson in New York (although he seems relatively safe, nothing is guaranteed if the Knicks fall out of the top four seeding in the East or the “Amar’e Experiment” doesn’t work out soon) were the right choices. There’s no telling if there would be any difference if the teams did what Orlando did when it rode the season out with the existing/sacrificial coach, dismissed him in the offseason, hired the guy the owner and organization “really” wanted (Jacque Vaughn) and began the new season fresh.

The Bulls waited until the offseason to hire Tom Thibodeau a few years ago, as did the Clippers with Vinny Del Negro and Golden State with Mark Jackson. Indiana did not with Frank Vogel. And all these teams are remarkably better than they were the day the current coaches took over.

Go figure.

In the NFL, going back a few years, Marty Schottenheimer (his first job) and Don Coryell (his second) replaced fired head coaches in the middle of a season, and their careers turned out well. In comparison, Jason Garrett took over the Cowboys in November 2010 when Jerry Jones fired Wade Phillips after a 1-7 start. Now the odds are, even after two 8-8 full seasons as Jerry’s puppet, Garrett might not make it to Black Monday next year.

In the NHL, Ken Hitchcock took over a 6-7-0 team in St. Louis last season and proceeded to finish 49-22-11 and first in the Central. Bruce Boudreau was on both ends of an owner’s midseason whims: fired in D.C. with a 12-9-1 record only to be hired by Anaheim and go 27-23-8 with a team that finished last in the Pacific, even after improving under him.

In MLB. In the English Premier League. In the National Rugby League. In any team sport at the pro level, the same theory-less theory holds true. The results prove to be the same: inconclusive. Same no rhyme. Same less reason.

So how do we judge and or generalize when it is a good/bad, appropriate/inexcusable, smart/incompetent time to fire/hire head coaches?

The best example of how (and why) there may never be an answer to this, especially in the NBA where the coaching carousel can get extreme and thoughtless, can be found in the head coaching history of Gregg Popovich in San Antonio.

He, too, was an interim coach who replaced Bob Hill 18 games into the 1996-97 season. (His was one of eight midseason coaching changes by seven teams.) Since then, Popovich has gone on to become the sensei of all active coaches. And he would be the perfect example of the upside to firing a coach during or somewhere in the middle of an NBA season if … at the time he wasn’t the GM and VP of basketball operations for the Spurs and he hadn’t appointed himself as head coach.

Despite owners’ certainty that a change on the bench will bring different results, flipping a coin often lands with the same ugly results staring them in the face. Heads or tails. And sometimes, because they limit their thinking to those two options, either this or that, they’re surprised when it lands on the coin’s narrow third surface, spinning on its edge.

Coaches in all sports come and go. Coaches in the NBA just seem to do so at an advanced pace.

When it comes to the revolving door at the core of most relationships between ownership and a head coach, how the coin will land after it stops spinning is too hard to guess. A few games midseason rarely determine — especially in the NBA — the good decision/bad decision outcome of a bad fire/new hire.

Or is it new fire/bad hire? Looking at the immediate results, I can’t tell if there’s even any difference.

The post Midseason NBA coaching changes appeared first on IdealCapper.

But Emery also divulged that the Bears’ decision to make a coaching change ultimately came down to inconsistency on offense and the team’s inability to perennially advance to the postseason.

“During the course of Smith’s career, we’ve had one offense that ranked in the teens (in 2006, when the Bears advanced to the Super Bowl). We haven’t had the balance between our defensive excellence,” Emery said during a press conference Tuesday. “We have searched for answers. The end result is we did not have enough consistency. That, paired with not getting into the playoffs on a consistent basis, I made the change moving forward.”

Emery insisted he made the decision to fire Smith, who led the team to the postseason three times in nine years, and came to that end with the blessings of team president Ted Phillips and Bears chairman George McCaskey.

McCaskey admitted the decision to fire Smith was “very difficult” because “our family has high regard for Lovie.”

Smith came to Halas Hall on Monday to speak with Emery, Phillips and McCaskey, who said “I was struggling to keep my emotions in check.”

The task now is for the Bears to find a replacement for Smith. Emery said the team will conduct interviews over the next two weeks.

According to league sources, Emery already has traveled to Atlanta to interview Falconsspecial teams coordinator Keith Armstrong.

