NBA coaches on hot seat: Five names to watch as season winds down

There isn't a "Black Monday' in the NBA like there is in the NFL, a day when it's expected a bunch of coaches and front office staff will get fired — last season the Nuggets didn't even wait until the end of the season and let Michael Malone go with three games left.

Don't expect anything quite that dramatic this season in the NBA, but there are coaches on the hot seat. Here are five names to watch.

Jamahl Mosley, Orlando

This comment from Paolo Banchero might have been the final straw for Jamahl Mosley — when the star player is calling out a lack of adjustments, it's bad.

Orlando has been one of the most disappointing teams in the NBA this season — a team projected to hit 50 wins and push for a top-three seed in the East that is instead headed to the play-in and may well not make it out of that round. While the Magic's offense is out of the bottom 10 in the league for the first time in more than a decade (still just 18th), the defense that had been the foundation of what Orlando was building has fallen off a cliff. Orlando's defense is five points per 100 possessions worse than a season ago and is 16th in the league. That's not good enough.

Mosley is expected to pay the price for failing to meet the franchise's sky-high expectations.

A rash of injuries played a part in Orlando's struggles this season, and there are legitimate questions about how well Banchero and Franz Wagner fit together, but it's going to be a different coach in Orlando next season who gets a chance to see if they can fit all the puzzle pieces together before things start to get blown up.

Doc Rivers, Milwaukee

It's going to be weird when Doc Rivers is elected to the Hall of Fame one week and let go a couple of weeks later.

The expectation around the league is that is exactly what will happen, no matter what Giannis Antetokounmpo decides to do this summer. The Bucks have been a disappointment, and to be fair, part of that is Antetokounmpo only playing in 36 games. Another issue is a patchwork roster put around the Greek Freak. That said, this team should be better than it is. Rivers did not connect with and elevate this roster, and things like his insistence on his team getting back and not crashing the offensive glass seem at odds with where the game is headed.

One of two things is going to happen in Milwaukee this summer. One scenario is Antetokounmpo forces his way out via trade, in which case the Bucks will not want Rivers to coach a rebuilding team. The other is Antetokounmpo re-signs in Milwaukee, and the Bucks are looking to contend — Rivers has already not connected with this roster, the front office would be looking for a new voice. Either way, it seems likely Rivers is shown the door.

Doug Christie, Sacramento

Christie was ownership's guy. Christie was the coach with the backing of the Ranadive family and a lot of support in some corners of the Kings organization — he was a popular former player returned to lead the team to glory.

It hasn't gone that way. The Kings did not want to tank this season, they went into it talking playoffs. This was a team with Domantas Sabonis, Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan, plus young talent like Keegan Murray. The Kings expected to light the beam a lot and be playing in late April and May.

Instead, the Kings are dead last in the Western Conference and have the fourth-worst record in the NBA, and Christie gets plenty of blame for that. The Kings are starting another rebuild and with that are widely expected to put a new coach in place next season.

Brian Keefe, Washington

Things are going to be different in Washington next season with Trae Young and Anthony Davis healthy (*knocks on wood*), surrounded by a solid core of young players such as Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and Tre Johnson. The question in Washington is, should Keefe lead this team?

While Keefe is just 43-154 as the Wizards' head coach, he's been handed rosters designed to lose as the team rebuilt. That said, he hasn't built much of a culture of effort and execution, as we have seen in other tanking teams such as Utah (Will Hardy) and Brooklyn (Jordi Fernandez). Does Keefe deserve a chance with a real team, or is it best to make a fresh start with a new coach? A lot of people in league circles expect the latter.

Tiago Splitter, Portland

Splitter was thrown into an impossible situation, handed the keys to the team days before the season, after Chauncey Billups was arrested and charged in a federal illegal gambling scheme. Splitter has done a respectable job, maybe a good one — he has the Trail Blazers above .500 and heading to the postseason. Splitter oversaw a system that has opened the door for Deni Avdija to become an All-Star. This is a team with potential. It has some quality veterans in Jrue Holiday and the set-to-return next season Damian Lillard, plus some good young players like Donovan Clingan and Scoot Henderson.

So why is Splitter on the hot seat list? Nobody is ever safe when a new owner takes over a team. Tom Dundon is the man at the top now, and based on what we have seen from his ownership of the Carolina Hurricanes of the NHL, expect him to be hands-on.

What does that mean for Splitter? Who knows. But the team never removed the interim tag from his title, so nothing feels certain.