Carousel Is Picking Up Speed

Everyone knows coaches are hired to be fired, but we didn’t expect the purge to hit double figures this season.

The termination of the Knicks’ Don Chaney last week made it four, and No. 5 popped onto the schedule when the ground began trembling under the feet of Dallas’ Don Nelson.

In some cases, such as Chaney’s, it’s time. In others, such as Nelson’s, it’s sound management principle: Toss them somebody’s head before they start looking at yours.

Here’s how they shape up:

Rainmakers

Phil Jackson, Lakers -- In his greatest challenge, he has problems so serious he soft-pedals them. This is ominous because his preferred technique is to reveal everything and make the little monsters work it out.

Nine titles later, his convention-mocking style leaves him open to critics, but if you think the Lakers have problems with him, you wouldn’t want to see what might happen without him.

Gregg Popovich, San Antonio -- Coach and president, he excels at both. With the ability to create an additional $10 million of space under the salary cap, he’s still improving a team that has won two titles for him.

Rick Adelman, Sacramento -- People still see the whiner from his Portland days, but he has put together an offensive machine that’s the marvel of the NBA.

Larry Brown, Detroit -- Or wherever. His genius may be flawed, but it’s there for all to see when his team starts to get it, as this one is now.

Rick Carlisle, Indiana -- Fired after finishing No. 1 and No. 4 in coach-of-the-year balloting in Detroit, he’s turning around the Pacers, who collapsed under Isiah Thomas. Lacking charm, or much personality of any kind, Carlisle needs someone to watch his back but has it now in old boss Larry Bird.

Hubie Brown, Memphis -- At 70, the dinosaur has the virtues of being able to coach and not needing the job. The only question is how long he wants to stay.

Jerry Sloan, Utah -- After all these years, he’s an overnight sensation as people marvel that he can stay afloat without Karl Malone, John Stockton or anyone else they’ve heard of.

Jeff Van Gundy, Houston -- His gloom shtick gets old, but he’s one of the few who, as Bum Phillips said, “can take his’n and beat your’n, and take your’n and beat his’n.”

Comers

Flip Saunders, Minnesota -- He’d better get past the first round sometime but averaging 50 wins in four seasons is impressive, with or without Kevin Garnett.

Jeff Bzdelik, Denver -- People actually thought last season’s hopeless 17-65 team overachieved. Now they’re not so hopeless.

Terry Porter, Milwaukee -- No one is sure how he’s doing what he’s doing with a team that was supposed to win 15 games and had already won 22 starting the weekend.

Kevin O’Neill, Toronto -- Worked for Carlisle and looks as if he has the same knack for defense.

Maurice Cheeks, Portland -- Helping that little girl sing the national anthem didn’t hurt, but he has surpassed expectations. He’s safe as the team tries to weed out the truly wacky from the merely irresponsible.

Honeymooners

Mike Dunleavy, Clippers -- You’re not supposed to be able to succeed here, but there’s a different feel now. If Kobe Bryant joins up next season, it’ll be a new ballgame.

Tim Floyd, New Orleans -- His problem wasn’t his record in Chicago but his behavior at the end when he blew sky high. Starting 17-7 helped, but these guys make their little runs annually.

Paul Silas, Cleveland -- With the LeBron James hype, people barely know he’s there.

Mike D’Antoni, Phoenix -- What, him worry? After replacing Frank Johnson and the Stephon Marbury trade, this is like training camp for next season.

Scott Skiles, Chicago -- He’s worried. General Manager Jim Paxson has axed Bill Cartwright and dislikes his roster so much that without contracts they might let everyone go but Kirk Hinrich, Antonio Davis, Kendall Gill, a no-name free agent named Ronald Dupree and maybe Tyson Chandler.

The smoldering Skiles doesn’t seem much happier. Asked last week what Eddy Curry had to do to become a better rebounder, Skiles replied, “Jump.”

Stan Van Gundy, Miami -- He got a bad break when Pat Riley waited until the eve of the season to give him his big chance and they started 0-7. Van Gundy is safe unless Riley leaves, but everyone thinks Riley will leave.

