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March 8, 2012Much Ado About Duncan
March 8, 2012I think Mike Brown is a great guy, but I always questioned the wisdom of keeping Mike Brown for as long as the Cavaliers did. I thought he was a really good defensive specialist, but in terms of managing rotations and enabling the offense to obtain maximum efficiency, I always had serious doubts. Now this from ESPNLosAngeles.
The Lakers had gone 8-2 coming into this three-game road trip, including a win over the Miami Heat on Sunday. During that stretch, it was obvious Brown had made an effort to scale back on some of his micromanaging tendencies that have grated on players this season. He’s noticeably canceled several practices and shootarounds after Bynum spoke out publicly about how the increased practice schedule, combined with an already condensed season, was affecting his play. He’s settled into more consistent offensive rotations after experimenting for much of the season, and he’s let the team read and react on offense instead of calling so many plays.
That effort was seen by the Lakers players as a good start toward repairing what was becoming an increasingly tense first season for the former Cleveland coach. The question now, sources say, is whether Brown and his players can get past this bump, given that Brown himself expressed some frustration after the meltdown against a Wizards team that had just eight wins going into Wednesday night’s game.
Raise your hand if you found any of this surprising after having Mike Brown in Cleveland over the years? We talked about Mike Brown going to Los Angeles when it was announced and I felt like most Clevelanders still liked him and were rooting for him. Still, we weren’t short on advice for him to hopefully avoid some of the mistakes that plagued the Cavaliers when he was here.
This was the final paragraph of my post back then.
The job should be a little bit easier in L.A. you would think because the personalities that are there working together have already proven that they are good enough to win a championship. Then again, to think that he won’t have egos to manage between Kobe, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol and the rest is unrealistic. Because I like Brown, I hope he learned a few things from his time and ultimate exit from Cleveland. He needs to do more than just bring his brand of defensive toughness that everyone knows about. He must continue his path toward being a well-rounded head coach. If he doesn’t, his stay in L.A. will be significantly shorter than he had in Cleveland.
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10 Comments
no surprise here. he was incapable on offense.. and seriously.. coaching defense when you have AV and lebron on the floor? not a heavy lift.
The guy has never actually coached.
my biggest issue with him would have been after it was deemed that he let LeBron walk all over him too much when he was here and take the Cavs out of the offense and into Iso-Bball, then why didn’t he fix that when he went to the Lakers.
ExhibitA: the 4th quarter last night where Kobe went 1on5 and shot 1/10 to let the Wizards back into the game and win.
Mike Brown was the single biggest reason the Cavaliers couldn’t achieve more then they did not any one player. If you watch the Lakers you see Kobe Bryant struggling much the way LeBron James did to score. It’s only because they are two of the best that they still find a way to do so. It’s way worse in LA however because unlike in Cleveland the Lakers have Gasol and Bynum.
agreed. at the time i hated the ‘iso-ball’.. but i always thought it more lebron filling the vacuum in the absence of any offensive play-calling by brown.
agreed. at the time i hated the ‘iso-ball’.. but i always thought it more lebron filling the vacuum in the absence of any offensive play-calling by brown.
Brown still doesn’t know offense and he has the mighty offensive guru Kuester right next to him. Sure Brown was a pushover when it came to LeBron but alot of that was because Brown couldn’t come up with anything better so he just put the ball in his best players hands and hoped it worked out. It’s no wonder James ran the show, how could you blame him. Brown appears to be a great person and can run a defense but he isn’t head coach material. He needed to become an assistant under someone like Doug Collins or back under Greg Popovich again.
Brown still doesn’t know offense and he has the mighty offensive guru Kuester right next to him. Sure Brown was a pushover when it came to LeBron but alot of that was because Brown couldn’t come up with anything better so he just put the ball in his best players hands and hoped it worked out. It’s no wonder James ran the show, how could you blame him. Brown appears to be a great person and can run a defense but he isn’t head coach material. He needed to become an assistant under someone like Doug Collins or back under Greg Popovich again.
it’s one reason I could never be a NBA HC. I would have been telling Kobe last night things like: “You know, Pau is pretty good on offense too.” “Hey, Bynum was guarded by Wall on that play. He might have a small advantage there” et cetera.
I think he would be a great coach for other NBA teams, but the Lakers? Not so much.