Mike Brown - The Sequel?

[B Mac]

You cant look into the stats too much. Sure they mean a bit but remember we had lebron. Who was teh best scorer in teh nba for a while. I think its more imprtant to look at how the offense ran and plays drawn up in certain situations, adjustments etc.

Im not saying the stats are completely meaningless but you gotta admit lebron makes them look better then they should be.

I get it, but I just dont see why it was so bad that MB gave the ball to LBJ and had him create. If you have one of the best offensive talents ever you give him the ball and let him create. I just dont think its fair to criticize him for that, especially when it worked.

[Dupp]

Well it worked until the playoffs.. Although ironically enough we lost to the celtics and especially the magic because of defense. Offense was still a problem but defense was bad.

You could look at the way lebron plays now with a lot of ball movement, pick n rolls and just a lot smarter, which is gonna produce in the play offs.

Obviously personal is a lot different and we never had anything close to that cast. I just think lebron iso ball and shooters is destined to fail. Not that we had much else of an option. Will be intresting to see how the team is ran with a bit more even spread of talent. (Assuming we continue to draft well and pick up some decent vets)


I know im being negative but there is things im excited to see brown bring to this team. Our defense is awful and we could be a lot better, will be good to see that improve. Still dont understand why youd give a 5 year contract though?

[B Mac]

This was posted on RCF so credit where it's due, but here is an article that Windhorst wrote in 2010 that further backs just how respected Mike Brown's ability to make adjustments was at the time:

Give Mike Brown time and a practice and Cavs usually respond: Windhorst Beat Blog

It isn't a 100 percent lock, but over the course of five playoff seasons now Cavs coach Mike Brown has a pretty impressive ability to do his best work on adjustments within series.

No one is going to label Brown a great in-game coach at this point in his career. He's admitted this and you can see it in the way he coaches throughout the season. Even if he's mocked for it.

It dates all the way back to 2006 when he was able to change up some of the team's strategy from Game 1 to Game 2 of the first Pistons series and set the stage for the Cavs to nearly pull an upset with three straight wins.

http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf ... ton_2.html

I cant post more due to RealGM rules, but you guys should really click that link and read the article. The guy made some mistakes and he will absolutely be the first to admit it, but I honestly just dont understand how so many people have formed an opinion that just doesnt seem to mesh with what actually happened for a vast majority of Coach Brown's tenure.

[Dupp]

I think when you don't have the ultimate success its a lot easier to remember the failure's over the successful times. Just the way people (myself) are. Stupid or not.

[JonFromVA]

Im not saying the stats are completely meaningless but you gotta admit lebron makes them look better then they should be.

The Cavs won 66-games with LeBron. The Heat won 66-games with LeBron.

The Cavs offensive and defensive production (pace adjusted) was actually better than the Heat's.

Across the board offensively, they were better than us in most categories. We held our own in 3pt shooting, and we stomped them in rebounding. Defensively we were superior.

So, in the end ... you can have great players, spread the floor, share the ball well; but if they can't hit the boards and defend the paint - it can all be negated.

Few fans care to admit it, because it's a lunch pail skill, but rebounding plays a huge role on both offense & defense.

[wallsfamily]

Let's be truthful. The flaw in Cleveland was primarily personnel. Cavs missed playoffs twice with Lebron and neither lottery pick became a starter (one was traded for Jiri Welsch). Only one draft pick became a starter during the 7 years. JJ Hickson and after a promising 2/3 of a season in 2010 was relegated to the bench in a dumb trade for Jamieson which worsened the defense and for 30 days forced Shaq to play more because Z was gone and that messed up the chemistry of a 60 win team that was to concerned about regular season. Finally, Cavs are falling into the same trap! Lottery picks need to be starters within 2 years and everything should be about their quick development. It takes time and everything should be about growing the team? Bad firing of Scott but this is a good hiring of Brown!!!

[gflem]

I really wasn't a fan of Brown's offense last time around, but lets not forget that at that point Lebron wouldn't post anybody up. He HAD to have the ball in his hands any time he was in the game. I wonder how the offense would have looked if Lebron had been convinced to actually play like a guy his size could play?
Mo Williams would have had more room and so would have Boobie in a more conventional type of offense. Sure, they got open looks when Lebron drove and then kicked the ball out, but in the playoffs after the Donyell Marshall miss, Lebron quit passing out for the most part. Especially in the critical late moments of games. I know he had a good amount of success, but it was very predictable and thus easier to game plan for imo.
The bigger problem with Brown, especially against Orlando was that he had Lebron guard rafer Alston while we were getting torched by Rashard Lewis and Hedo Turkeyglue. Those guys were being guarded either by a smaller guy they could shoot over, or a slower player that they could drive around. Anybody who was watching that had a half of a brain could see the problem, but Brown never made a change.

[Niko23]

I think it is becoming quite clear that the Cavs absolutely made the right choice and locked up Brown early. Right now I could easily see the following playoff teams needing coaches:

LAC
ATL
Brooklyn
Denver
OKC??

There are also a number of teams who have already fired their coach:

Det - Cap/young stars
LOL Cats
MIL

It would be foolish to think a number of those teams would not get into a bidding war for MB

[kiwibrindle]

Really. I'm surprised. Anyone can go down to ToysRus and get a Mr. Potatoe head with just as much knowledge of Offense for under $20 bucks. Let alone $20 million.

[Niko23]

Potato has his faults. NO doubt. Again - if Kuester is back running the offense. I'm good.

[IMAN5]

I never really understood how he got such big offers and what the league ever saw in him. He hasn't done anything special, and in LA he was exposed of that. Why CLE would bring him back I have no idea.

[Dupp]

He never got exposed in LA he only coached 5 games and the team remained crap without him.

[perezident]

Has Mike hired any assistants as yet?

[JungleCat022]

Has Mike hired any assistants as yet?

Phil Handy from the Lakers, Igor Kokoskov from Phoenix, and Vitaly Potapenko from the D-league

[perezident]

Wow Pot got an assistant coaching gig..nice thanks man