By Joe Manganiello
Everything out of Los Angeles through Thursday was an effort to calm the masses. They had won just one game dating as far back as May 18. They dropped games four and five in second round of the playoffs against the Thunder, then lost every preseason game this fall and began the regular season 1-4. But tinseltown was going to be okay if they stuck to the plan and gave their well-respected, veteran head coach, Mike Brown, a chance to work with his team. That is what the players, the owner, EVERYBODY in the Lakers was preaching this message: “Do not panic.”
At some point on Friday, however, management decided to scrap that idea, as around lunch time on Friday, Brown was out in Los Angeles. The 100 million dollar Lakers’ roster was suddenly coach-less hours before their game against the Golden State Warriors.
Describing the move as an overreaction would say that it was like most overreactions, therefore insulting them. This move was much more than that: the move was about as abrupt as throwing out the leftover Thanksgiving Day turkey on Saturday; the firing was as heavy handed as an actual giant’s hand. Letting Mike Brown go after five games will go down in the books as not a reaction at all, but a pre-determined stance that was really decided on months before.
If it was not premeditated, at the very least, the Lakers front office knew this firing was a possibility as early as July. The Lakers have a key nucleus of players (Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Metta World Peace) that won championships under a different coach, and in only its second season under a new coach in a totally different system were suddenly asked to make room for the most prolific point guard of the era (Steve Nash), the most highly decorated center the league has had since Shaquille O’Neal in his prime (Dwight Howard) and a pro’s pro, offensive-weapon with more experience than 95 percent of the players in the league (Antwan Jamison).
This team was not going to have it figured out five games into the season. Through the preseason and the team’s five regular season games, they barely had the starting lineup on the court together. The “fantasy lineup” of Nash/Bryant/World Peace/Gasol/Howard played a grand total of 45 minutes together the first five games. Yes, 45 minutes. That’s it. Yet it’s “Brown’s fault” the team started off slow.
What is stopping the Buss family from firing Dwight’s ailing back or Nash’s bothersome leg or Kobe’s foot or Gasol’s sub-par field-goal percentage or World Peace’s troubling habit of shooting bad jump shots or Jamison’s reluctancy to assert himself into the offensive rotation or the horrid bench options that GM Mitch Kupchak attached to the seven through twelve spots of the roster with silly glue or the ridiculous and unrealistic goals of the Lakers fan base? What are the Lakers to do with those issues? Is a new coach going to fix all of that in his first five games? I guess he better.
Painting a scapegoat out of Mike Brown was the easiest decision the Lakers could have made. Brown is already the coach that failed to win LeBron a championship in Cleveland. Brown now exits Los Angeles as an almost un-hirable, laughing stock; a man who has been run out of town in two “dream job” situations. He could not lead LeBron to a finals victory and he could not even get Kobe back to the finals. What a “loser.”
But how unfair is that to put on Brown? Those Cleveland teams sucked and absolutely overachieved, in large part to Brown’s defensive wonders and, yes, LeBron’s play. But Brown managed LeBron and coached him up; LeBron does not lead back-to-back 60+ win teams if they are coached by Keith Smart or Kurt Rambis or even Eric Spoelstra.
Finally, if Brown was so wrong for Los Angeles, then why did they hire him at all? Maybe this move was doomed from the start. Kupchak asked a man who runs a Princeton-style offense coming off years with a Cavs team that was nothing like the Lakers roster to follow the act of the greatest head coach in professional sports history and follow that great coach’s famous triangle scheme that functions in no familiar way to the Princeton offense. Brown was asked to perform magic and is not a magician. He is simply a basketball coach and a damn good one.
Whether the Buss family, Kupchuk, the players and whomever takes over as the new head coach are ready for it, the playoffs will begin in late-April. They’ll need some luck. Just ask Mike Brown.
Casey says
“LeBron does not lead back-to-back 60+ win teams if they are coached by Keith Smart or Kurt Rambis or even Eric Spoelstra…” HELMET STICKER!
Alternative title for this piece: Brown not sexy enough for casual Laker fans
Rey says
Scapegoat is perfect for this situation. I agree with, Joe – Brown was never the right hire in the first place and now they’ve made him the reason for the Lakers’ woes. I hate this whole coaching carousel thing, though sometimes it needs to be done because as the old cliche sometimes rings true, “the coach has lost the locker room.” Don’t know if that’s the case here, but still.
All this talk of the offense – are the Lakers defending well? They are in the middle of the league right now in scoring against; thought Howard was supposed to have a bigger impact than that.
Phil Jackson? C’mon, please don’t.
Smitty says
Apparently they are so desperate for Phil Jackson to coach them, that the Lakers are willing to initiate a new work from home program for Jackson. Limited travel? Restrictions around his coaching? Phil – it is called retirement. What will happen on the road – he is going to coach from his office via a headset?
Rey is right. Brown was never a good pick for the Lakers and the Princeton offense wasn’t the right choice for this roster. Nash is great off the pick n roll and wants to run. Why trade for him if you are going to start having him run a structured offense? Kobe likes to take games over more then Bobby Valentine likes to take over conversations.
Honestly Mike D’Antoni would be a better choice at this point than Jackson.