Kobe's death stare to Mike Brown

[Real Deal]

Going to be honest here...I'm starting to realize why LeBron James shoulder-blocked Mike Brown back in Cleveland, as he was walking back to the bench.

 

http://cjzero.com/gifs/KobeStaresBrown.gif

 

Thing is, this is LA. Starting 1-4 with a Lakers team that should be dominant means you're suddenly on the NBA coaching levels of Mike Montgomery and John Calipari.

[NomarFachix]

Is it Mike Brown's fault that Kobe had 6 turnovers, bench shot a combined 4 for 15 (27%), Metta/Pau/Blake went 7 for 31 (23%)? He's in charge of scheme, yes, but is it his fault that the players aren't making shots or showing effort on the defensive end? That grandfather Nash, who was supposed to orchestrate the whole thing, has been missing (even when he's been playing)?

 

Blaming Brown is weak, especially from Kobe. This is on the players first and foremost.

[Sħãlïq™]

"I'm shaking in my Nikes"- a sarcastic Kobe Bryant on whether the Lakers are worried about their early season struggles.

@SportsCenter

[JYD]

I've said from day 1 I think Mike Brown is a mediocre Coach at best. I don't think he's a good fit for this L.A. team. And I don't understand the entire 'Princeton Offense' philosophy.

 

But, the team plays with virtually no emotion or care from the little I've seen.

[ChosenOne]

Mike is a good defensive coach but a below average offensively. With that said this Lakers team still should get it done. No excuses for a team with Kobe, Dwight, Gasol, and even Jamison to lose.

 

If I'm not mistaking they also have had more turnovers than their opponent ever game this year. And I'm talking by only one or two I'm say 5+.

[Check my Stats]

Mike Brown would be the perfect assistant. He was a brutal hire even before this team was stacked. Mike Brown is not going to coach a team to an NBA championship. Its just that simple. Its not 'weak' to blame him. Just watch the offense run of all the teams he has ever coached. Its pathetic to watch really.

[Nitro]

And I don't understand the entire 'Princeton Offense' philosophy.

 

It's not too far off from the triangle. The issue with that offense for this specific team is it basically nullifies most of Nash's abilities, and without him performing at a high level I can't see this team beating Miami, and they will have a very tough time getting through the likes of OKC, SA and LAC.

[Real Deal]

Is it Mike Brown's fault that Kobe had 6 turnovers, bench shot a combined 4 for 15 (27%), Metta/Pau/Blake went 7 for 31 (23%)? He's in charge of scheme, yes, but is it his fault that the players aren't making shots or showing effort on the defensive end? That grandfather Nash, who was supposed to orchestrate the whole thing, has been missing (even when he's been playing)?

 

Blaming Brown is weak, especially from Kobe. This is on the players first and foremost.

Kobe was shooting 60+ percent before last night's game against Utah, didn't have a single bad game, yet we were 1-3.

 

In fact, our offense is ranked 7th right now. Our defense? It's 25th.

 

Guess who is backing up Kobe as the two-guard? Ron Artest, who is starting at the three. Jodie Meeks isn't playing, for some reason.

 

Jamison is seeing a ton of minutes as the backup SF, where he's getting roasted on the defensive end.

 

Brown actually went with a lineup of Sacre, Hill, Jamison, Ebanks and Morris the other night, start of the fourth quarter. No starters, three D-Leaguers...and when the Pistons went on an 8-0 run and cut the lead to 24 points...Brown panicked and put all of the starters back in.

 

All of last year, Steve Blake was playing a lot of SG.

 

Brown is horrible. Give him a team with one dominant superstar, and he will ask John Kuester to call ISO's all night long, and rely on their athletic ability to play defense. Give him a team with four star players (two superstars, one franchise player, one all-star), that's up there in age, and he has no idea what rotations to send out, how to funnel players to Dwight, and how long he should play our starters before pulling them out of the game.

[Real Deal]

http://i.imgur.com/17Zf0.gif

[ChosenOne]

http://i.imgur.com/17Zf0.gif

 

Hahaha that's awesome!

[Real Deal]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKo1Y2UDrcU

 

He destroys Jim Buss and Mike Brown.

