With 29 teams failing to win a championship every year, it's a sure bet some fraction of them will decide the team needs to go a different direction.

Coaches are easier to change than players. It's like changing oil as opposed to changing your engine in a vehicle. The price difference is almost the same, too.

Already several teams have revamped their coaching staffs in hopes of getting different results out of the same players. In other cases, the arrival of the new coach might mean the departure of players who don't fit the incoming philosophy.

Which ones will succeed and which ones will flop? Here's a not-so-educated guess:

Mike D'Antoni - New York Knicks: DEPENDS. Why? Look at the roster. It's like those Honda Ridgeline commericials that pair total opposites: fancy restaurants and Chuck Norris, lumberjacks and outer space; you get the idea.

If Donnie Walsh is willing to spend $6 million a year on this coach after eating Isaiah Thomas' contract, you can bet your knickerbockers he's not afraid to blow up this roster...no matter the cost.

Walsh has shown he's intent on making his own mark in his new position with the Knicks. He'll waste no time trying to revamp a roster that suits D'Antoni. The key word there is try. Who will be willing to eat super-sized contracts with the names Marbury, Randolph, or Curry attached to them?

If Walsh can put together a group of players that compliment D'Antoni's game plan, then it's a success. If not, it'll be the kind of flop that suits New Yorkers - big and loud.

Rick Carlisle - Dallas Mavericks: SUCCESS. A lot of people forget that this guy took the Pistons to the Eastern Finals the year before they took it all. Detroit let him go in favor of Larry Brown the summer before their improbable championship year.

The thing to remember is that a newly aquired and motivated Rasheed Wallace was the biggest reason Detroit hoisted a banner that year. We'll never know that Carlisle couldn't have taken the Pistons to the top.

Carlisle went on to coach a Pacers team that went 61-21 in the regular season, only to lose to his previous employer, Detroit, who went on to win the title.

After that, any lack of success is tainted by years of PPP's (Pacer player problems). The 2004 brawl in Detroit, the numerous gun and drinking incidents, Ron Artest...the poor guy never had a break.

Mark Cuban realized that when Carlisle has a fairly good team under him, the guy wins. Dallas is (or at least, can be) a really good team. The Mavs needed the right kind of motivation, not the in-your-face decibel-shattering motivation that former coach Avery Johnson wore out. Carlisle has a lot to work with, and should be able to make it work.

Erik Spoelstra - Miami Heat: SUCCESS. Spoelstra has the most envious position of any new head coach. Miami is coming off a horrible year, so expectations are at an all-time low. He's got a 25% chance at the number one draft pick in June, and he's already got Dwayne Wade and Shawn Marion in tow.

That's great, except what makes anyone think the Heat will do better with a 37-year-old newbie than with Hall-of-Famer Pat Riley? I'm not sure, except that Riley and owner Micky Arison think the world of the guy. The last time they were this pumped about a new head coach was when Stan Van Gundy took the helm, and he only took the Heat to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.

In one way or another, Spoelstra's been involved with basketball his whole life. That unprofessional, but insightful approach should be appealing to his players. All the benefits of the job I mentioned in the beginning, will only speed the transition along, and in the right direction.

Scott Skiles - Milwaukee Bucks: FLOP. Skiles is developing a habit of taking over less-than-mediocre teams, and making them a little bit better than mediocre. What will make this coaching stop worse than his Phoenix and Chicago tenures is that this team has no talent (or interest)whatsoever in doing what Skiles will demand: play defense.

Steals, blocks, and rebounding are all considered defensive statistics. The team leaders in those categories (Mo Williams, 1.18spg; Andrew Bogut, 1.73bpg; Bogut, 9.8rpg) all failed to place among the league leaders in those defensive statistics.

When Skiles orders his team of shooters (Michael Redd, Charlie Villanueva)and foreigners (Andrew Bogut, Yi Jianlian) to guard the basket, it'll be like asking a chihuahua to guard your house. It'll scamper around a lot, make a lot of noise, and look funny, but willl ultimately get pounded into submission.

Larry Brown - Charlotte Bobcats: SUCCESS*. The asterik is for length of time, which we all know is only a matter of time for Coach Brown.

Brown excels at getting previously-ungiven effort out of players (assuming they're not playing for the Knicks...hopefully former Knicks Othella Harrington and Nazr Mohammed aren't in danger of losing their jobs). Young studs Raymond Felton and Omeka Okafor have done enough to pass as good in their careers thus far. Brown will make them do more.

He might even be able to resurrect Adam Morrison (what is it about great white college players who never make it big in the NBA? See: Laettner, Christian; Gugliotta, Tom; Redick, JJ).

Like Spoelstra, Brown is taking over a team that has good pieces and low expectations. In the Eastern Conference, Brown should be able to guide the Bobcats to the playoffs.

This just came to my mind, and I had to include it, because I absolutely 100% know it will happen. A conversation between Charlotte citizens next season will go something like this:

Citizen #1: Hey, how about them Bobcats, huh?

Citizen #2: Oh, are they a new hockey team or something?

Citizen #1: No, man! NBA team!

Citizen #2: Dude, the Hornets have been in New Orleans for years now. Where have you been?

Citizen #1: No, we got another team since then! The Bobcats! And this year they're really good!

Citizen #2: Get outta here, man. Are you serious? How come I never heard of them?

Citizen #1: They weren't real good, before, man. We might actually make the playoffs this year! Ray Felton, Sean May, Okafor and Wallace are tearing it up man!

Citizen #2: Dude, you're stuck in 2005, man! Felton and May played for the Tar Heels back then! What the heck is an Okafor? And 'Sheed plays for the Pistons! You're crazy, man. Unless...you're not trying to get me all worked up over one of those NBDL teams, are you?