In professional sports most careers eventually ends badly. It isn’t the movies where you go off into the sunset a winner. Very few get to enjoy winning consistently in the beginning, middle, and end of a career. Great coaches like Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, and even Mike D’Antoni left their teams on terms that weren’t their own. You always hear people in coaching say that you haven’t coached long enough unless you were fired.
Those words are so true in so many ways. In coaching everyone turns on you at some point. The fans, media, and even your colleagues will turn on you at some point. One day you are bullet proof and indestructible and the next you are a bum that will be thrown out with the rest of the garbage.
The Lakers fired Mike Brown after a 1-4 start. Not even a full season after they hired him to replace Phil Jackson. There are a few points of views for this move by the Lakers. The first is Mike Brown wasn’t the right coach for the job and he was over his head from the start. The other was the Lakers were too impatient and should have given him more time.
Professional sports especially franchises in mega markets are win now situations. There are no excuses that you can use. When a team exceeds $100 million dollars in payroll and has 4 Hall Of Famers on the roster the bar is as high as it’s going to get. Mike Brown started the season slowly and everyone was panicking on an aging roster having a sub par year.
Mike took a chance coming into this year by reshaping his Spurs routes offensive schemes to install the Princeton offense into the Lakers offense. A bold move coming off an underachieving playoff exit a year ago. Especially when the Lakers were built as an up-tempo pick and roll and post up team. Just like most complex systems the team could have picked it up in time, but with expectations high time wasn’t an asset that was on Brown’s side.
Many coaches in all levels make the big mistake of never changing. They get comfortable in a system and tend to revolve their players around their system instead of the other way around. Great coaches understand that they are in a talent business and should play to their player’s strengths instead of making players play in a system that doesn’t necessarily do that.
Mike Brown is an excellent basketball coach. He’s very smart and has a good mind for the game. The Lakers aren’t a perfect team and have some hefty flaws to them. Losing Steve Nash was a tremendous blow to them and as of now can’t even jog after suffering a stress fracture in his leg the first week of the season. Dwight Howard was slow to come back from off season back surgery. Not to mention their aging bench that didn’t have a space creator or scorer on it.
I’m not an excuse guy as they have no purpose in professional sports. You either get the job done or the organization finds someone who can. I think everyone in the game understands this philosophy and should accept it. Anyone who believes that anyone from coaches, players, to front office people will be on top forever are naïve.
In comes veteran coach Mike D’Antoni to save the day for the Lakers. Most people think his style is the closest thing to “Showtime” that the Lakers have had since Pat Riley. The issue here is that this roster is not fit to run that style for 70+ games as well as play-offs. His pick and roll style system is something that Steve Nash is used to and has overachieved with above average players in Phoenix because the system calls for the Ball to be in Nash’s hands a lot.
Nash is the type of guard to make everyone around him better. He knows where to give teammates the ball and when to put them in situations to be successful. The issue that is at hand is that they have two post players that need to have the ball in their hands in Pau Gasol and Dwight Howard. Many people feel that they are the two best post players in the game and that is something they never had in Phoenix. Even with Amare Stoudemire the ball never had to stop in the post.
That isn’t a huge problem as it’s a great one to have. Having two shot makers like Kobe Bryant and Steve Nash in the lineup will be huge for the Lakers. Their bench has players like Antawn Jamison and Jodie Meeks to make shots and provide some scoring off of the bench.
The issue for them will be on the defensive side. Mike D’Antoni has never been known as a defensive minded coach which he needs to be for the Lakers to be successful. Very few teams that make it deep into the playoffs made a living at just outscoring teams. Their needs to be accountability on the other side of the ball for the Lakers to be successful.
There is a lot of excitement for the Lakers to get back to their Championship ways. Mike D’Antoni was the best coach for the job with what was available. His style definitely fits with what the roster is comprised of. The one make or break will be the health of Steve Nash. Nash provides a playmaker that can make plays for others as well as a shot maker that can score points.
Mike Brown will find success again as a coach in the NBA. He will have suitors next season if he chooses to coach again. No one feels bad for him because getting fired is part of the business. As coaches in today’s era make millions of dollars and often get relieved with years and millions left on their deals it is part of the industry. Back in the 70’s and 80’s coaches were different as the money was much different. With TV deals and ratings having much to do with the success of teams coaches are under a much bigger microscope.
If Mike D’Antoni can’t get this Lakers team into the Finals this year the seat will get hotter for him. Like we know this game doesn’t end well for many. The same people that praised him on the way in will not be doing the same on the way out. Like everything else in Los Angeles it will be interesting to say the least and will not lack in the drama department.
