Mike Brown Isn't Bad

[nbaintel1]

1. Bynum and Gasol never worked together. It didn't work in the Phil Jackson era either. We didn't win 2 rings because Bynum and Gasol dominated. We won 2 rings because of Kobe and the fact that we just had more talent.

2. We were swept by a Mavs team in Phil Jackson's last year which in my opinion, was not as good as last year's OKC team we played.

3. We were a Kobe turnover and a few Kobe makes away from beating OKC. OKC was the best team in the regular season.

4. We had no training camp.

5. We had no bench.

6. We had no shooters.

7. Our starting lineup didn't fit together skill wise.

8. Did you really think that Phil Jackson would have gotten us past OKC or even the Spurs?

9. Mike Brown did an amazing job with the Cavs. He got the most out of what they had. His second best player was Mo Williams. If not for Lebron quitting against the Celtics, they would have had a ring.

/puts flamesuit on and prepared to be bombarded by Mike Brown haters.

[kobesmyhomie]

I kinda agree. I don't like mike brown but he gets way too much of the blame. I mean at some point during last season we had guys like darius morris, jason kapono, and troy murphy coming off the bench.

[Matt6288]

I never understood why everyone was hating on him so much, he's a pretty good coach and he did get us to the second round of the playoffs and we finished with the 3rd best record in the west with one of the worst benches in NBA history......so yea I like him

[EArl]

Coke is a hellavu drug...
Mike Brown is an average coach in my opinion.

[swag2011]

yup he's an average coach. My problem is that he really didn't make any adjustments. The series against Denver should've been over in 5 games. But once Kobe got hot and we caught up, Andre Miller kept killing us. Why? Because Mike Brown INSISTED on keeping Steve Blake on him. Miller wasn't even doing anything fancy, but it was just so easy to go against Steve Blake and they just kept giving Miller the ball, and each time he scored on Blake.

Not to mention the horrible 2 PG line up. Wow.

[Stebo_SSK]

yup he's an average coach. My problem is that he really didn't make any adjustments. The series against Denver should've been over in 5 games. But once Kobe got hot and we caught up, Andre Miller kept killing us. Why? Because Mike Brown INSISTED on keeping Steve Blake on him. Miller wasn't even doing anything fancy, but it was just so easy to go against Steve Blake and they just kept giving Miller the ball, and each time he scored on Blake.

Not to mention the horrible 2 PG line up. Wow.

What would you suggest? The jury is still out on Brown but this whole thing he didnt make adjustments is just ESPN talk. If he didnt put Steve Blake on Dre Miller who would they move him to guard? Afflalo? Lawson? lol...The problem with our lineup against that team is that they ran a 2 PG lineup alot also and Sessions was our other defender. In the end it was a lose lose situation where I bigs should have stepped up on defense in the interior but then again we have Bynum down low.

[supaflash]

Well Phil was checked out that last season and you could see it plain as day and it let the team slip in a lot of areas. That combined with Pau disappearing and the Mavs hitting their stride at just the right time did us in good. It was strange though, first collapse against OKC reminded me of game one against Dallas and you could almost feel the same thing coming after it happened. But I do agree we were not far off from beating OKC this year.

Mike Brown is a good coach... for most aspects. I think he prepares well, our game plans going in to games were usually pretty solid. I've heard and seen that he is a big film watcher and detail guy. He also got us to play much better defense. I always hated Phil's defensive philosophies and schemes. If we would have played D like last year in 08 and 11 we might have 4 in a row. MB is not a good in game adjuster (and for all his legacy neither was Phil usually)

Offensively was his obvious shortcoming, it was painful to watch at times, as was Cleveland in the past. Makes me wish we had him as a defensive coach under Phil and kept the triangle. That said though considering how awful our bench was and how bad our shooting was, we did quite an amazing job. Barnes and Sessions dissapeared against OKC and we were STILL in every game. Imagine if we had a few role players that would have been consistent.

