May 18, 2013

Mike Brown Getting A Bit Of A Bad Rap Perhaps

January 12, 2010 by 34 Comments

Mike BrownI’m not sure there are many more thankless jobs in American popular culture than NBA Head Coach. Yeah, sure, in society there are plenty of jobs where people are overworked, underpaid, and taken for granted. But in terms of sports culture specifically, being an NBA coach can be a brutal task. Coaches are forced to meld a virtual cornucopia of eccentric personalities into one collective and functioning unit for any chance of success. The very nature of the sport where any individual player can have a greater impact on his teams’ success than other team sport makes such coherence indispensable.

And yet for taking on this task, NBA coaches are expected to deliver immediate results and are quickly cast aside when such immediacy is not met. The turnover rate of the NBA coach is staggering. The average tenure for NBA coaches as of last season was 2.64 season, but the median tenure was 1.3 seasons (you can thank Jerry Sloan for that difference).

Which brings us to current Cavaliers coach Mike Brown. Currently Coach Brown is in his 5th season with the Cavaliers, which is a lifetime in NBA terms. The only coaches who have held their current job longer (or the same length of time) are Jerry Sloan (22), Gregg Popovich (14), Mike Dunleavy (7), Doc Rivers (6), Mike Woodson (6), George Karl (6), Nate McMillan (5), and Phil Jackson (5). In general, not bad company to be amongst. And yet throughout the years Mike Brown has continuously received the brunt of criticism from everyone from fans to analysts across the country. Which begs the question of just how fair some of this criticism really is.

As Mike Brown was getting destroyed the other night on Twitter as the Cavaliers were in the middle of winning a huge road game in Portland, I really started to feel like Coach Brown has become the convenient scapegoat for all of the Cavs problems. Sure, that’s part of the territory of being an NBA coach, but is Mike Brown really a worse coach than the majority of them in the NBA right now?

The biggest criticism Mike Brown tends to get is for his team’s offense. Particularly on Twitter I saw numerous people (both fans and writers/analysts) just rip apart Mike Brown’s perceived lack of offensive knowledge. I found this pretty interesting as I looked up the Cavaliers’ offensive stats. They are currently 5th in the NBA in Offensive Efficiency, 3rd in eFG%, 5th in FG%, 2nd in 3P%, 12th in ppg, 4th in points per shot, and 10th in assists per game. The Cavaliers actually have a good offense, as deceiving as it may look at times to the naked eye. And this isn’t necessarily a fluke, either. The Cavaliers were 4th in the NBA in Offensive Efficiency last season. In fact, in 3 of Mike Brown’s five seasons the Cavs offense has been in the top 10 in the NBA.

Of course, Mike Brown’s biggest critics will say that those numbers are skewed because of LeBron James. But the fact of the matter is, the Cavaliers do have LeBron James on their team. It seems a little strange to criticize a guy by saying he wouldn’t be a good coach without LeBron when there’s nothing to base that on. The only thing we know for a fact is how Mike Brown coaches this team with LeBron, and the results have been pretty good to this point. Nobody knows how Mike Brown would coach differently if LeBron wasn’t here, and hopefully we don’t have to find out.

There have certainly been times when I have been critical of Mike Brown and prior to the start of the 2008 playoffs I wondered if Mike Brown had lost the team and was falling on deaf ears. So I’m not saying Mike Brown is above reproach. I don’t take issue with people criticizing Coach Brown in total, but I do have some issues with the manner in which people criticize his coaching abilities.

There are two main problems I have. First is the fact that Mike Brown takes all the criticism for the offensive woes while LeBron tends to get a free pass. Of course it’s off-putting to dare suggest that perhaps the best player in the team’s history and perhaps someday in NBA history is guilty at times of handcuffing the Cavalier offense. But that’s precisely what he does, and we all know what I’m talking about. When LeBron gets into 1-on-5 mode, when LeBron dribbles out the shot clock before heaving up a long jumper, when he takes unnecessary and hurtful “heat checks” just because he made a couple ill advised jumpers in a row. These are all things LeBron does quite frequently that causes the Cavs offense to grind to a halt and draw so much criticism. But here’s a news flash. No amount of coaching in the world on Mike Brown’s part will get LeBron to stop it.

