With the NBA season in the rear view mirror, we now turn to a summer full of front office decision-making. As fans, we all have our feelings on what needs to be done to improve our Cavaliers team. Rock has laid the figurative cards on the table, but this is where we turn to you – the readers of WFNY.
The premise is simple. Assume all players are restricted free agents and that they’ll likely need at least a small raise from last year’s salary. Do you re-sign? Or do you release? Of course, we’ll leave LeBron James out of this scenario. And also, a little supporting argument always helps. Do Enjoy.
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It’s getting to the point where you all are wielding more axes than the banking industry. D-West and Boobie got invites back to participate next season. The team then followed suit. But since then, we have been releasing players left and right.
While we could attempt to delve into Ben Wallace, I have a feeling I know the result. Zydrunas Ilgauskas would be a solid conversation, but we’ll save that for later. For now, let’s change things up a bit and discuss the man behind the curtain: Mike Brown.
Strengths: Defense.
Weaknesses:Offense, occasional rotation management, play-calling.
And while it appears that there are more cons than pros above, that sole strength has won Mike Brown an awful lot of games. You could say that it has been LeBron James that has provided the bulk of said wins, but like it or not, they are a part of Coach Mike’s record.
Brown has continually shot down the notion of bringing in an offensive mind to help with the whole scoring aspect of things. And truthfully, I would prefer to just have another player that can take care of that portion of the game and we would not have to have this conversation as often. However, given the handcuffs that are a part of Danny Ferry’s recent wardrobe, the change may have to be made within.
So what say ye, Cavs fans? Can Brown be trusted to make the adjustments needed? Many of you weren’t too thrilled upon the Game 7 loss to the Celtics. Has the overall opinion changed?
Re-Sign or Release: Daniel Gibson (75 percent say Re-Sign)
Re-Sign or Release: Devin Brown (54 percent say Release)
Re-Sign or Release: Sasha Pavlovic (86 percent say Release)
Re-Sign or Release: Damon Jones (56 percent say Release)
Re-Sign or Release: Anderson Varejao (62 percent say Release)
Author: Scott
Scott is a co-founder/editor of Waiting For Next Year who resides in Cleveland, Ohio. Feel free to follow him on Twitter or email him at scott@waitingfornextyear.com.Scott has written 2079 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I said release. I think Mike Brown is a great defensive coach, but I just can’t justify his inadequacies.
From the offense itself, to the third quarter, to the rotations to the disappearance of certain players at certain times, I just can’t justify keeping Mike Brown around.
The Cavs should have used Devin Brown in the playoffs and made their statement by not re-signing him this off-season. The Cavs shouldn’t have allowed Zydrunas Ilgauskas to disappear from as many games as he did in the second half. The Cavs should not have been running the 1-4 offense as much as they were. The Cavs shouldn’t have been so on again, off again with Damon Jones. The third quarter should have been addressed in addition to end of quarter / end of game scenarios.
The final nail in the coffin for me is Brown’s unwillingness to get a proven offensive person in her to at least help improve that phase of the game. I could put up with his deficiencies if he were willing to admit his weaknesses and bring in help.
It’s pretty neck and neck so far… Intriguing.
i voted re-sign b/c LeBron is clearly happy enough with him, otherwise he’d be gone already. whatever LeBron wants is good by me.
Shanoff just as much as called your boy Pluto an idiot in his blog yesterday:
http://www.danshanoff.com/2008/07/terry-pluto-is-living-in-denial-re.html
I left a comment on there but I wonder if he’ll publish it since I told it to him like it is (and a rather colorful comment, might I add, as I hope you’ll have the chance to witness). We need to seriously stop this guy. He’s brainwashing too many heads with that bandwidth space he’s been afforded.
I just broke the tie. RELEASE!
I hate Shanoff so, so much.
Shanoff moderates his comments. What a douche.
I say keep Mike Brown. Why? Because defense is hard to come by. You give the Cavaliers a cohesive offensive plan and a little more of a desire to knock people on their hind parts, you have a championship-level team.
I think that the Celtics have peaked (especially if Posey doesn’t re-sign with them) and, for all of the Cavaliers shortcomings, they were close to sending them home in 6.
