I 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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