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.