Thoughts on Mike Brown as next Hawks Head Coach?

[Jamaaliver]

ESPN Insider (apparently) is reporting that Mike Brown of Cleveland and LAL fame is on the short list of candidates to replace L Drew next season.

http://soaringdownsouth.com/2013/04/07/could-mike-brown-be-the-hawks-head-coach-next-season/
http://insider.espn.go.com/blog/nba/rumors/post?id=5464

Brown lead the Cavaliers to an NBA Finals appearance and twice captured the league’s best record. He had a winning percentage of 66% in the 5 seasons in a suit and tie for the Cavaliers but departed in the same offseason as LeBron James did from the state of Ohio.
Since being released by the Cavaliers, Mike Brown was tapped to be the successor to Phil Jackson as the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2011 offseason. In his first season with the Lakers, they finished 41-25, and managed to grab the 3 seed in the Western Conference. They squeaked by the 6th seeded Denver Nuggets in the first round then fell to the eventual Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder in 5 games.

Mike Brown has proven to be an effective Regular Season coach, when he had superstar talent to work with.

But I have 0 desire to see him as HC here. I was stationed in OHIO during his tenure with CLE and was subjected to his Cavalier teams for a humber of years up close. His teams play great defense, but offensively, they are a mess. His offensive strategy: Isolation all the time.

His teams reminded me alot of Mike Woodson's teams, very good regular season teams. In the playoffs, they beat the teams they should have, but got bludgeoned by teams better than them. (SAS swept CLE in their only Finals appearance.)
Brown isn't going to outcoach anyone in a playoff series. And since we don't have the best player in the world on our roster to lean on in crunch time, it's very unlikely we'd even come close to matching his success in CLE or Los Angeles.

I'm wholeheartedly against the move; it wouldn't be the worst move ever (Lon Kruger and Terry Stotts were both worse ideas), but i don't think we become a top team with him at the helm.

I'd suggest Byron Shaw, Jerry Sloan, Flip Saunders, Nate McMillan before Mike Brown.

Hell, my first choice would be to keep L Drew, to be honest.

What do you guys think?

[Jamaaliver]

Quick Note: I don't actually subscribe to ESPN Insider, so if anyone is willing to post an EXCERPT of the article, it'd be greatly appreciated.

(Excerpts are allowed, right HMFFL?)

[Years80HAWKS]

I really do not like MB as our headcoach. But I would love to see another person in our bench for next year.

I really believe Ferry will bring another coach who can develope our youngsters, have acertain control over our stars, have a structured style of play, do not open games with different st 5s each day, and get Smith involved in the game in another way (provided he stays).

There are not so many changes I would like to have in the team. But retaining Josh, Teague and Zaza would be priorities for me. Then we deeply need to get a real center, as we have already seen this year how different we play, and how tough we are, when Horford plays the PF spot, and Petro (or Zaza) bang against heavier opponents.

[jagstang76]

IMHO, Brown did nothing spectacular to get the Cavs to the finals. It was all LeBron. Stars make the coaches in this league.

I believe LD has done an amazing job this year with what he was given. I think he deserves to be a part of the future that Ferry is building. His open style on offense and maintaining a focus on defensive intensity from Woodson's time here are what has made him successful. Unlike Woody though, he's given Teague a chance and encouraged him to where he is the near all-star he is today. Given some more/better pieces, I think he will take us pretty far in the playoffs.

[parson]

Drew's grown on me. I try to remember that he's a youngster, as well, at coach and needs time to develop. In that respect, I think he's getting closer to being a real NBA head coach.

He's shown a great ability to draw up plays, coming out of breaks, that work. While I didn't like the way he seems to hate rookies (he had to be literally forced to play John Jenkins, for example), he has improved - I think - at least a little in that regard. He runs an coherent offensive scheme which seems to be flexible enough to take advantage of game-to-game opportunities.

His biggest failing is in the poor motivation his team - too often - shows. It IS his job to "coach energy," as he puts it. I don't know if he's not conditioning them enough in the summer or if he's not using his bench enough - or what it is - but the starters sometimes come out and play as if under protest.

I'd rather have Drew than Mike Brown. Brown is like too many assistant coaches who move up to the head job and think only in terms of finding one player who has an advantage over his defender and creating isolations for him. The head coach may instruct his assistants to find such advantages but there's too much more to the game than that. The NBA may be an isolation game but it only works if you have a superstar and, even then, he needs to be a very good ball handler.

I have never thought ESPN cared one whit about the Atlanta teams, so I really don't think they know what they're talking about when we're the subject.

[ATL Boy]

I'd pick LD over Brown. MB was blessed with Lebron when he was with the Cavs, anyone could've had regular season success and a finals run with Lebron. He's an average coach at best

[Jamaaliver]

Stars make the coaches in this league.