Randy Ayers, Philadelphia -- It takes a lot to deal with a little giant such as Allen Iverson. Ayers looks merely life-sized.

Eddie Jordan, Washington -- Happily for him, Gilbert Arenas and Jerry Stackhouse have been hurt and nobody expected much, anyway.

Trouble Flows Downhill

Rule No. 1: The boss is always right. Rule No. 2: When he isn’t, see Rule No. 1.

Jim O’Brien, Boston -- He has kept Rick Pitino’s small-ball scheme, but new GM Danny Ainge, a traditionalist, is focused on titles rather than playoff appearances, and wants more size and fewer three-pointers. This is bad for O’Brien, who has made it worse by suggesting he disagrees.

Nate McMillan, Seattle -- Actually a comer, his problem is owner Howard Schultz, the Starbucks magnate who, in the manner of marketing geniuses, promises more than he can deliver.

Eric Musselman, Golden State -- He got them to compete again. But his bumbling front office lost Arenas and addressed chemistry concerns by handing him an unhappy Nick Van Exel.

Uh-Oh

Byron Scott, New Jersey -- Two Finals appearances later, Scott is credited with nothing but blamed for everything and Rod Thorn, who hired him, is on thin ice himself.

Scott was considered a goner when the Nets started 7-11 and Jason Kidd went off on him, but then they went 13-3. This would be a great escape, if Scott actually escaped.

Lenny Wilkens, New York -- After three years of pretending Chaney was OK, they aren’t doing honeymoons anymore.

His hiring was announced -- to disbelief -- after a day of twists and turns as Thomas negotiated with Mike Fratello but dumped him at the last moment in consultation with agent Lonnie Cooper, who represents Wilkens, Fratello and Thomas.

Thomas, who reaped great sympathy for the abrupt way he was fired in Indiana, let Chaney handle the morning shootaround and drive to Madison Square Garden thinking he was coaching that night’s game, before giving him the bad news.

For the perfect touch, Thomas fired assistant Brendan Malone, once his first coaching hire in Toronto, but kept Malone’s son, Mike, on the staff.

Wilkens is the NBA’s winningest coach, but he’s 66 and looked so disinterested in Toronto that, in a breach of decorum, former players expressed their astonishment. Said Antonio Davis: “I thought New York would seek somebody -- and nothing against Lenny -- a little bit younger and more enthused.”

On the other hand, as Cooper must have pointed out, Wilkens is getting $5 million from the Raptors this season and the Knicks don’t have to pay him much.

The Knick press corps has held still for years of bungling but now, with expectations raised, isn’t going with this one. When Thomas said Wilkens was “the perfect fit,” the Daily News’ Mike Lupica wrote, “People were too polite to ask, ‘For what decade?’ ”

Gonzo

Nelson, Dallas -- A rainmaker in his own right, he has done a remarkable job filling in this black hole, but this has been coming since Mark Cuban arrived and began telling everyone how to run their business better.

Cuban was set to punch Nelson’s ticket last spring if they didn’t finish off the wounded Kings in Game 7 of the West semifinals. Nelson, a major mercenary, then squeezed Cuban for a three-year, $15.3-million extension and is ready to bolt for his Maui home at the first sign of dissatisfaction, as usual.

Cuban is known to covet Riley but, being Cuban, is now denying that and everything else.

“I’m not going to let Nellie sit in Hawaii and play golf and get a suntan if I can’t get one,” Cuban said last week. “He’s got to stay here and work this thing out.”

Nelson, being Nelson, isn’t denying much of anything.

“He [Cuban] told me he’s not firing me,” Nelson said, laughing. “He didn’t say when.”

Johnny Davis, Orlando -- Despite the two-year deal he got to make it look good after replacing Doc Rivers, he’s a glorified interim coach.

Terry Stotts, Atlanta -- If you haven’t heard of him, it’s OK, you won’t have to bother remembering him.