With all of the head coaching firings/resignations happening throughout the league over the last week you?d think we would have already crowned ourselves a new NBA champion and were well into the off-season.

 Hardly.  Playoff races are now only heating up, of course, as the second season is still a month away.  But nevertheless, teams are making some rather late wholesale changes as they try to jockey for playoff positioning.  

 In some cases, teams are in full-fledged panic mode as they perhaps see their chances of making the post-season slip away.

 What?s interesting about the firings of both Johnny Davis in Orlando and Paul Silas in Cleveland as well as Don Nelson?s resignation in Dallas is not necessarily that the moves were made, but the timing of them.  

 Head coaching firings usually occur early in the season, when a team looks as though they simply are not going to respond to their bench boss, or in the off-season once general managers are able to objectively assess the direction of their teams, but not with less than twenty games to go on the schedule.  

 At least not typically.

 Yet Magic GM John Weisbrod fired Davis last Thursday amid a six-game losing streak, Nelson resigned as Mavericks head coach on Saturday due to health reasons and on Monday Cavs GM Jim Paxson relieved Silas of his duties after Cleveland lost nine of its last 12 games, including Sunday?s 105-98 loss in Toronto, in which LeBron James became the youngest player in NBA history to register 50 points in a game.

  Nelson?s resignation is the least surprising of the three moves because not only had he already missed 13 games this season due to health reasons and to be with his ailing wife, but Nelson had long been grooming assistant Avery Johnson to take over the reins anyway.  The fact that, by Nellie?s own admission, the Mavs were responding better to 'The Li'l General' than they were to him was telling, especially when Johnson?s emphasis on playing defense ? something Nelson preached very little of - gives Dallas a better opportunity at succeeding in the post-season.  

 Silas? firing Monday may not be all that surprising when you consider Cleveland now has new ownership on board led by Dan Gilbert and pop music star Usher, and Silas, not the duo?s hand-picked man, obviously, wouldn?t have been back next season.  

 However, at 34-30, not only is Cleveland a playoff fixture at this point despite their struggles, but what more could Silas really have done with the pieces he had at his disposal?

 Not a whole lot.

 LeBron?s individual heroics Sunday versus Toronto are just the tip of the iceberg as to what he can accomplish in the league, but outside of King James, the Cavs are built on role players and should have always been considered a fringe playoff team.  

 A fast start this season probably camouflaged just how far Cleveland has to go before they are considered a legitimate contender in the East.  And GM Paxson certainly didn?t improve the team at the trade deadline by merely adding seldom-used Jiri Welsch.  LeBron and the Cavs need a perimeter shooter, a la Ray Allen or Michael Redd, in the off-season that can help stretch opposing defenses if they expect to make strides.  Some commitment to playing defense wouldn't hurt, either.  

 Silas may be volatile at times and hold grudges with his players ? the latest culprit being point guard Jeff McInnis, a one-time vital cog who?s now an afterthought (Cleveland ownership has gone as far as to reveal they have no intention of retaining his services next season) - but he really is nothing more than a scapegoat in this case.  Unless you think interim coach Brendan Malone, who?s served as an assistant for seemingly every NBA team, is the solution to a prolonged playoff run this spring.  

 We think not.

 Davis? dismissal in Orlando takes the cake, however.  No question.  

 Here?s a team in the Magic who won a mere 21 games a year ago, fewest in the league.  Davis, though he did have more pieces to work with this season, was able to turn the team?s fortunes around to the point where Orlando has been in the playoff hunt all season long.  At 32-35, the Magic are still only .5 game behind Philadelphia for eighth in the East.  

 If anything, Weisbrod?s Cuttino Mobley-for-Doug Christie swap back in January has been largely responsible for Orlando?s downfall more so than Davis? coaching.  

 Not only has Christie proven to be a bust for the Magic, averaging just 5.7 points in 21 games before being placed on injured reserve March 5 with bone spurs in his left ankle, but Mobley?s departure has had an adverse affect on Steve Francis, who?s gone bonkers since losing his close friend.  Francis is currently serving a three-game suspension for kicking a courtside photographer during the fourth quarter of the Magic?s March 18 loss in Seattle.

 ?At this late date, I?m very, very surprised.  A team right there in the playoff hunt, tied for the eighth spot on March 17th, I don?t know what to say about it,? Miami Heat head coach Stan Van Gundy said in regards to Davis? firing.  ?Not much in the NBA surprises me, but this does, coming on March 17th with a team tied for a playoff spot.?

 It doesn?t make much sense to us, either, Stan.  And just in case you?re keeping count, interim head coach Chris Jent is 1-2 since replacing Davis, including Monday?s 102-97 loss in Charlotte, in which the Magic blew a 16-point lead.      

 Coaches are hired to be fired.  A whole team can?t be fired, obviously, so the coach is always the first to go.  But you have to wonder if there aren?t a couple of Eastern Conference teams right now who perhaps feel they are better than what they really are.  

 Just two more teams to add to the Phil Jackson sweepstakes this summer.  

 Kostas.Bolos@realgm.com