Paul Silas was fired as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday with his team fighting for a NBA playoff spot after leading its division earlier this year. Long-time NBA assistant Brendan Malone will be the interim coach.
Silas told AP he was informed at a morning meeting with general manager Jim Paxson and new owner Dan Gilbert. Silas' son, assistant Stephen Silas, also was fired.
"They didn't think the team was performing as well as it should be and they wanted to make a change," Paul Silas said.
The Cavaliers have struggled since the All-Star break last month. They have lost nine of 12 and nine straight road games, including Sunday's 105-98 loss to Toronto when James scored a franchise-record 56 points.
"We believe in our players, and that progress just wasn't being made," Paxson said at a news conference on Monday. "We have 18 games left in this season. We're fifth in the Eastern Conference right now, and we felt that if we didn't make this decision that we were jeopardizing our ability to be a playoff team this year."
The Cavaliers entered the All-Star break at 30-21, then went into a slide, the decline marked by personnel issues.
The trouble may have culminated on Sunday when Silas benched starting guard Jeff McInnis and replaced him with Eric Snow. Snow did not score in Cleveland's loss at Toronto, and McInnis, despite being dressed and available, didn't play.
This season, Silas threw Snow off the bench after the two exchanged words during the first quarter at Detroit, a move that stunned the team because of Snow's reputation as a leader.
Last week, Silas was fined US$10,000 by the team for a derogatory comment he made about Utah Jazz forward Carlos Boozer, who left the Cavaliers as a free agent last year. Silas apologized.
The 61-year-old Silas joined Cleveland in June 2003 after being fired by the New Orleans Hornets, having led them to the playoffs four straight times.
Malone, in his first season with the Cavaliers, was the first coach of the expansion Toronto Raptors, spending one season with the team. He's been an assistant with New York, Indiana, Seattle and Detroit in 19 years of NBA coaching.
The Cavaliers are ninth team to make a coaching change since the start of the season, nearly one-third of the league. They join Dallas, Denver, Los Angeles Lakers, Memphis, Minnesota, New York Knicks, Orlando and Portland.
As a coach, Silas has a record of 355-400 with the Los Angeles Clippers, Hornets and Cavaliers. His Hornets teams (both in Charlotte and New Orleans) went 13-16 in the playoffs.
In 16 NBA seasons as a player, Silas averaged 9.4 points and 9.9 rebounds in 1,254 career games. Twice selected as an All-Star, he won three NBA championships -- two with Boston and one with Seattle.
LeBron James scored 29 and got some sorely needed help from the Cavaliers bench to give interim coach Brendan Malone a win in his first game, 91-76 over the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday night.
"We played great tonight," Malone said. "Our defensive intensity was great against one of the best teams in the NBA."
Malone gave more playing time to Anderson Varejao and other reserves and it paid off. Varejao scored 11 and played tough defense with a couple blocks that ignited Cleveland.
The win ended a three-game losing streak for the Cavaliers and snapped the Pistons' five-game winning streak.
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