The history of late-season NBA coaching changes

No playoff team has ever fired their head coach as late as the Denver Nuggets did when they dismissed head Michael Malone on Tuesday. The Nuggets won their first game with new coach David Adelman, but history of late NBA coaching changes is a decidedly mixed bag.

Don Nelson/Avery Johnson | Dallas Mavericks, 2005

Avery Johnson took over as coach of the Dallas Mavericks with 18 games to go after Don Nelson stepped down March 19, 2005. Nelson said he thought the team had experienced "slippage" and needed a new voice, though he'd also clashed with owner Mark Cuban over his decision not to resign Steve Nash. The Mavericks went 16-2 the rest of the way.

Dallas dropped the first two games at home in the first round, but rallied to beat the Houston Rockets in seven games. Then it lost to the Phoenix Suns, led by Nash, in the second round. Johnson lasted three more seasons, winning NBA Coach of the Year and reaching the NBA Finals in 2006.

Don Nelson/Jeff Van Gundy | New York Knicks, 1996

The New York Knicks hired Nelson to replace Pat Riley before the 1995-96 season. Nellie had a 37-25 record at the time of his firing, which he claims happened after he suggested trading Patrick Ewing for Shaquille O'Neal. Jeff Van Gundy took over and the Knicks finished the season 13-10, swept the No. 4 seed Cleveland Cavaliers, then lost to the Chicago Bulls in the second round.

Van Gundy would go on to coach the Knicks for five more years before abruptly resigning early in the 2001-02 season.

Gene Shue/Kevin Loughery | Washington Bullets, 1986

Shue led the Bullets to a 32-37 record before he was fired with 13 games to go in the season. He'd been leading the Bullets for six years and hovered around .500, after coaching the team for seven seasons when they were in Baltimore. His replacement was Kevin Loughery, who led the Bullets' to a 7-6 record and the No. 6 seed (at 39-43). The Bullets lost their first-round series to the Philadelphia 76ers, 3-2.

Loughery managed to crack .500 the next season with a 42-40 record, then got swept in the playoffs but couldn't survive the team's 8-19 start in the 1987-88 season and was fired.

George Karl/Gene Littles | Cleveland Cavaliers, 1986

The fiery Karl had led the Cavs to their first playoff berth in six seasons in 1985, but was dismissed with a 25-42 record and 15 games to go. Assistant Gene Littles did even worse, finishing the season 4-11 and missing the playoffs by a single game. The Cavaliers hired Lenny Wilkens that summer and he coached them for seven seasons.

Larry Brown/Bill Blair | New Jersey Nets, 1983

The Nets were 47-29 when their head coach secretly interviewed for and accepted the head coaching job at the University of Kansas, at which point team president and co-owner Joe Taub asked him to resign. Assistant coach Bill Blair took over and went 2-4 the rest of the season.

In the six-team playoff format of the time, the fourth-seeded Nets faced the fifth-seeded Knicks and lost both games in their best-of-three series. The Knicks took big early leads in both games and won fairly easily. The following season, the Nets would win their first playoff series in their history under new coach Stan Albeck, and wouldn't win another for 18 years.

Overall, firing a coach late is risky, especially for a winning team. That's why almost no one has done it. The Nuggets are really rolling the dice.