The struggling Levanga Hokkaido announced on Wednesday that they¡¯ve fired head coach Juan Manuel Hurtado Perez and named his assistant, Kota Mizuno, interim head coach.

Last season, Perez, a 40-year-old Spaniard, led the NBL Eastern Conference club to a 31-23 record, the best winning percentage that the Sapporo-based team had ever posted, in his first year in Japan. But the Levanga have dropped to sixth place in the seven-team Eastern Conference with a 4-12 record through Sunday.

Under Perez¡¯s guidance, Hokkaido, which finished last in the eight-team JBL (predecessor of the NBL) with a 6-36 record in 2012-13, almost made the postseason last year.

¡°I¡¯d like to express my respect for head coach Hurtado, who¡¯s led the team since last season and established the base of our team as a winning group,¡± said Mizuno, a West Virginia University graduate who had also been an assistant for the Link Tochigi Brex, in a statement.

¡°As for our direction from here on, we¡¯re not going to drastically change our system. While we¡¯re going to maintain our good parts, we would like to make decisions, coping with the game situations.¡±

In related news, the club waived big man Chad Posthumus on Tuesday. The 211-cm Canadian, who played in the NBA Summer League for the Chicago Bulls this year, averaged 10.1 points and 8.1 in 16 games.

Meanwhile, the Wakayama Trians, last year¡¯s NBL runnerups, released their associate head coach Eric Gardow on Sunday. According to the team, Gardow, 46, offered his resignation. (In a rocky offseason, Gardow replaced head coach Zeljko Pavlicevic, who had a two-year contract through the end of this season, but the team¡¯s new ownership terminated the contract as part of its massive budget cutbacks.)

Assistant coach Takatoshi Ishibashi now takes over the helm for the team, which has a 3-11 record and sits in fifth place in the six-team Western Conference.

¡°To be able to show as many wins as we can for those who support the Trians enthusiastically and warmly, we¡¯ll make necessary efforts,¡± said Ishibashi, who previously served as head coach for four bj-league franchises: Toyama Grouses, Shiga Lakestars, Shinshu Brave Warriors and, most recently, Saitama Broncos. In his lone season at the helm at Saitama (2013-14), the team went 5-47.

Gardow was the original head coach for the Chiba Jets, guiding the team for the 2011-12 campaign when it competed in the bj-league.