Cavalier Notes: Big Ben’s Knee
April 20, 2009While We’re Waiting… Cavs Playoff Commercial, What Would Phil Do, and B.E.’s Future Contract
April 21, 2009When the Cleveland Cavaliers’ young, brash, and inexperienced new owner Dan Gilbert was looking for the coach he would hire to help bring the LeBron James-led Cavaliers team into an era of playoff appearances and Championship runs, there’s no question everyone was watching with a mixture of anticipation and trepidation. The coaching candidates at that time were a mixture of mediocrity and retread disappointment. Flip Saunders was considered to be the front runner at one point. There was hope that Nate McMillan would leave Seattle and come to coach Cleveland, bringing Ray Allen with him. Some people actually were hoping PJ Carlesimo would get consideration. Eric Musselman was a name you heard tossed around.
Not to take anything away from those guys, but none of them were exactly names that would really excite and rejuvenate a fan base that was feeling a bit stung and let down by the team’s inability to get into the playoffs with Paul Silas, despite LeBron James being on the team. None the less, most people felt an experienced coach was the only way Gilbert could go with this hire. To his credit, though, Dan Gilbert was going to do this the only way he knows how……his way.
When he announced the Cavaliers would be hiring a relatively unknown rookie head coach by the name of Mike Brown, most fans were confused and perplexed. How could a video tape technician with no head coaching experience at any level truly be the guy Gilbert picked to guide LeBron into greatness, we asked? The problem was, none of us knew what Dan Gilbert knew. None of us had heard Mike Brown speak and seen first hand the qualities of leadership he possessed like Dan Gilbert had. And today, it’s those leadership and communication skills that Mike Brown possesses that have made him the 2008-09 NBA Coach of the Year.
It hasn’t always been easy. Mike Brown has been through his share of learning experiences, embarrassments, setbacks, and yes, successes, throughout his brief yet memorable 4 year run as coach of the Cavaliers. There have been times when we wondered if Mike Brown had lost the team, there were times we felt like the Cavaliers were wasting away LeBron’s prime under Brown’s guidance. But the place where we as fans always missed the point was that despite some frustrations, Mike Brown’s biggest accomplishment was his ability to create an ally in LeBron James.
You often hear coaches described as being either disciplinarians or as players’ coaches. Well, by those narrow definitions, Mike Brown is certainly a player’s coach, and it ironically enough might be his strongest asset. Traditionally, it’s believed that players love playing for players’ coaches, but players’ coaches lose in the first round. Disciplinarians and strict tacticians win Championships. Mike Brown’s genius, though, is his ability to be a players’ coach, but to use that leverage he gains in the form of respect, loyalty, and love from his players into heart, hustle, and dedication on the defensive side of the ball.
To be sure, none of this would probably be possible if LeBron James weren’t the outstanding individual that he is and if LeBron wasn’t interested in being coached. Thankfully for both Mike Brown and Cavs fans alike, though, LeBron was willing to give Mike Brown a bigger chance than most of us were. That willingness and trust has helped foster a strong relationship that has transformed itself into a unifying force that runs throughout the Cavaliers organization from top to bottom. It’s the confidence, communication, and leadership skills of Dan Gilbert that led him to bring in like minded people like Danny Ferry and Mike Brown to run this organization. It’s the trust, chemistry, and accountability that Mike Brown preaches that has trickled down to LeBron James. It’s the leadership and exemplary focus and dedication of LeBron James that transcends its way throughout the locker room and into the rest of the team. All of this may lead some to say that perhaps the Cavaliers’ success is bigger than Mike Brown and perhaps that is why he doesn’t deserve this award.
Well, it’s true that the success of the Cavaliers is bigger than any one person (maybe even including LeBron James), but as we’ve seen in past years, it still takes a strong performance from the coaching seat in order to harbor the ultimate levels of team success. There are many reasons why Mike Brown deserves this award. There are only 3 members of this current team who were in training camp at the start of last season (LeBron, Ilgauskas, and Gibson), and only 5 players who were on the Finals team in 2007 (Varejao and Pavlovic held out of training camp, but were on the team in the Finals). Despite a complete overhaul of the roster, the team has never felt in disarray or anarchy because Mike Brown has always maintained a singular focus, message, and style as a coach, and that style has infiltrated the team at all times in the way they play on the court. Mike Brown has built a foundation of trust, respect, and loyalty with his veterans, and as a result he has been able to get maximum effort from them at all times. This is no easy feat, as we have seen time and time again with players’ coaches in the NBA. Mike Brown has shown an uncanny ability to be firm in his decisions and to not be afraid to fail, but an equal willingness to swallow his pride and learn from his mistakes when he actually did fail. We have seen this in the form of player substitution patterns, alternating starting lineups, mix and matching lineups and matchups against opponents, and even in developing an offensive identity for this team.
That last point has been the biggest point of contention between Coach Brown and his detractors (Cavs fans, NBA fans, media, etc) throughout the last couple seasons. After several seasons of stagnant, uninspiring, and, frankly, unsuccessful offensive performances throughout his first 3 years at the helm, many people were dying to see Mike Brown bring in help in the form of an offensive coach to run the show. Despite everyone’s hopes, Mike Brown put up a stubborn front and refused to bring in outside help. Many of us took this as a defeat. Many of us felt that this meant the offense would be more of the same this year. However, we weren’t listening close enough and reading between the lines. Mike Brown wasn’t bringing in outside help, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t going to make some changes.