It makes me excited for this year. A training camp. My first and 3rd favorite players now on the same team. Nash should help with the offense and in game adjustments... and we might finally have a legit consistent bench. Color me ecstatic.

[Stebo_SSK]

I wouldnt even say offense is his shortcoming. Its hard to run an offense when you dont have a real point guard. The Lakers switched to a new system but didnt have the players that fit it but still were competitive. His defense made a world of difference.

[77CSUN77]

Because he dose not know the rotation and can't control the players such as Bynum and others. Don't get me wrong, he seems good guy and has a nice personality and I wish him best, but sometimes I've been wondered if his main offense strategy is Iso for Kobe. At this points, I'm kind of worried how Mike Brown will run his offense with Nash

[SashAlex]

In my opinion, Mike Brown did well last season, but he still remains an average coach. Good defensive coach and bad offensive coach, if offensive at all.

An average coach does well with this team, even with a bad bench. A very good or great coach would do wonders even with the assets the Lakers got. What I mean ? A better regular season, a higher spot and a easier road in the playofs.

Dallas swept us with Phil with 3 out of 4 games being close. Plus Kobe didn't have knees, everyone else didn't care so much and Dallas having a great team that bombed us with threes. We had more talent in 2010 and 2009 and Phil. Had we had a coach like Brown, we wouldn't win.

[stunnar0b]

He alright.. ill say this much, there were numorius times where mike brown was left scratching his head wondering what the hell was kobe doing. for example game 1 vs bulls up 7 or 10 ponits with not even a min remaining and we ended up losing. tell me that wasnt all on kobe

[Kilroy]

Mike Brown isn't terrible... He's not great either.
Certainly no Phil Jackson.

But then again, there aren't any Phil Jackson's out there right now. The next Phil Jackson might be Kobe or Fisher.

I think Sloan is done. Larry Brown lost his Mojo years ago. And are they really a whole lot better than MB? Maybe, but maybe not enough to justify the added expense.

This season is when Mike Brown succeeds or fails. We've improved the team for him, but we've made it necessary for him to adapt. If he fails to adapt to the personnel he has now, he should be fired. If he does and we're more successful than last year, maybe he earns himself some more time.

But if we get Dwight, the only thing that saves his job is winning a championship provided Nash, Pau, Kobe, and Dwight are healthy enough to play in the finals.

[Sofa King]

He ain't good either

[chefy]

hes not bad but his main weakness imo is he don't know how to handle star players. our offense was sooooooooo predictable and for a coach who's known to be a defensive specialist, we didn't do good in that department either.


ohh and a team with kobe,bynum,gasol at least would guarantee you a 2nd round appearance so I'm not even surprised about that.

[Matt6288]

Lets just see how he does this season with Nash, Kobe, Pau and Bynum/Howard If he doesn't kick ass with that then yea he's crap.

[Beethoven]

1. Bynum and Gasol never worked together. It didn't work in the Phil Jackson era either. We didn't win 2 rings because Bynum and Gasol dominated. We won 2 rings because of Kobe and the fact that we just had more talent.

2. We were swept by a Mavs team in Phil Jackson's last year which in my opinion, was not as good as last year's OKC team we played.

3. We were a Kobe turnover and a few Kobe makes away from beating OKC. OKC was the best team in the regular season.

4. We had no training camp.

5. We had no bench.

6. We had no shooters.

7. Our starting lineup didn't fit together skill wise.

8. Did you really think that Phil Jackson would have gotten us past OKC or even the Spurs?

9. Mike Brown did an amazing job with the Cavs. He got the most out of what they had. His second best player was Mo Williams. If not for Lebron quitting against the Celtics, they would have had a ring.

/puts flamesuit on and prepared to be bombarded by Mike Brown haters.

I agree Mike Brown is not bad, but this is my refutation to the above points..


