Team off to a slow start? Want to spice things up? Or do you just want to keep up with the NBA Joneses? Then pick up an interim coach.

With five coaches fired since the start of the season, it seems the way to achieve all of the above is to release your head coach and pick up an interim one. At least that’s what some team front offices seem to believe. But will it work? With so many changes in such a short period, only time will tell whether this coach-changing philosophy will be successful for teams.

Maurice Cheeks, former head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, became the latest victim of the interim coach trend on Saturday after going 9-14 to start the season.

“I felt that we were not progressing the way we wanted to progress [with] the expectations that we had,” said 76ers President Ed Stefanski as he opened the press conference to announce the coaching change.

Even with all the staffing changes, the Sixers seemed unfazed in their first game under interim head coach Tony Dielo.

Their newest aquisition, Elton Brand, was the most at ease as he scored a season-high 27 points, leading Philadelphia to a 104-89 victory over the struggling Washington Wizards, who also have an interim head coach.

“I did feel comfortable,” DiLeo said. “Coaching is like managing. Any time I had a question, the assistant coaches were there to answer them. The game flew by and brought back a lot of feelings.”

Don’t get to comfortable DiLeo. Afterall, trends do come and go.

(nba.com)

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