I'm not sure what they have to gain by getting rid of Hollins.
If anything you could probably argue that Nets have overachieved at times. A worse coach might not have gotten the team to compete at all after their disastrous start to the season.
That they have been competitive in a number of games and even beaten some decent opponents (e.g. Rockets, Celts), is a testament to Hollins's ability to continue to motivate an undermanned team during a depressing season.
Well the first part is that when coaches are fired, it is often not always a well thought out decision or deserved, but rather done because it is gives the appearance of doing something. It is not like they can just fire the players (this also could buy some attention away from king for the rest of the season).
The reason this article made me raise the issue of firing is that when a coach starts saying the effort isn't there, and the star player is saying embarrassing things like it was a 1:00pm start, it is a pretty bad look.
I will say I admit it is still unlikely, but reading that article was the first time I thought it may happen. As far as beating "decent teams" its the end of the year and they have beaten two over .500 teams and have 7 wins. My prediction is that if they win soon the pressure will kind of go away. However, if they close out this month without a win (5 more games, 3 on the road with one sub .500 opponent Washington) he will be fired to start the new year.