As my passionate BackPageLead colleague Daniel Eade detailed in his remarkably restrained piece from last week, the Melbourne Tigers have hired Trevor Gleeson as their head coach, while at the same time giving flashy guard Corey "Homicide" Williams his walking papers.

The sometimes-emotional Eade and his cadre of devoted followers - witness the sheer number of comments to the piece - are outraged not only at the release of one of the NBL's most engaging characters, but also at the dismissal of interim head coach Darryl McDonald.

While I understand their frustration, I can see why the Tigers would make both decisions.

McDonald did a nice job picking up the pieces left over from Al Westover's mid-season sacking. He emphasised defence and gave young kids like Lucas Walker and Benny Lewis an opportunity to play. His 4-6 record belied a new intensity and effort.

Yet McDonald remains unproven, while Gleeson is anything but.

Not only is he the current NBL coach of the year, but Gleeson's Crocs made the finals all five years he was in charge. He is respected by his players and his peers. In fact it wasn't that long ago that Eade himself was pushing Gleeson for a shot on the Boomers coaching staff.

The Williams move is far trickier to analyse. The flamboyant New Yorker has long been the NBL's most entertaining player and one of its best. He can talk it and he can walk it. In fact, he's one of my favourite players in the league and provided plenty of on-air "gold" for my old radio show "Born in the USA."

Homicide's mid-season arrival at the Tigers brought a new excitement to a somewhat stodgy club. He came on strong, using social media to create controversy with Perth fans and making in-studio appearances on SEN's "Morning Glory" show. He tirelessly promoted the NBL, the Tigers and of course, himself.

That last part, in fact, might be the key here. I'm not privy to what went on behind the scenes, but there had to have been some concern about the fact that at times Homicide ran his mouth better than he ran the team.

Gleeson, who coached Williams at Townsville, and the rest of the Tiger brass must have decided that all the publicity in the world is not worth as much as someone who can direct a more team-oriented offense.

Williams, last season's MVP, put up huge numbers this season, but there were questions about his decision-making in crunch time. In a March loss to the Gold Coast for example, Williams scored 25 points and had seven assists. He also had six turnovers, including one on the final play of the game as the Tigers were going for the win.

When you employ Homicide as your team leader, you get what you pay for. Some of it's brilliant, some of it blows up in your face.

Clearly this will be a new era at The Cage. I've heard rumours that Blaze guard Adam Gibson - a title winner with the South Dragons - may be in the Tigers' sights as the new point guard. He'd be a superb choice as long as the rest of the team is re-built as well. Gibson can't put up Williams-type numbers - and he can't do Wiliams-type yapping - but he can lead a team.

This has been a frustrating year for Tiger fans. They're still recovering from Chris Anstey's retirement and David Barlow's move to Europe, not to mention some seriously bad decisions with imports. Last season's "three seven-footers" plan was a disaster from the get-go and essentially cost Westover his job.

This is a proud club, with legends like Copeland, Anstey and Gaze (x2) among its alumni. Gleeson has his hands full rebuilding the club but he certainly isn't backing down from the challenge. The decision to let Homicide go may not be good for the NBL PR machine, but it's probably going to help the Tigers on the court.