1 MB should have reviewed and analyzed the wrong goings-on in the previous playoffs and had a competent staff and many weeks prior to start of reg season to see the Relation to ..Bynum+Pau = no work and Pau - Bynum = better work , like in previous seasons. I am sure Jackson or some other coach Adelman, could have figured that perhaps. Not sure.

2 I consider both playoff runs equal in its failures. I think again there should have been a better adjustment to the second year but also Dallas was a veteran championship team that we underestimated and I would assume did not really prepare as much as for ..okc which I am sure we were supposed to be gearing up for because everyone knew we would be evenutally meeting them.

3 We were a couple of turnovers away from beating the team. Sure. But even considering we dont turnover, it doesnt guarantee a win. People say if Trevor ariza didnt steal the ball in the last minute of Denver possession in 09, Denver would have won. Really? We were up by 4 points and had about a minute left. There is no guarantee.
Remember the statistic (somewhere) that most playoff games are determined by only an avg of ~4 points or so. That is a couple of possessions.

4 No training camp excuse is a wash because everyone had no training camp. Correct me if I am wrong? Not really sure here.

5 Playoff rotation amounts to only ~8 players usually. Miami only played Norris Cole, Haslem, Miller, Battier, Bosh, James, Wade, Chalmers for most minutes.
In 2010 we played only Odom, Fisher, Kobe, Pau, half legged Bynum, MWP, and I think that is it?

6 Yes we had relatively no shooters, but Blake shot reasonably well, and if you look at the shooting percentages there is no real big drop off in our shooting and other playoff team shooting. and some of it is in the offensive schemes...which also comes to coaching.

7
Not sure how to answer this.

8 Imo, jackson could have won the closer games for us in OKC. again , I say no guarantee, but better chance with Jackson in close games.
Also, the team has better confidence? if the coach is someoen they believe in? Not sure, but this can be a factor too. Mentality.

9
He did an amazing job there.

[BosssPlaya]

Last year MB got the benefit of the doubt because of the lockout and very short training camp and 2 preseason games and wasnt really able to impliment the new "offence" and find a good rotation.

Even with all that, we were a few plays / execusions away from being up 3-1 instead of being down 1-3 against the Thunder.

This year, he has a full offseason to install the offence that he wants to and 8 preseason games to more or less figure out the rotations.

IMO, using both Bynum & Gasol on the floor too often messes up their games. I think they should both start, but for the most part the font court should be the combo of Bynum/Jamison (Jamison enbles Bynum to be more aggressive and have more area to play in, and Jamison is good from outside, so he would definitly draw a defender) and then the combo of Gasol/Hill (Gasol goes back to his low post position where he's good with foot work, has hook shots from both sides, a good midrange J and awesome passing for a big. JcHill would be the cleanup / hustle man considering Gasol becomes Gasoft sometimes. Im not saying dont play Bynum & Gasol @ all together.. but just maybe 12 minutes a game (& during critical stretches of games) but for the most part:

Bynum - Gasol - Sacre
Jamison - Hill - McRoberts
Metta - Ebanks? - Eyenga
Kobe - ?FA? - Goudelock
Nash - Blake - Morris - DJO

Either way, for MB this year its FINALS OR BUST !!

[Beethoven]

We should never play Pau and Bynum together. Never.

[desertlakerfan]

His only saving grace is that he had no training camp and there were very few practices during the regular season. That gives him one more season to prove he's capable of coaching a franchise like the Lakers, one more let down like last year and he's done.

With that being said we still weren't that far off from representing the west in the Finals last year and possibly winning it. Our main problems were lack of depth and no reliable outside shooting, neither of which were the coaches fault. We've done a great job fixing those issues so far this offseason, if we can get one more shooter to backup Kobe I think we'll be ready to win it all even with Brown at the helm.

[Gek]

Mike brown isn't good at in game adjustments, think he needs to plan it out first, but his long term coaching is pretty good. Currently a current nba average level coach, has some potential still though.