Jag, I agree with 95% of what you said, but the above statement I must take issue with. Obviously, LeBron is an exception, but we've seen top players under poor coaches do absolutely nothing. This year's Lakers are. Prime example. Karl in Denver has maintained success minus Melo. Popovich has maintained a contender with a rotating cast of characters.

I'd say stars make bad teams good. Coaches make good teams great.

That's why the same coaches tend to win division, conference, NBA titles every year.

The exception, obviously, would be Miami with 3 future Hall of Famers n their prime.

[HMFFL]

Quick Note: I don't actually subscribe to ESPN Insider, so if anyone is willing to post an EXCERPT of the article, it'd be greatly appreciated.

(Excerpts are allowed, right HMFFL?)

Any ESPN insider must be put in the posters own words. It can slide if the quote is small.

[HMFFL]

I'd stick with Larry Drew over Mike Brown.

I've never been very high on Brown as a coach and I think it's in our best interest to stick with Coach Drew. Mike Brown lived off Lebron James in Cleveland and ultimately was a bad fit for the Lakers. He can credit the star players that he has coached for the success he has had.

[Geaux_Hawks]

I'd stick with Larry Drew over Mike Brown.

I've never been very high on Brown as a coach and I think it's in our best interest to stick with Coach Drew. Mike Brown lived off Lebron James in Cleveland and ultimately was a bad fit for the Lakers. He can credit the star players that he has coached for the success he has had.

Bad fit for a Laker squad that went 41-25 without Howard and Nash last year?! Granted, the Lakers have been beat up this year, but Howard and Kobe both have played 70+ games this year. Lebron gets too much credit for winning in Cleveland. MB was a more than solid coach in Cleveland and was also very solid in LA.

[Yungsta404]

No way. I would take LD over mike brown and I dont even like LD. How could we think about hiring someone who has been fired twice in the last three years?

He is a terrible coach who has lived off the greatness of Lebron james.

[theatlfan]

Quick Note: I don't actually subscribe to ESPN Insider, so if anyone is willing to post an EXCERPT of the article, it'd be greatly appreciated.

(Excerpts are allowed, right HMFFL?)

Any ESPN insider must be put in the posters own words. It can slide if the quote is small.

HMFFL please review the following and do whatever you feel is needed:

First, some explanation on what the article is actually attempting to do. Mark Stein confronts the teams that may be in the coaching carousel in 2 parts: the 1st part asks whether they would be retained or decide to come back with the 2nd part being pure postulating as to who they would hire. In most cases, the 2nd part doesn't exist for the individual team (the article only delves the question of whether and in what circumstances the current coach would not be the coach next season).

The 1st part of our segment is very cookie cutter - there is nothing there that we don't already know. No one outside of the Hawks' FO has any idea what Ferry intentions are with the future of the Hawks, since the only track record so far is to clear things up (cap space, etc) for the future. Along with 2/3 of the roster, Larry Drew is an FA as well, so it's not out of the question that Ferry could simply decide to blow the entire thing up and start fresh. OTOH, if we do land a big name FA like a Dwight and CP3, then obviously decisions such as who should be the coach of the Hawks would change dramatically.

In the cases the 2nd part is present for any particular team, the statements on who that coach could be are either framed in a broad stroke (i.e., "big name coach" for BRK, "former player" for DET) or an actual name (i.e., Stan Van Gundy in LAC, Kelvin Sampson to MIL). It is interesting to note that our case with Brown seems to be the biggest jump the article makes when naming a name. Many of the others are "we hear from sources that team X is being linked to this guy" whereas ours is... see for yourself:

What we do know: Ferry remains one of Mike Brown's biggest fans, so assumptions about Ferry's interest in bringing Brown to Atlanta will live on until Brown is no longer a coaching free agent.

Odd in that he only states that we'd always be linked in people's minds - not that Ferry is or would actually consider bringing him in for this team.

[Jamaaliver]

No way. I would take LD over mike brown and I dont even like LD. How could we think about hiring someone who has been fired twice in the last three years?

He is a terrible coach who has lived off the greatness of Lebron james.

In his defense:

1. He was only fired once. (His contract wasn't renewed by the new CLE GM).

2. In his last three seasons his teams have three division titles, twice winning the #1 overall record and making it past the first round every year.

3. The year prior, his team won 45 games and made the NBA Finals.

4. His CLE teams won more regular season games than Miami ever did.

I wouldn't say he's terrible, but he's not an elite coach. And the few players we do have on contract don't fit his offensive style of play. Jenkins, Horford, Teague are not players that could thrive in isolation basketball.

