After 3½ seasons, Maurice Cheeks' days are over in Portland.

With the Portland Trail Blazers struggling along at 22-33 in the Northwest Division and facing a second straight season missing the playoffs (after 21 consecutive appearances), team management felt it was time for a change. Kevin Pritchard, the Blazers' director of player personnel, will take over on an interim basis.

As is usually the case in the NBA when things go wrong, the head coach is the first one to go. But the truth is, the Blazers have not done a good job with their roster management over the years. Cheeks never had much of a chance.

With unlimited resources thanks to billionaire owner Paul Allen, who spares no expense signing players, and with a city that has long been crazy about its basketball team, the Blazers should be one of the NBA's elite franchises. Instead, through a series of poor drafts and trades, Portland has become the New York Knicks of the Western Conference – a team with a huge payroll and a revolving door of talented players, but no foundation for success.

Cheeks paid price with his job, but I don't think he was at fault as much as management was.

I played for Cheeks in his first year as coach (2001-02), and I found him to be a fantastic person who had a great rapport with his players. He surrounded himself with an excellent, experienced staff – led by Jimmy Lynam – and he maintained a good temperament throughout a tumultuous season.

What Cheeks needed was a veteran team that would help wean him through the difficult process of learning to be an NBA head coach. What he got was a dysfunctional roster of players.

Instead of worrying about game strategy and matchups the past three years, Cheeks has had to deal with bickering players, selfish play and police blotters. Perhaps a more experienced coach could have handled the situation better, but I'm not sure. I believe the Blazers' management made so many mistakes personnel-wise that even the best coach would have struggled to turn that team into a winner.

Cheeks may not get another chance to be a head coach, but I believe he deserves one. He's bright, he has the right temperament for the job and he has plenty of experience after his run with Portland.

As for the Blazers, they have now put themselves in the offseason running for former Minnesota Timberwolves head coach Flip Saunders, whom they courted several years ago. After choosing the inexperienced Cheeks, the Blazers will more than likely go for Saunders or another coach with a long track record.

Steve Kerr is Yahoo! Sports' NBA analyst. Send him a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.

Updated on Wednesday, Mar 2, 2005 3:19 pm EST

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