The Pistons are still in the top of the conference but they are treating water. If they lose any two members of their core ( Prince, Billups, Wallace or Hamilton), they are screwed.
The Western teams (save the Spurs and, sometimes, the Hornets) still don’t play strong enough D to stop LeBron and the Cavs in 7 games if they correct the earlier mentioned shortcomings…
…but Mike Brown isn’t one of them. LeBron is the core but it’s not all LeBron.
Let’s say that we fire Mike Brown. Who do we replace him with? Until you give me a viable, realistic candidate with a proven track record of winning it is just too risky to release Brown.
Mike Brown is not a great defensive coach. He focuses on defense. The Cavs have been a little above average and trending downward on defense under him. Not sure how to explain it, but his style of defense actually hurts us offensively. He would have been a good assistant; head coach no way.
@MoBot, Amar, FC: Shanoff called that whole A-Rod divorce nonsense the “best sports story ever” today. That shows you how much weight his opionions of others should carry…
Edited by Rick….Amar voiced his extreme displeasure with Dan Shanoff.
Not condoning physical violence over blogged opinions, but your frustration is well documented!
I’m with Greg, find me the coach who replaces Mike Brown and I’ll gladly fire the guy. But until that guy comes along, I don’t think you let Brown leave.
One of the problems is the fact that there hasn’t been that many coaches who’ve actually won titles recently. Phil Jackson, Greg Popavich, Pat Riley, Larry Brown and now Rivers. We can go back a little farther and get Rudy T…
I disagree with you, DCBucks, I do think he is a good defensive coach. I don’t think there is a coach that is even semi-available out there right now that would be an improvement over Mike Brown. For all his shortcomings, and for the lack of talent around Lebron, the Cavs have won a lot of playoff games these past 3 years. Is he a great coach? Not by a long shot but I do think he is a good one
Edited by Rick- Ricky also disagrees with Dan Shanoff, and his mother’s parenting.
Ok guys- first off, you can call me whatever names you want, but this is supposed to be a family-friendly environment. I don’t care how much you dislike Shanoff and his opinions, you went a little too far on this. Feel free to email me and say what you have to. You can get your point across just fine without those kinds of comments and language.
thanks-rick
There may not be any good candidates available right now but Mike Brown is holding this club back more than bringing it forward. His refusal to let an offensive coach on board as well as his personal issues with players and the way he handles it (I don’t like you, you go to bench) is crap.
He mishandles offensive talent and lets it fall to pieces, I feel like Mike Brown’s (lack of) coaching style was part of the decline of Larry Hughes. Yes he can fire some guys up to play D, but its all for nothing if those turns aren’t converted at the other end of the floor. Mike Brown wouldn’t even be considered a ‘good’ coach if he didn’t have Lebron. Lebron made Mike Brown. If he were a good coach he’d find more ways to get role players contributing, when facing tough defenses he’d have a better offensive scheme than Lebron chilling at the arc for 18 seconds and then pulling up a jumper. If he is such a great defensive coach then why doesn’t he come up with a plan to dismantle other defenses?
I think Mike Brown is a ‘selfish, this is my team, its my way or the highway’ type of coach that doesn’t know how to utilize whats available to him (other than Lebron, but really a 12 year old could coach and still probably make the play offs in the east with LBJ on board). He also seems to be into the if at first you don’t succeed try try again mentality.
So maybe there aren’t other great options out there right now, but Mike Brown is holding this team back now, not helping it improve, so he needs to go.
I say we keep him. Fact of the matter is the cavs have been in the playoffs. Now most of that credit should go to LBJ but for the complete lack of talent Cleveland has given Brown and LBJ, I think something to be said of getting to the finals, then being the closest to defeating the current champs the year after.
Yes the other options suck, but until we give him a championship caliber team, we can’t expect him to win championships. We’ve gotten alot closer then most, with alot less. That being said my vote went to re-sign.
You keep Mike Brown until he gets a legitimate NBA backcourt. His defensive-mindedness proves to be successful, in combo with James. Even if his offense is lacking, the over-arching reason for the Cavs offensive struggles is because we’re starting guys who are pretty much bench-players.