The Cowboys have granted the Bears permission to interview special teams coach Joe DeCamillis, a Dallas source told ESPN. DeCamillis shares a history with Emery, as they worked together with the Falcons.

The Bears also will interview Denver offensive coordinator Mike McCoy over the weekend and will also sit down with Tampa Bay offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan, sources told ESPN.

Team president Ted Phillips was asked if budget will be an issue with the hire.

“We’ve talked about what do we want to do in terms of bringing in a head coach and the bottom line is we want the right fit,” Phillips said. “We want the synergy with Phil. We want the synergies with the players with the whole organization, a sense of excellence and once Phil brings in those final candidates — believe he’ll bring in great candidates who will be a great fit, then we’re going to do whatever it takes to hire the right guy.”

Emery said there’s “a sense of urgency” to conclude the search as quickly as possible, and ideally he’d like to “stand shoulder to shoulder” with the new head coach at the Jan. 19 East-West Shrine Game or the Senior Bowl, set for Jan. 26.

The rest of Smith’s assistant coaches, meanwhile, remain under contract and, according to an NFL source, were told by Emery they won’t know their ultimate fate until the new head coach is in place.

Emery extended the contracts of Smith’s staff last season “to protect them because I was a new GM” but it also “protected the club.”

“There are going to be candidates that will have people in mind (for positions as assistants) that they may not be able to reach,” Emery said. “NFL rules are very definitive in that the only position an assistant coach that is currently under contract with a team can move from one team to another is head coach. So we could be denied in our effort. If we find a head coach we like and want to move forward to, he may have an assistant he wants to move forward on, but we might not be able to reach.

“Having our assistant coaches here and getting to know them for a year, and know who they are and where their level of excellence not only is, but what their level of expertise is, was very important in the course of the evaluation.”

Some of the assistants don’t want to return, according to a source, who also said many would jump at the opportunity to become a part of Smith’s staff if he receives another job as head coach. Sources told ESPN that four teams looking for head coaches have reached out to Smith.

Emery outlined qualities the club seeks during its search for a new head coach, saying the “No. 1 criteria is excellence in their role,” as well as “great organizational skills, administrative skills, along with leadership skills.”

Emery also covets a “high-energy” candidate that can represent the Bears positively in dealings with the media.

Prospective salary won’t be a hindrance in Chicago’s pursuit of coaching candidates, according to Emery, McCaskey and Phillips.

“The NFL head coaching job is a 24/7 job,” Emery said. “It’s a high demand, extremely competitive environment. You have to be highly organized, thorough, (and) meticulous to make sure you’re always putting your team in position for success. It goes to the minute details of the collective bargaining agreement.”

Emery also pointed out he plans to interview a wide range of candidates, and “no one has been excluded,” including remaining assistants under contract from the Smith regime. Special teams coach Dave Toub received an interview for a head coaching position in Miami last season. Offensive coordinator Mike Tice and defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli have also served as head coaches in the past.

The Bears plan to take a look at coaches from all backgrounds, whether it is on offense, defense or special teams, and they’ll peruse candidates from both the NFL and collegiate level. Ideally, if the Bears go the college route, they’d like for the candidate to have experience on the NFL level.

If Chicago goes after any college coaches, it will wait until after the bowl season to do so, and adhere to rules requiring it to first contact the athletic director or school president of any prospective candidate it would like to interview.

Given the fact it’s occurred before, there’s a chance the prospective new head coach of the Bears might prefer another quarterback over current starter Jay Cutler. Emery indicated he’s “not saying that” keeping Cutler would be a requirement for the new head coach.

But earlier in the nearly hour-long press conference, Emery spoke of the need “to build around (Cutler).

“That’s been the goal from the beginning,” he said. “To build around Jay and to build our team towards championships.”

Asked specifically whether keeping Cutler, who is set in 2013 to enter the final year of his contract, was a requirement of the new head coach, Emery steered his response to the need to find someone capable of developing the entire team.

“I’m saying that I’m looking for a head coach that can take all the unique talents we have and bring them together toward winning championships,” Emery said. “It’s not just about Jay. There are 10 other guys that start out there.

“We have to have coaches and staff that are capable of finding their skills sets, what they do best and building offense, defense and special teams toward something that is consistently moving toward championships. Our team.”

The post Playoff woes doomed Smith appeared first on IdealCapper.