[Jamaaliver]

What we do know: Ferry remains one of Mike Brown's biggest fans, so assumptions about Ferry's interest in bringing Brown to Atlanta will live on until Brown is no longer a coaching free agent.

Odd in that he only states that we'd always be linked in people's minds - not that Ferry is or would actually consider bringing him in for this team.

Thanks, TAF.

Sounds like the consensus among fans is that we don't want him. We're still somewhat split on L Drew. If we make a change, I really just want a veteran coach with a track record of success:

Fratello
Sloan
Adelman

[BAMABIRD]

I wonder if there any coaches available from the Doc Rivers tree? I would love to have a coach similar to the Bulls Tom Thibodeau.

[Geaux_Hawks]

No way. I would take LD over mike brown and I dont even like LD. How could we think about hiring someone who has been fired twice in the last three years?

He is a terrible coach who has lived off the greatness of Lebron james.

In his defense:

1. He was only fired once. (His contract wasn't renewed by the new CLE GM).

2. In his last three seasons his teams have three division titles, twice winning the #1 overall record and making it past the first round every year.

3. The year prior, his team won 45 games and made the NBA Finals.

4. His CLE teams won more regular season games than Miami ever did.

I wouldn't say he's terrible, but he's not an elite coach. And the few players we do have on contract don't fit his offensive style of play. Jenkins, Horford, Teague are not players that could thrive in isolation basketball.

Mike Brown is a Princeton offense type of guy. All 3 of the guys you mentioned would thrive in some form or fashion, especially since positions kind of go out the window.

[azuresou1]

Mike Brown is a garbage offensive coach.

I'd like us to look at Brian Shaw, who apparently has the backing of both Phil Jackson and Frank Vogel, two coaches I hold in extremely high regards.

[Jamaaliver]

Mike Brown is a Princeton offense type of guy. All 3 of the guys you mentioned would thrive in some form or fashion, especially since positions kind of go out the window.

Actually...no. He's not. His time in Cleveland and his first year in LA all relied on traditional isolation basketball utilizing Kobe and Lebron.

He brought in Eddie Jordan (former Wizards HC) as an assistant last fall to implement the Princeton offense after an offseason where fans, media and players complained of a lack of offensive creativity.

The Lakers players complained the offense was too confusing and restrictive, so after a 1-4 start to the season, Brown was fired.

He might bring in the Princeton offense to his next position, but it's unlikely as his first 5 years as Head Coach saw greater success preaching defense, fast break and isolation.

The Princeton offense could be utilized here pretty successfully, and I'd actually be okay with bringing in Eddie Jordan for an interview at HC. Though I don't think he'd be much of an upgrade to L Drew.

[Jamaaliver]

But there was also excitement about the implementation of elements from the Princeton offense, a blueprint largely designed by new assistant coach Eddie Jordan

http://espn.go.com/blog/los-angeles/lakers/post/_/id/33226/mike-brown-lakers-excited-about-princeton-offense

[Geaux_Hawks]

Mike Brown is a Princeton offense type of guy. All 3 of the guys you mentioned would thrive in some form or fashion, especially since positions kind of go out the window.

Actually...no. He's not. His time in Cleveland and his first year in LA all relied on traditional isolation basketball utilizing Kobe and Lebron.

He brought in Eddie Jordan (former Wizards HC) as an assistant last fall to implement the Princeton offense after an offseason where fans, media and players complained of a lack of offensive creativity.

The Lakers players complained the offense was too confusing and restrictive, so after a 1-4 start to the season, Brown was fired.

He might bring in the Princeton offense to his next position, but it's unlikely as his first 5 years as Head Coach saw greater success preaching defense, fast break and isolation.

The Princeton offense could be utilized here pretty successfully, and I'd actually be okay with bringing in Eddie Jordan for an interview at HC. Though I don't think he'd be much of an upgrade to L Drew.

He used ISO because there was no reason to utilize a Princeton offense. He said this himself in an article(Currently looking for that article again) talking about why he even decided to go with a Princeton offense with LA, because he didn't have the pieces to run such an offense, which makes sense because outside of Lebron, no one else was really capable of being a threat in that offense other than Big Z as a floor spacing big that could pass.

Seeing as the Princeton offense needs shooters, cutters, and at least one good passing big, you could see why he chose to finally implement the offense this year rather than last year. Nash and Gasol are exactly the type of guys that can thrive in that offense, and Howard provides a nice lob target cutting from the backside.

I'm not saying he is a mastermind of the Princeton, but that he has possibly contemplated on using it before he arrived with the Lakers. To be such a terrible coach, it's kind of funny that Ferry could possibly bring him to coach the team.