 

Noticed he was wrong about the offensive and defensive rankings (maybe he didn't have the new numbers, or he wasn't using ORtg and DRtg, per 100 possessions).

[NomarFachix]

In fact, our offense is ranked 7th right now. Our defense? It's 25th.

So then how is it Mike Brown's fault? He had their inferiorly assembled team playing better defense last year. Dwight hasn't been as big of a factor on defense as they'd hoped, Nash is a turnstile (when he's played).. but it's on Brown and not the players that nobody wants to show effort on D?

 

I think Laker fans are just taking the easy route here. It is, at worst, equally on the players as it is on the coach, and I wouldn't even be so generous. This was supposed to be an all-world team that coasted to the finals, there is no chance a coach turns them from that into a 1-4 club.

 

Compounds matters that the bench right now could be league worst.

[Real Deal]

So then how is it Mike Brown's fault? He had their inferiorly assembled team playing better defense last year. Dwight hasn't been as big of a factor on defense as they'd hoped, Nash is a turnstile (when he's played).. but it's on Brown and not the players that nobody wants to show effort on D?

 

I think Laker fans are just taking the easy route here. It is, at worst, equally on the players as it is on the coach, and I wouldn't even be so generous. This was supposed to be an all-world team that coasted to the finals, there is no chance a coach turns them from that into a 1-4 club.

 

Compounds matters that the bench right now could be league worst.

Was there a difference between Mike D'Antoni and Mike Woodson?

 

Last year's team was far different, and it kept most of its defensive schemes from 2010-11, possibly because of Andrew Bynum, to adjust to his inability to recover quickly. We had Kobe and Ron roaming all over the place, and it took a lot out of them every single game, and you could see it by 40 games in. Kobe's offense took a hit, and I don't have to tell you about Ron...at one point, all he was doing was spotting up and jogging back down the court (his injury played a part in that as well, but once he was healthy, he was doing the same exact thing).

 

Nash and Fisher are both bad defensive players. Fisher wasn't THAT bad a few years ago, but before he was dealt, he was horrible. Gasol is still Gasol. Instead of Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy, we have Antawn Jamison off the bench...and none of them play defense, especially Murphy.

 

The effort is there, also. The Lakers are trying to win games, especially on defense. It's just that it's not working, and our players are sending their assignments to inactive sides of the basket, the pick and roll defense is as bad as it has ever been (even with Howard), and Brown's rotations are absolutely killing us.

 

In fact, most of that is on Brown's rotations. How do you play a five-man roster without Kobe, Dwight, Artest, or even Gasol? At least Gasol has length to contest shots. Robert Sacre should be in a suit. Darius Morris should be in a suit. Jamison should NEVER play the three. Jodie Meeks should be playing.

 

In addition to that, all five of our starters (four veterans, and one superstar recovering from a back surgery) played 36+ minutes last night...against the Utah Jazz. Last season, Kobe averaged 39 MPG, up from the 34 MPG the previous year, after saying that he needed the rest.

 

All things point to Brown. If we raked in someone like Jerry Sloan, who would run P&R more, know how to rest starters, and know exactly who should be coming off the bench and in what positions...we wouldn't be 1-4. Not a chance.

[NomarFachix]

Was there a difference between Mike D'Antoni and Mike Woodson?

Yes, Mike D had players added to his team who couldn't and wouldn't run his system. You kept saying this offseason that the Princeton was perfect for this team. Not that same.

 

Mike D also never claimed to run a high defensive system, whereas Mike Brown is known as a top defensive guy year in and year out.. yet this lackluster group isn't playing any. I wouldn't look to the guy on the sidelines.

[Real Deal]

Yes, Mike D had players added to his team who couldn't and wouldn't run his system. You kept saying this offseason that the Princeton was perfect for this team. Not that same.

 

Mike D also never claimed to run a high defensive system, whereas Mike Brown is known as a top defensive guy year in and year out.. yet this lackluster group isn't playing any. I wouldn't look to the guy on the sidelines.

The Princeton can be perfect, once we learn it. Unfortunately, Nash is out...yet, we're still 7th, so I'm fine with that.

