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Coming off thibs being fired it made me think who has this strategy worked for? People always point to the warriors but are they exception and not the rule?

Bucks tried it and regressed with doc
Lakers tried it with Vogel and regressed

I don’t have all the examples but what do you guys think?

2016 Cavs, won it all, but I don't think it was smart to fire him.

Raptors fired Casey after a 59 win season and won a championship the next year

Rick Carlisle got fired for Larry Brown and Pistons won the chip

There's never a guarantee that replacing the coach is going to net more positive results. Does it happen on occasion? Sure.

Not right after a deep playoff run, but Brad Stevens got politely fired for Udoka and BOS made the finals. Then when Udoka got fired off a deep run for non basketball reasons, Mazzulla eventually helped BOS win a title even though few actually credit him for it.

walk with me wrote:Lakers tried it with Vogel and regressed

But right before that the Lakers fired Walton and won a title Vogel.

Frank Vogel lost in the first round then missed the playoffs the two years before his firing with the Lakers, then the Lakers made the conf finals year he left. What are we talking about here?

I'm unsure what we mean excluding the GSW?

If we mean Mark Jackson, they were a first round out the season he got fired.

eminence wrote:I'm unsure what we mean excluding the GSW?

If we mean Mark Jackson, they were a first round out the season he got fired.

Not only was the OP wrong about that... the NBA has almost 80 years of history with several examples where a new coach comes in and does better... as we're already seeing in this thread.

The fact of the matter is that winning the championship in the NBA is REALLY, REALLY hard. History is so dominated by dynastic runs by teams from each era. Pretty much any strategy you want to say roster or coaching wise is going to overall be ineffective. Teams that relied on defense, teams that relied on offense, young coaches, old coaches, old team, young team, etc... any single one of them, overall, is going to be ineffective in terms of winning a title because so few teams actually win.

WarriorGM wrote:

walk with me wrote:Lakers tried it with Vogel and regressed

But right before that the Lakers fired Walton and won a title Vogel.

Correct me if I’m wrong but the lakers weren’t good with Walton, that’s how I remember it atleast. They won a championship with Vogel.

I’m talking about teams firing their coach after really successful seasons.

hugepatsfan wrote:Not right after a deep playoff run, but Brad Stevens got politely fired for Udoka and BOS made the finals. Then when Udoka got fired off a deep run for non basketball reasons, Mazzulla eventually helped BOS win a title even though few actually credit him for it.

Oh, didn't know the Stevens situation was considered a firing, thought he just wanted to move to the front office and they accomodated him.

og15 wrote:

hugepatsfan wrote:Not right after a deep playoff run, but Brad Stevens got politely fired for Udoka and BOS made the finals. Then when Udoka got fired off a deep run for non basketball reasons, Mazzulla eventually helped BOS win a title even though few actually credit him for it.

Oh, didn't know the Stevens situation was considered a firing, thought he just wanted to move to the front office and they accomodated him.

I think it was kind of a nudge there. They thought he'd be great for the front office role but it had also become kind of clear he wasn't the best fit for managing star players and those kind of team dynamics. He was always great when BOS had the underdog atmosphere but they had fell flat a couple of times when there were expectations and his poor management of team chemistry had been a problem.

The original post is a bit confusing. Vogel was fired 2 seasons after their title and not making the playoffs the last season. The Bucks fired Budenholzer also 2 seasons after their title and a first round exit and Doc wasn't his direct replacement. There are quite a lot of examples of that, the most prominent one probably being the Lakers replacing Paul Westhead with Pat Riley.

I couldn't give an example though of where a coach gets fired immediatelly after at least making the Conference Finals.

Might not meet your exact criteria, but the Lakers in '81. They had won a title in '80 with Paul Westhead. He was fired a few weeks into the '81-'82 season and replaced with Pat Riley; they won the title.

GSW didn't make the WCF with Jackson. Bad example.

The Cavs are the only really example I can think of lately. Blatt fired the following season after making the finals.

Fired after winning 2 games in a conference finals? Or NBA Finals? Fired for losing in a conference finals or NBA Finals?
I can't remember the last time that that's happened in the past. Off the top of my head.

Also, BTW. That young GSW team back then was a totally different situation than these older Thibs Knicks team.
The Only similarly these Knicks and those GSW teams is that they were run under bad ownership and stunk for decades (pre Thibs Knicks), pre-Jackson/Kerr GSWs. Very bad teams , losing seasons, missed the playoffs lot.
Jackson came and helped change the culture, GSW was also under new ownership, young talented players. They started winning around 2013 ish. Those GSW were a lil more raw, not ready yet, young up and coming, fun, jumpshooting team, Splash Brothers. But. There were lot of other teams in the West that were better than them those years. Thunder, Clippers, Spurs, Nuggets, Grizzlies, etc. These were the title contenders. Especially the Thunder, Clippers (lob city), and Spurs.
GSW was only coached 3 seasons by Jackson.
2012 , your typical GSW season, 20 games under .500, 23-43, missed playoffs.
2013, GSW finally has a winning season, playoffs!. First time in 5 years. 47-35. Upset 3rd seed Nuggets (Gallinari injured knee, Denver was missing him), 4-2. Lost to Spurs in 2nd round 4-2. Gave our Spurs fits!
2014 finished 51-31. Lost to 3rd seed Clippers first round, 4-3
Jackson was fired. But due to personality clashes with the folks in the FO and bumping heads.
Otherwise, GSW would've kept him. GSW was on the rise.
It wasn't because of performance. GSW were actually a young gritty overarching team
. They were never a top 5 seed team in the West under Jackson. And didnt make deep runs into the Conference Finals. Under Jackson, past the 1st round just once, and it was against a hobbled Nugetz team ((Gallinari knee) . GSW went through 2 decades of terrible basketball. At the time, Like 18 losing seasons in the prior 20 seasons.
Kerr got hired and obviously the rest was history.

This Knicks are an older veteran squad, made deeper playoff runs, higher top seeds in the East, longer time together. 5 seasons together.
4 winning seasons/playoffs. Top 3 seed team in the East last 2 seasons. An ECF appearance, first time since 2000. Lost 4-2.
Only bounced in the first round once (lost to Hawks in 2021). 1 losing season, 2022.
3 seasons with deep playoff runs. 2nd round d times.
Prior to Thibs arrival. Knicks (like GSW) were a joke for past 2 decades plus.
Like only 4 winning seasons/ playoffs since 2001. Lots of losing seasons.
The Knicks are on the rise! Ascending.

This was a bad firing.

The Mavs moved on from Avery Johnson and won a title with Carlisle in 2011. The Avery led Mavs were a juggernaut in 2007 till the "We Believe" Warriors humbled them