As had become the Cavalier Way, Mike Brown instead decided to do things the only way he knows how, and that is to practice what he preaches. Namely, that meant he had to lean on the same characteristics of trust and accountability that he demands of others, and extend that trust and accountability to his coaching staff. What Mike Brown did was hand over the reigns of the offense to assistant coach John Kuester. Brown swallowed his pride and took his hands off the offense and began to allow his coaches to offer more input. He began to allow his coaches to take a more hands on role with the team even during games. Now, he allowed Coach Kuester to talk to the team in timeouts and to draw up plays and make offensive adjustments in the middle of the game. It may seem like a small gesture, but the results speak for themselves, and that willingness to dictate and delegate responsibility throughout his staff are the signs of a true leader and that willingness to put the team above himself is precisely why he is so deserving of this award.
At the end of the day, a coach’s role is to guide a team to the highest levels of success possible. Even when not necessarily coaching at his best, he has been able to lead the Cavaliers to unparalleled levels of success, winning 50+ games in back to back seasons (something only Lenny Wilkens was able to match in Cavaliers’ history) and overseeing the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals. This season, though, he has improved his coaching to such a level that he has allowed this team to finally begin realizing its own potential. The Cavaliers obliterated the franchise record for wins, the team has created a historic home court advantage, they finished in the top 5 in the NBA in both offense and defense, and finished with the best record in the NBA for the first time in franchise history. The Cavaliers exceeded so many expectations this year in offensive performance, defensive performance, and record that to not recognize the job Mike Brown has done this year would be a lesson in lunacy.
No, it hasn’t always been easy and there have been plenty of lows to go with the current highs. We’ve all questioned Coach Brown at different times and we’ve all questioned whether he was really cut out for this job. This isn’t meant to sound like any kind of proclamation of Mike Brown as an all-time great coach or anything like that, but for this one season, Mike Brown has seen his vision come to fruition and we are all reaping the benefits. There’s plenty of credit to go around to many different individuals within the Cavaliers’ franchise, but on this day we take a minute to stand back, examine the incredible coaching job Mike Brown has done this year, and say thank you and congratulations to the coach in whom this city is now placing all of its hopes and prayers for a Championship.
11 Comments
Congrats Mike Brown. You have earned it. I have said some pretty ugly things about you on this blog….but this officially shuts me–and should shut other critics–right up. At least until next year!
Seriously, Congratulations Mike Brown on being the best coach in the league.
i havent given him a hard time in the last 14 months. i thought he was unbelievable all year. i think he has given too many minutes to wally and gibson, we will see what happens in the playoffs.
congrats, you are definitely one of the top 5-7 coaches in the NBA
Mike Brown has done such a spectacular job with this team. He has gotten some previously lousy defenders to become lockdown defenders, among other things. The most important thing he did was to hand over the reigns of the offense to Kuester. It really shows his maturity as a great NBA coach. Congrats Coach Brown!
#1 Congrats to Coach Brown, in a rough town on coaches you’ve bought yourself a month reprieve!
#2 First stop of the morning for me is usually Clevland.com…..read the articles there and popped over here….Your article was hands down better than anything they spit out this morning. Great job as always.
For me, the best argument for Mike Brown as COY was the last game of the season against Philadelphia. No LeBron, no Z, no J Smith, no Mo, and only half a game from Andy and Delonte, and the Cavs still nearly won with Boobie, Sascha, and Wally leading the way.
Another interesting aspect of Brown’s leadership is that it’s pretty clear to me that Cavs players are learning a lot from each other. Besides Eric Snow (when he’s around) helping out the various guards, you might have seen that a lot of other Cavs now take charges like Andy always did, that Ben seems to be showing the bigs how to position themselves for a block, and Delonte’s passing is getting more innovation from Mo’s play. That’s what all the “chemistry” talk is about: when one Cav figures out how to improve their game, other Cavs seem to figure it out pretty quickly.
/starts slow clap
[…] And just to make sure you check it out, Rock put up some very solid work on Mike Brown receveiving this year’s Coach of the Year awards. Do give it a look. [RockKing/WFNY] […]
You guys can get a little too long-winded. Bill Simmons thinks you need to trim this down about 750 words.
@ Devin – Rock and Craig are the War and Peace authors around here.
I wish that MB would have been more coy at his press conference. GET IT?!
While there are a lot of good things about WFNY. Rock’s Cavs articles are what hooked me to the site, so I would change nothing.
@Devin – If you’re going to be an unsolicited eCritic you either need to be funny or know what you’re talking about. Rick Reilly thinks it should be trimmed to 750 words. Simmons is preparing a 4500 word article on how he cares about the Celtics 3x more than RockKing cares about the Cavs.
Anyone else remember when there was a rumored quote from one of LeBron’s high school posse saying, “now LeBron will never play for Cleveland.” It was right after John Lucas got fired.
We come a long way baby.