If you were coach of the Cavs, what would you do? Would you bench your franchise player and risk having him turn against you, knowing who the fans and, more importantly, the front office would side with? It would be foolish to handle it that way. For all the great things LeBron does for this franchise, we have to put up with the fact that from time to time, he’s going to just do what he wants. For example, last night’s game at Golden State, when LeBron was just killing the Warriors in the post. It was a clear advantage that the Cavaliers could abuse whenever they wanted to. LeBron knew it, too. All 4th quarter long LeBron was scoring at will inside of the Warriors. But then with the Cavaliers up 3 with the ball and 30 seconds left in the game, LeBron dribbled out the clock until there were 5 seconds left and then missed an off balance 26 foot jumper, giving the Warriors a chance to tie the game. You can blame Mike Brown for that all you want, but if LeBron didn’t want to shoot that shot, he wouldn’t. That was all LeBron’s doing. He knew exactly what he was doing.

The 2nd thing that bothers me about the way people criticize Mike Brown is the lack of credit they give him as a defensive coach. Now, everyone knows he’s a great defensive coach, but that fact is often taken for granted and overlooked. There’s more to basketball than just offense. Mike Brown came into this job promising two things: 1) a great defensive philosophy that would change this franchise into a championship contender, and 2) a system where the team will function like a family and thrive on positive chemistry. He has more than lived up to his end of the deal on those two fronts.

When you look at the way the Cavaliers play defense and the defensive adjustments Coach Brown makes throughout the game, it should be apparent how his skills help this team win. For recent examples, after being killed by Chauncey Billups for 19 points through 3 quarters, Mike Brown made the adjustment to initiate a high trap on Billups defensively to force the ball out of his hands. Billups finished with only 4 points in the 4th quarter on one made FG and 0 assists. Or perhaps in Portland when the Blazers scored 29 in the 3rd quarter to make the game close, Mike Brown used Jawad Williams’ defensive versatility to allow he and LeBron to take turns rotating on Brandon Roy and Andre Miller, which was the key to holding the Blazers to just 16 4th quarter points. These are prime examples of excellent in game adjustments Mike Brown makes to help his team have the best chance to win, but is rarely credited for them.

It’s easy to pounce on the one perceived weak link in the chain, but in order to be fair to what Mike Brown has accomplished, you have to look at the whole body of work. There’s a bigger picture here than just the occasional questionable substitution pattern or the times the offense is stagnant. If you look at the sum of the whole, you will see a coach who has turned this franchise into one of the NBA’s elite teams. He’s found a way to keep his star player happy and involved and has built the team into a family unit around LeBron. This chemistry might not be able to exist if Mike Brown was benching LeBron or trying to humble him in front of his teammates. And that’s the intangible thing that Mike Brown seems to understand that is often overlooked by his critics: sure, you can nitpick at the things he doesn’t do as well, but when all is said and done, he is going to have this team ready to fight for a championship. And as a fan, that’s all I can really ask for.

Am I saying Mike Brown is the best coach? No. Are there other coaches in the NBA I would trade him in for? Sure. All I’m trying to say is that maybe it’s time to ease up on the baseless rhetoric and to spread out some of the blame for our frustrations to the players themselves. After all, they’re the ones who actually affect the outcomes of these games.

_____

(AP Photo/Ben Margot)

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  • Harv 21

    “… perhaps the best player in the team’s history …”

    And his stiffest competition is _______. Please fill in any serious candidates. I think he retired that award by late 2004. Otherwise, good post.

  • mike

    And his stiffest competition is ______ jay guidinger (what a stiff!)

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    Haha, I will grant you that, Harv. I definitely worded that poorly. I will clarify now there is no question that he’s the best player in franchise history.

    I was initially going to lead with “perhaps the best in NBA history” but then I switched it around and missed it in my proof read. Oh well, the life of a blogger…

  • ben

    I’ve always felt the criticism of Brown was too harsh. Warranted at times to be sure. But not in the droves that it seems to come in.

    Also the “Mike is only good b/c he has LBJ” argument is total horsestuff. Point to any legendary coach in sports history, and I’ll point to the stars he had on his rosters over the years.

  • http://www.twitter.com/azv321 Amin

    excellent points, Rock.

  • historycat

    Andrew, great article. It’s about time someone stood up for Mike.

    Although I was thinking the opposite last night. I wonder how effective a coach he is if they are not listening to him.

    How often does Mike go to LeBron and says “hey we’re in trouble here, we need you to get us the win.” or does he say, “Lebron, you’re best when you are driving and passing. I know the shooting goes cold sometimes, but don’t get away from passing.”

    So do they do the Dribble, Dribble, Heave offense on their own or does Mike ask Lebron to do it?

  • oribiasi

    66-16. Terrible offense, I agree.

  • Matt#2

    mike,
    stiffest – stiff
    I finally got it.
    funny, in an old-timey rim-shot way.

