I’ve been around this block many times, as many of you have. There’s something that happens in a fucked season, where you’re de facto eliminated early – nearly everyone associated with the team becomes impossible to evaluate. Players make a lot of business decisions, everyone takes downs off, and things generally fall apart. It’s really hard to know who’s washed, who sucks, who might be good, etc.

I feel like, even given that, EB has demonstrated that he’s not up for a head coach job now (or possibly ever). He’s made enough obviously weird and dumb decisions to pretty much rule himself out. The earlier logic of “keep him around not to sacrifice the progress he’s made with Howell” is butting up against “get rid of him before his influence is harmful to Howell’s future.” I think that’s true whether you think Howell is the guy or not.