NBA teams can't seem to stick with coaches this season, a trend even including five (possibly six) playoff teams. Are the record-tying 11 offseason coaching changes a trend or aberration?

MIAMI — The San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich and Miami Heat's Erik Spoelstra are two of the league's three longest-tenured coaches, and they're showing why in the NBA Finals. Meanwhile, many of their colleagues are trying to hold on as the coaching carousel spins faster than ever.

There have been a record 12 NBA coaching changes since the regular season ended. The two latest moves came symbolized the state of affairs. Last week, George Karl, the sixth-winningest coach of all-time and reigning coach of the year, was fired by the Denver Nuggets after his team won a franchise-record 57 NBA games but fell in the first round of the playoffs to the Golden State Warriors. Then Monday, Lionel Hollins was not re-signed by the Memphis Grizzlies after leading them to a franchise-record 56-26 season and a berth in the Western Conference finals. Six of the 12 coaches let go took their teams to the 2013 playoffs.

"That's a tough state for our business and where it is right now," said Spoelstra, who was the neophyte of the head coaching world when he took over the Heat in April 2008 as a 37-year-old. "That just doesn't correlate to an objective mind. People's expectations are way off or just not looking at it really objectively. I really don't know."

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Yet for all the unprecedented decisions, there's a story behind every move that makes some measure of sense. The Sacramento Kings' ownership change led to the dismissal of coach Keith Smart, and another in Memphis has everything to do with Hollins' uncertain future. For the Atlanta Hawks, Phoenix Suns, Nuggets and Grizzlies, changes in the front office came first and lessened the shock of coaches being fired.

The Suns fired Alvin Gentry during the season, then replaced interim Lindsey Hunter with Jeff Hornacek in late May. They are one of three teams — the other being the Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks — that finished the season with interim coaches and made expected changes.

Steve Kauffman, whose Kauffman Sports Management Group represents coaches and front-office officials around the league, noted there is a balancing effect that comes with all of these changes this season after there were three made last offseason.

"We saw this coming," Kauffman said. "I think part of it is just coincidence. The average (coaching changes) per year is 6.5 (over the last 20 years), but it was three last year. So you have three and 11 or 12 (this offseason); do that over two years, and it's just not that much (of a difference)."

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Commissioner David Stern pointed to the league's changed landscape for some of the turnover. The collective bargaining agreement that ended the lockout in November 2011 included sweeping changes to the luxury-tax system that made the draft and player development more vital than ever. That, as Stern sees it, is playing a part in the willingness to make changes if the program isn't producing.

"I think it's a natural consequence of a team putting together a roster, putting pressure on the general manager to configure that roster, thinking that they have a chance to compete," Stern said. "They're feeling the pressure of a system that allows them to draft players, sign free agents, get revenue sharing, and they better look at themselves in the mirror if they can't compete and be competitive at the gate, as well. So we think that's very much on the way, and it's very much to be desired."

Dallas Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle is the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association as well as the fourth-longest tenured coach, hired days after Spoelstra in May 2008. He says he thinks this season's coaching carousel is a direct result of some of better coaches in recent seasons deciding not to coach.

Phil Jackson, Jerry Sloan, Jeff Van Gundy, Stan Van Gundy, Doug Collins and Flip Saunders "have decided to either not coach anymore or not coach at this time," Carlisle told USA TODAY Sports. "We're at a very unusual time when a lot of top coaches are not coaching. When you eliminate guys like that who are so rock-solid, you're going to have an environment of instability."

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Carlisle declined to comment on specific coaching dismissals because he said he doesn't know the behind-the-scenes details.

Karl's situation has been considered the most puzzling. But it was a product of the unrest in Denver more than anything, as general manager Masai Ujiri took a job with the Toronto Raptors before Karl was fired and team president and son of the owner, Josh Kroenke, decided against giving his coach the long-term extension he desired as he entered the final year of his contract. Karl had an option on his deal after next season that would have brought him back for three more years.

"George is going to be back at work soon if he wants to," Carlisle said. "You're talking about a Hall of Fame coach."

Heat shooting guard Ray Allen, a 17-year veteran who played for Karl from 1998 to 2003 with the Bucks, said he understood that move and the many others.

"I don't believe it's anything the league hasn't seen before," Allen said. "The organization just looks at it like, 'I think he's done good things for that Denver team, and all those players have won underneath him.' And then they look at, 'Do you bring somebody else in who's going to take them over the top?' The organization just looks at it like, 'Ultimately is somebody else going to come in and help take us to the next level?' You hope when you do something like that, you guess right, because you hate to see a coach of the year fired."

The volatile nature of the coaching changes reminded Carlisle of something his mentor, late NBA coach Chuck Daly, used to say.

"Chuck always said this is a league of dynamic change and great opportunity and you must adapt," Carlisle said. "He was right on the money with that statement.

"My message to our coaches is that we have to continue to work to adapt to the dynamics of the game and the dynamics of the league. That's what we're going to do. One thing we're not going to do as a group is sit around and complain about things changing. When things change, you've got to be proactive, see what's happening and adjust to it."

Carlisle acknowledged the turnover creates opportunities for other coaches such as Spoelstra, the Chicago Bulls' Tom Thibodeau and the Indiana Pacers' Frank Vogel. Now, Steve Clifford gets a chance with the Charlotte Bobcats, Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks, Hornacek with the Suns and Michael Malone with the Kings.

"When Phil (Jackson) retired two years ago, one of things he said is 'I've been doing this a long time, and it's time for me step aside and allow other guys to come in,'" Carlisle said. "That's just part of the circle of life for the entire NBA."

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