  • http://twitter.com/dj_2 DJ

    Good article Rock. However, I typically come down with Simmons on this one, though you do make good points. My biggest beef with MB, besides the sometimes questionable rotations/matchups (he got crushed against ORL last year) and offensive complaints we all have (we can point to stats all we want, but offensive consistency throughout a game just isn’t there…it doesn’t pass the eye test), is that he doesn’t stand up to LBJ when he goes into 1-on-5 mode. LBJ knows what’s working; why does he intentionally abandon what works for what seems to be ego gratification, and most importantly, why isn’t he taken to task about it? Keeping a star player isn’t always about giving him everything he wants, whenever he wants it. It’s also about standing up to him when he’s wrong and showing that respect works both ways. As great of a teammate as LBJ is, he has to trust them and some sort of system if the Cavaliers are going to win an NBA title…1-on-5 won’t do in the ECF or the NBA Finals.

  • Ron

    This should be required reading for many of his detractors. Most of them can’t see beyond their noses.

  • Rison to the top

    Great post rock. I was and still am a harsh critic of MB, mostly because of the lack of an offensive gameplan till kuester developed one last season. That being said, mike has been true to himself and has turned the cavs into a dominant defensive team that sticks together. You are right in that he does not receive enough praise for accomplishing this. With the cavs finally utilizing the fast break and with lbj looking like he’s ready to bring his game inside, we should see a more balanced offense and less hate for MB.

  • Charlie

    I feel like when LeBron goes 1v5 it’s on him most of the time. LeBron – and his apparent high basketball IQ – needs to be smarter. But when LeBron goes 1v5 at the end of quarters/halves/games after coming out of a timeout, that has to be on Brown. I’m fine with LeBron taking the shot, as I’m sure most people are, just run the guy off some screens, move the ball, have Z get on all fours in the corner and bark like a dog, something! You have to draw up a play in those situations, not just “give the ball to LeBron.”

  • JustinV

    I almost liken this situation to the Andy Reid situation in philly discussed in the Heckert piece. The guy does warrant some criticism at times but sometimes it’s overboard. I think alot of the LBJ 2010 countdown plays into this. Cleveland loves us some ‘Bron’Bron and it seems to me the feeling is were walking on thin ice thanks to Mike Browns coaching (i.e. if we lose a game it’s his fault; omg the sky is falling and ‘Bron is packing his bags). I think the guy has done a nice job…the offense can be ugly at times but anytime you can take a guy that can drop 50 at the drop of a hat and turn him into one of the most feared defensive players in the league you deserve some credit.

  • Ron

    @#9

    DJ: Some would argue that we did’nt have any match-ups with Orlando last year. Turkey Glue was killing us and we had no answer IMHO.

    As for Lebron going 1 on 5, when he is on the perimeter dribbling, I don’t believe it’s because he’s always trying to go 1 on 5. Most of the time he is probing the defense and trying to find a lane or an open/cutting teammate. I think you might be able to give him the benefit of the doubt here. LeBron is a unselfish player and the “I can do it all” persona just does not fit. If he can’t get what he wants and the clock is running down he’s gonna shoot. That doesen’t mean it was his intention all along. Sometimes things are not as they appear to be. Just saying…

  • historycat

    The reason I was thinking about it last night was because of how often we play our opponent’s game.

    I know we have a good offense and a good defense, but We are built (at least MB wants us to be built) on defense.

    So when we face a run and gun team like we did yesterday, why do we play their game? Is that on Mike saying “let’s beat them at their own game” or is that Lebron saying, “let’s make some highlights tonight?”

  • Swig

    My only complaint is how MB says “yeah that was an experiment”. Almost as if he has apparently been taking coaching advice from Crennel and making decisions by the seat of his pants.

    I was fairly late off the MB hater bandwagon, mostly because of a point you made Rock. There is no realistic option to replace him. Even coaches with multiple rings are criticized from time to time.

  • Matt#2

    Ron may have a point.

  • 5KMD

    If Lebron was truly honest, I think he would say the 1-5 stuff is his way of resting while still playing. I’m sure it is exhausting what he does on a nightly basis and taking it to the rim means he will get pounded (which is not always called).

    I don’t think LBJ has ever come out of a game other than his scripted breaks in the 2nd and 4th or if he hurt or in foul trouble (rarely). I know it’s not he right thing to do and he knows that to, but he might just want rest for 10-15 seconds at some points in the game.

    My question would be why don’t you rest on one side of the court and let Mo, Delonte, Shaq, etc do the work on that possesion.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com/ Rick

    Did anyone else see this sequence last night-

    LeBron is at the foul line. He makes his first and then walks over to the bench while pointing at Z. He says something to the sideline and next thing you know Jawad Williams is subbing for Z.