 

The 2005 Cavaliers (with Silas) were ranked 12th, defensively. Brown took over the following year, and they were 14th. Varejao became a defensive monster, one of the most underrated in the league for years, and they rose to 4th and went to the Finals. He missed half a season the next year, and they fell back down to the middle of the league in defense.

 

Phil's Lakers were ranked higher, defensively in 2008, 2009 and 2010...than Brown's Lakers in 2011 (last season). That's Phil Jackson, the same guy who said the best defense is a great offense. Mastermind of the triangle, incredible ego-manager, not a great defensive coach.

 

Mike Brown is not Larry Brown. He's not Thibodeau.

 

What has happened is simple: Brown is losing his players. He isn't teaching the offense (Eddie Jordan is), he's not teaching defense, and he's wanting them to play 36+ minutes a night, even against piss-poor teams like Utah, and he started to panic after an 0-8 preseason that was very similar to our winless record in 2009-2010 (when we won it all). He panicked when we lost a 32-point lead, down to 24 points, and asked all starters to come back into the game. He ASKS if players want to go back into the game (this is according to a sideline reporter and Mike Breen).

 

All you're doing is telling me it's the players. Brown isn't coaching this team like a solid coach would. He's intimidated, he has no idea how to run an offense, and furthermore, he is clueless about our bench. If he would play Jamison at the four, bring in Meeks and play him (he's our best shooter, aside from Nash, and he hasn't played in the last two games at all), and adjusted lineups so our second unit had stability from at least a couple of our starters, we would be fine...instead of panicking and playing our starting five together for most of the game.

 

You're right in saying he shouldn't be losing games with a team like this. That's the point. Are you saying that coaches can't be the main source of chemistry issues? If this team wanted to play to win, instead of run what Brown tells them to, it wouldn't be this way. They completely broke character in the Detroit game, and they were up by nearly 40 points.

 

We are 5th in FG%, 4th in rebounding, 1st in free throw attempts, 7th in points, 8th in steals...and yet, we are 25th back on total defense. I'm trying to figure out where effort comes into play. A team with defensively-talented players doesn't play as hard as they can on offense, then take off the entire night defensively.

 

http://hardwoodparoxysm.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/mikeborwnwhat_1.gif

 

http://i.imgur.com/lzsH3.gif

 

This is all he does on the sidelines, dude. All of this is why almost every Laker fan out there is calling for his head.

[Real Deal]

The only blame I can lay on the players would be for their turnovers, but that's due to the new offense. I don't know how many times I've seen us throw passes to players that run the other direction, or that decide to post instead of cut. But a lot of times, those passes aren't igniting fast breaks. They go out of bounds, or end up in the frontcourt, and LA gets back on the defensive end.

[NomarFachix]

lol, ok.

[TheNotoriousBANG]

I hate Mike Brown's rotation, he goes from playing guys one game to completely not playing them another (Jodie Meeks)

he did this all last year.

 

Terrible at building young players

Terrible at team chemistry

 

The fact that the Cavs made the Finals with him as a coach shows really how good LeBron James is.

 

Like i said a million times over, their's only one man that Mike Brown can thank for getting any HEAD coaching job in the NBA

 

LBJ

 

 

SHITTTTT Whoopi Goldberg from that god awful movie could coach this team to a better record

Edited November 8, 2012 by TheNotoriousBANG

[Lemon]

^I agree

 

I have a problem with how Mike Brown is dealing with rotation and the bench. He literally has all the weapons for a successful bench, but it's not working out for him. Going from Phil to Mike is a huge gap, and I really took PJ for granted. They're polar opposites. Where PJ didn't really care to develop youth, Mike Brown insists on playing Darius Miles when Duhon has been playing well and motivated. PJ let the bench play their own offense instead of forcing the triangle on Jordan Farmar. Mike Brown continues to play the Princeton with the bench even though the results are dreadful.

 

The starters will figure it out, though. They really don't need a coach. Maybe Pau needs a motivator, but that's it.

