Do Mid-Season Coaching Changes Effect Player Performance In The NBA?

Abstract: Firms employ managers to help workers maximize their productivity in order for them to generate the most output. However, the impact of a managerial change is theoretically ambiguous as the underlying mechanisms have potentially competing effects, both positive and negative. This paper examines how players from a professional sports team may be affected by a coaching change. While previous literature has researched the effect of managerial changes on team performance in football, soccer, and hockey. This paper examines how NBA players perform under a new coach during the middle of the 2015-2016 regular season. In addition, this paper further investigates how/if younger players are affected differently than older players by a coaching change in the middle of the season. The data comes from Basketball-Reference.com which provides game-level statistics for every NBA player. An OLS model and a fixed effects model are utilized in order to estimate the effects of a coaching change on player productivity and performance. The results conclude there to be a positive effect on individual player productivity (Game Score) and a negative effect on a player/team performance (Plus Minus). Additionally, results indicated that a coaching change predominately has a negative effect on young players compared to older players. The effects are likely due to the disruptions in human capital development (training) provided to the players by the teams.