It has been a week since the Thunder fired head coach Scott Brooks. For some, it might have been a year too late. For others, this was a long time overdue. To me, I see it as more of an unfortunate timing situation.
Let's start with the information that we know. In his seven seasons leading the team, Brooks posted a 338-207 record, including five qualifications for the postseason, three appearances in the Conference Finals, and a trip to the 2012 NBA Finals. This season, injuries devastated the squad on the court.
A 3-12 start (with superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the bench) proved too much to overcome by mid-April. Durant played in about one-third of this season's games (27 of 82). Westbrook missed 15, with most of those happening during that disastrous beginning of the campaign. And don't forget that defensive leader Serge Ibaka was out for the last 18 contests of the regular season.
There were also the trade deadline moves. Sure, the roster improved, but there's going to be an adjustment period when Kendrick Perkins and Reggie Jackson were swapped for Enes Kanter and Dion Waiters, respectively. Once everything came to pass, OKC was one game short of a sixth consecutive playoff berth, and Scott Brooks was out the door.
Whenever there's a coaching change with players of this caliber, the hope is that the right leader can put the team in a position to win it all. This strategy does have a supply of examples where it came to fruition.
The Lakers already had a legacy when they won the 1979-1980 championship. It was a time of transition, with rookie Magic Johnson and veteran Kareem Abdul-Jabbar leading what would become a decade of success. But would that success have happened if nothing changed in late 1981? For most of the '80s, Pat Riley was the man guiding the squad. However, he wasn't at the helm in 1980. That distinction went to Paul Westhead (who filled in when Jack McKinney suffered a severe injury early in the season). After winning the title at the start of the decade, and losing in the first round in 1981, Westhead was let go of his duties early into the 1981-1982 season. Riley stepped up from the assistant's seat in that case and stayed on to grab four titles of his own (along with three other Finals appearances).
Riley was part of another "succession" when it comes to his current position. In the Summer of 2005, Stan Van Gundy coached the Miami Heat to the Eastern Conference Finals. However, high expectations and a stumbling 11-10 start the following season led to Van Gundy resigning the position in December of 2005. Riley got out of the President's suite to reassume the job title he had given up just a couple of seasons earlier. The end result ... the organization's first championship (and Riley's fifth as a coach).
Jumping ahead once again, we could be in the midst of another success story. One year ago, Golden State Warriors was in the midst of a heated series with the Clippers. After making the playoffs once in an 18-season stretch, fortunes were starting to turn. 2014 was the second consecutive year that the Warriors earned the West's sixth seed. But even with the improving roster, there were rumblings that the relationship between head coach Mark Jackson and the front office was very strained.
Just days after the Warriors were bounced from the postseason, Jackson was bounced from his seat on the bench. The move left many scratching their heads and wondering if this would disrupt the chemistry of the team. After a 67-15 regular season, a division title, and earning the conference's top seed, it appears that bringing in Steve Kerr was the right choice. Whether that results in a title .... that question might be answered in the next few weeks.
Now, the Thunder will look to make the same kind of splash that turns consistent success into title-grabbing elitism. Personally, I thought that Brooks should have been given one more "injury-plague free" season to prove the detractors right. A four-headed attack of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, and Kanter should be a potent group, even in the stacked Western Conference. But, if the Thunder play this correctly, we could see them holding the Larry O'Brien Trophy about a year from now.
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