And-Ones: Turnover, Lottery, Mayo, Refs

As Alex Kennedy of HoopsHype notes, we’re upon the time of the year when the NBA’s coaching carousel is in full swing. And while this time of the year is exciting for new hires like Monty Williams, it’s also a sobering reminder of how NBA head coaches have the highest coaching turnover rate among the four major sports leagues over the past 20 years.

On average, a new head coach is hired in the NBA every 2.4 seasons as opposed to every 2.6 seasons (NHL), 3.1 seasons (MLB) and 3.4 seasons (NFL) in the other three leagues. Ironically, but not altogether unexpected, the teams with less coaching turnover actually have significantly higher records (e.g. see the Spurs and head coach Gregg Popovich).

On the other end of the spectrum, the Nets, Pistons and Knicks all have an NBA-high 12 coaching changes in the last 20 years and all have a winning percentage below .500 during that span. The one outlier is the Lakers, who have a winning percentage above .500 over the last 20 years despite the fact that they’ll be on their eighth coach this summer.

The entire article regarding the study is worth a read, and once you’re finished, check out some more odds and ends from the basketball world below:

  • Jonathan Givony and Mike Schmitz of ESPN take a look at what’s at stake for every team in next week’s lottery, including each team’s likely picks, odds and questions for the teams in the lottery, traded picks and more.
  • After having recently averaged 22.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game in a Taiwanese league, former NBA guard O.J. Mayo signed a deal in China with Hunan Jinjian, per Orazio Cauchi of Sportando.
  • In an article from The Associated Press, it was relayed that NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants half of all new referees joining the league to be women — and he would like to see teams hire female coaches, too.
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