Jazz's Jordan Clarkson Reacts to Recent Coach Firings

It's been a usual hectic season around the NBA for the 2024-25 campaign on multiple levels, but one aspect that's stuck out a bit more prominently than most is the amount of turnover and firings in the coaching realm taking place at year's end.

While it's not unusual for NBA coaches to have a short lifespan with their respective teams, sometimes even getting just one or two years on the job, this time around has been different.

Not one, but two coaches leading playoff-level teams, Memphis Grizzlies' Taylor Jenkins and Denver Nuggets' Michael Malone, saw the boot just under 10 games to go in their respective seasons, both housed in a tough Western Conference.

If either were to fizzle out in the playoffs in the first round or completely be a catalyst in imploding their team internally, that's one thing. Two coaches (and a general manager) being fired so close to the postseason is almost unprecedented.

For Utah Jazz veteran Jordan Clarkson, the heavy coaching turnover, especially so close to the postseason, is something he hasn't witnessed during his 11 years in the league.

"I don't think I've seen it at this high of a rate as usual since I've been in the league," Clarkson said of the league's recent coach firings. "I think they're making it a normal thing now, I guess. We've seen it this year a lot. So, if that's what it is, man, it's part of the business."

So far, the league has collected four coaching vacancies entering this offseason, perhaps with more to come depending on how this offseason continues to develop. Again, seeing a high amount of firings and openings is far from a surprise in the modern NBA, but the way things transpired this time around took a different form than most.

What's the reason for the sudden change? In Clarkson's eyes, perhaps it could be part of the current nature of the NBA being a players' league.

"One thing could be: it's a players' league and stuff like that, but GMs getting fired too... Yeah, it's interesting. It makes the league entertainment, and we'll see how things and other people figure it out."

Even while the NBA may be a players league with guys on the roster having some significant pull and say-so, we've still seen guys like Luka Doncic and Anthony Davis, two superstars in the midst of their prime, get moved in the middle of the season as if it were a casual, trade deadline deal.

So, while coaches may be getting the brunt of those immense changes now, that might keep ensuing in the case of players, and even front office members like Nuggets' general manager Calvin Booth. In reality, nobody is 100% safe in this league.

It does make for an entertaining landscape of the need, but with that comes an extra bit of unpredictability.

For coaches, players, and even names in the front office, it's undoubtedly a shaky, always-changing business to traverse, but that's just part of the NBA. Now, with the way new, franchise-rattling trends are seemingly shaking out quicker and faster than ever, that instability might be turning up another notch.