    I don’t want to make too much out of it. But Lebron saw a move that the Warriors made and wanted to make sure that we had the right personnel to match. Shouldn’t the coach have seen that and made the move? At least they are on the same page.

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Andrew

    That could be, Rick, but that’s pure speculation. Without knowing what he said and why Z was subbed for, it would just be a guess.

  • tribefan30

    @14 Ron… Most of the time he is probing the defense and trying to find a lane or an open/cutting teammate.

    Its hard to find a cutting teamate when they are just watching LeBron. Andy is about the only one that still works hard without the ball and LeBron usually rewards him for it.

  • saggy

    The players make the coach. Mike Brown has been a good coach – he knows when to lead, when to follow, and when to get out of the way. I can speak from experience that it is difficult to mesh and control egos. Being a coach is much, much more than X’s and O’s, and Mike Brown does a great job with all the intangibles.

    Here’s three of my favorite Sparky Anderson quotes:

    “Just give me 25 guys on the last year of their contracts; I’ll win a pennant every year.”

    “I don’t believe a manager ever won a pennant. Casey Stengel won all those pennants with the Yankees. How many did he win with the Boston Braves and Mets?”

    “The players make the manager, it’s never the other way.”

  • Matt

    Excellent post. Most analysts see the Cavs with lineup and assume that we should be putting up 130 points every game, but that is simply not the way our team operates. Our offensive strategy is pretty basic: A: Get LeBron the ball, send shooters to the corners and wings, if LeBron is doubled, swing the ball, if not, LeBron penetrates and shoots or dishes. B: Get Shaq the ball, repeat. C: LeBron pick and pop with Z or pick and roll with Andy. D: Mo penetrate, dish, and swing, E: Delonte in the post, etc…these plays all take up time on the shot-clock and all are effective if teams are hitting shots…what offense would people prefer Mike Brown run? Most times when the offense is struggling (except for the times when LeBron shoots excessively from deep), it is not because the offense isn’t functioning and getting players good shots, it’s because players are missing good shots they are supposed to get within the Cavs’ offensive schemes…and Anthony Parker missed three from the corner is still a GOOD shot, a missed shaq jump-hook is still a good shot, a missed lebron runner is still a good shot…when Mike Brown came to Cleveland, he admitted he was a defensive specialist (who learned from one of the best ever in Pop) who had a limited knowledge of offense…to his credit, he started to defer to his more knowledgeable assistants, which I would greatly prefer to Mike Brown trying to run the offense by himself (cough, Vinny Del Negro, cough)…to summarize, Mike Brown has made this a lockdown defensive unit and his, with large amounts of help from assistants, made this an offense that usually only falters when players MISS good shots or LeBron takes BAD shots, not because the offense schemes don’t work

  • saggy

    by the way, Ron’s comment above makes me think that Rip Hamilton might be a great piece for our team. He’s constantly on the move – you know LBJ would find him an open jumper at least 5 times a game.

  • black_cat

    Cavaliers without Lebron would suck
    Mike Brown without Cavaliers would not be coach of the year

    Cavaliers are a one man show

    and another thing that peeves me is the Jordan Pippen comparison

    Lebron is a small forward so wouldn’t his “Scottie Pippen” be a dominant shooting guard? and a bunch of role players?

    idk if Lebron will ever win without the league getting weaker

    this draft class should help in that respect because outside of John Wall there is a big drop off in talent & commitment

  • Matt

    Rip may fit, but his contract is absolutely atrocious (12.5 mill for each of the next two years)…in the past I have said that the Cavs should think of this trading period like their “free agency,” since trading for an impact player now will eliminate our chances at another max player to pair with LeBron (unless, of course, said player takes a pay cut to play with LeBron)…while Antwan Jamison, whose stats have stayed remarkably steady and who is, by all accounts, a physical freak who will stay in shape into his late 30s, Rip has deteriorated rapidly (his PER and efg% have gone down the last two seasons) and is not worth the mortgaging of our future…so, no to rip

  • http://twitter.com/dj_2 DJ

    @21: That’s a trend that should have been squashed a long time ago. I understand that at this level, teams don’t have a lot of time to practice sets like that during the season, but the crunch time offense has had a long time to evolve from the standing around that everyone (save AV) seems to do when LBJ is between the circles, into set plays designed to draw multiple looks and/or isolate LBJ in the post, where he has a much better chance at a high-percentage look for himself or for a cutter (AV, West, Mo, Moon) or a shooter like Mo, Parker, Gibson or the ‘stretch 4′ (Jamison, Hot Wad [horrible nickname, btw], Moon, Z, whoever) than a prayer from 26 feet with 2 seconds left on the shot clock.

