In a decision that felt like it was years in the making, the Oklahoma City Thunder fired head coach Scott Brooks on Wednesday.
Brooks did a fine job helping the Thunder establish themselves as a perennial Western Conference power, and he deserves at least some of the credit for developing young superstars like Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka and even James Harden - which will surely manifest in young, rebuilding teams considering Brooks for their vacancies this offseason.
He oversaw a program that won 62 percent of its games over his seven years at the helm, while advancing to the conference finals three times from 2011-2014 and all the way to the finals in 2012.
Yet the 49-year-old always seemed out of his depth as the head coach of a postseason contender. His in-game adjustments, rotation management and predictable late-game offense were crippling deficiencies at a time of the year when the margin for error is slimmest.
The incredible wealth of talent at Brooks's disposal often minimized just how crippling those deficiencies were to the Thunder, and were it not for the penny-pinching decision to trade Harden in 2012 and untimely injuries to Westbrook in 2013, Ibaka in 2014 and Durant in 2015, he may have a championship ring to prove it.
The only thing curious about Brooks's termination is the timing, as after sticking with him through his failings time and time again, general manager Sam Presti decided to part ways with the coach after the team's most snake-bitten season of injuries yet.
Then again, as unlucky as Brooks has been recently given the Thunder's injury-induced undoing, he's been equally fortunate to have had a once-in-a-lifetime collection of talent propping him up for years.
With Durant a year away from free agency and the franchise at the most critical crossroads of the team's OKC tenure, they could no longer delay the inevitable.
Durant and Westbrook, among other Thunder stars, are said to be staunch supporters of Brooks, which has long been an argument against replacing him. But the question facing Presti and the organization as a whole should simply be: "Can we do better than Scott Brooks?"
The answer to that question is a resounding "yes," and, as the Golden State Warriors have proven, players' allegiances to a former coach won't hold them back from thriving under the tutelage of a newer, superior candidate.
The Thunder owe it to those very same players, not to mention their rabid fanbase, to put the best possible product on the floor. Upgrading a weakness on the sidelines is part of that.
Brooks may not be as terrible a tactician as his growing critics believe, and perhaps he'll have the chance to prove that with lesser talent elsewhere. But he's also nowhere near good enough for OKC to justify hitching its wagon to him in Durant's contract year.
The Thunder never lived by Brooks' coaching. As they run out of lives in the KD Era, they've decided they won't die by it, either.