    This is one the biggest reasons why I have always said that CLE needs a true PG, so LBJ can go into the post or get free on the wing (truly play off the ball). Better yet, this can create multiple problems with the outside threat the Cavs have become this year, in addition to the multiple things LBJ can do to create a good look for himself. Can you imagine someone like CP3 running the crunch time offense, with Molonte at the 2, Parker at 3, LBJ at 4 and AV at 5? Scary…

  • AMC

    An interesting and thoughtful post. Clearly the team has thrived in areas where Brown is strong – defense, camaraderie. I agree with those who have commented that stats don’t tell the whole story. For instance, what is the Cavs’ offensive efficiency against playoff teams? In the 4th quarter? I think the stats are skewed by the fact that the Cavs have traditionally been a good first half team offensively.

    If the Cavs can acquire a true third offensive option (a la Jamison), then I think many of the offense-oriented concerns go away.

    The biggest criticism that can be fairly leveled at Brown is that he doesn’t seem to have the ability to maximize the talents of LeBron. The best coaches – Auerbach, Jackson, Popovich, etc. – have had the ability to maximize the talents of their superstars. I’m not sure if Mike Brown has the credibility to pull that off.

  • http://www.msblsim.com boogeyman

    I’m not a big Mike Brown fan never was and probably never will be but you can’t deny what he’s done here. Of course an asterisk should always be by Brown’s name due to the fact that he has had the best basketball player in the world on his team. Phil Jackson had Mike and Mike Brown has LeBron. I just hope we see a championship otherwise I’m afraid Mike Brown will only be remembered for not being able to win it all. This is why Ferry needs to go out and get another stud. The Cavaliers sat on their hands last year and when it counted the most they didn’t have enough firepower. Fast forward a year and I’m afraid we’re in the same boat. There is no tomorrow…there is no tomorrow…Z, Hickson, Gibson, D-Block, a sign and trade with Wally should all be avenues to improve this team. I’m sick of always coming up short the Indians made this a habit in the ’90s and we all know the finish. The Cavaliers repeated this syndrome last year, I don’t want it to happen again.

  • fjs

    Umm…what’s a “heat check”

  • http://www.waitingfornextyear.com Scott

    Heat check is an unnecessary shot (usually a three-pointer) that is taken simply to see how “hot” one’s shooting hand is.

  • Dude Bro Guy

    Brown is a terrible communicator… whenever he is mic’d up, his time out huddle speeches are hilarious. They guy just can’t sell winning. If the Cavs win a ring, it will be in spite of Brown, not because of him. We need a guy with an ego that can match LBJ and Shaq. Brown is not a championship coach.

  • grover13

    The problem with Brown is that he doesn’t learn, and can’t adjust. I applaud him for his defense-first philosophy and general team management style….but he can’t manage a game, and that is why the Cavs will never win a championship under him. Virtually every game I see, the offense in the first quarter is fantastic- ball movement, player movement, picks low & high off the ball, great stuff. Over the course of the game, it always gets stagnant. I don’t understand why he can’t figure out how to manage that.

    His substitution patterns are borderline retarded. If you look at the likes of who the Cavs have lost to this year- Boston, Toronto, Charlotte, Chicago, Houston, et al- you’ll find a pattern. Virtually all of those teams have a big man who shoots threes….yet Brown continually has Z guarding the opposing center no matter what the skill set is. Z can’t defend the perimeter, and never will. It took Brown 3 straight months worth of articles on the +/- statistic for him to figure out that Varejao needs to play 30 minutes every night. For all JJ Hickson’s talent, they might as well trade him now- because Brown absolutely cannot develop young talent (Shannon Brown, Pavlovic, Gibson), because he won’t let them play through growing pains. So we continue to see Hickson start games, and then get yanked the first time he’s out of position, and log about 10-12 minutes per game. How can he develop that way? Ridiculous.

    Mike Brown- Good coach, Good temperment, really nice guy….but not a champion. Sorry guys.

  • BT1

    Kuester got too much credit for the offense while he was with the CAVS. You would think that since he left, the CAVS would be averaging 6 points per quarter! Ferry and Brown know more about THEIR jobs than some of you know about yours. How many of you would just be courtside spectators if YOU were coaching LeBron, Shaq, etc? You’re watching a championship season and you don’t even realize it. Too bad you can’t just sit back and enjoy it, it really is a good feeling if you open yourselves to it.

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