[Real Deal]

When we focus defensively, we lose it back on offense, because our guys are getting way too tired. Vice-versa when we try to run our offense like we do, everyone moving constantly, Brown not pulling starters when he should.

 

I'll dive into the game from last night, specifically that game. We set out to dominate the Jazz defensively. We shot under 34% back on offense, and a pathetic 4-23 from the three. Also had 18 or 19 turnovers. We did hold Utah to under 45% shooting (near their season average), under their season average of 97 PPG, well under their 3PT average...and, well, he still didn't get it done because two things happened:

 

1) We ran the Princeton far too much

2) We played our starters far too much together, and overall bad rotations

 

Kobe - 37:17

Artest - 37:12

Howard - 37:01

Gasol - 36:23

Blake - 36:04

------------------

Hill - 22:36

Jamison - 13:48

Morris - 11:56

Ebanks - 7:43

Meeks - DNP

Clark - DNP

Duhon - DNP

Sacre - DNP

 

Just...no.

[Nitro]

To put this all on Mike Brown is silly. This is a new offense, mostly new roster, their (All-Star) PG is out, and Howard still isn't anywhere near 100%. The Heat had the best player in the league, the 2nd/3rd best player in the league and another top 15 player, all in their primes, and it still took 20 games for them just to get past .500. Mike Brown is NOT a good coach, and I question a lot of his decisions, but this level of talent can and should carry you in the regular season. You can hire a WNBA edition Barbie doll as coach and this team should still win 50+ games. Right now they are banged up and it's a totally new team and system which will not be what it could be until they have time to mesh and get everyone healthy. Give it time and see how they adapt to Brown's vision before making any conclusive statements.

[Real Deal]

To put this all on Mike Brown is silly. This is a new offense, mostly new roster, their (All-Star) PG is out, and Howard still isn't anywhere near 100%. The Heat had the best player in the league, the 2nd/3rd best player in the league and another top 15 player, all in their primes, and it still took 20 games for them just to get past .500. Mike Brown is NOT a good coach, and I question a lot of his decisions, but this level of talent can and should carry you in the regular season. You can hire a WNBA edition Barbie doll as coach and this team should still win 50+ games. Right now they are banged up and it's a totally new team and system which will not be what it could be until they have time to mesh and get everyone healthy. Give it time and see how they adapt to Brown's vision before making any conclusive statements.

If Lakers fans are basing it all on just wins and losses, then they have no room to gripe, because they didn't see that Heat team from 2010 (who started out 9-8, or something, before running off a 30-1 record...may not the exact numbers, but it was near that).

 

I'm just simply pointing out what Brown is doing wrong...and there are a lot of things. Eddie Jordan is doing more talking during timeouts (like we saw with Kuester in Cleveland), Brown's rotations are horrific, he's declining to play a player that was brought in to give Kobe rest, and he and Jordan are pushing the Lakers to stick with running the Princeton no matter what the score is, and that's incredibly ignorant.

 

Lakers fans know it's championship or bust. That's all we care about. Getting to the WCF's isn't enough. Kobe is near retirement, and we need one ring to catch up to Boston...that's all that runs through our heads. They may be high expectations, and I hope nobody expected us to go undefeated in the preseason and up to this point, but we are losing games because of fatigue and the offense being shoved down our throats, and the majority of that is on Brown and Jordan.

[Nitro]

I'm just simply pointing out what Brown is doing wrong...and there are a lot of things. Eddie Jordan is doing more talking during timeouts (like we saw with Kuester in Cleveland), Brown's rotations are horrific, he's declining to play a player that was brought in to give Kobe rest, and he and Jordan are pushing the Lakers to stick with running the Princeton no matter what the score is, and that's incredibly ignorant.

 

My point is that Spo did a lot of things wrong early on as well, and also did things right that looked wrong, but as the team developed they turned out to be smart decisions. The Princeton offense could turn out to be a good thing...it's not much different than the triangle, but as you know that takes a while to develop. With Nash I question it's effectiveness, but with him out it can definitely make this team dangerous, and when he comes back they will have a system which they can fit Steve into, along with occasionally breaking it off for Nash/Howard PnR's and Kobe/Howard iso's. But in order to get to the point where they have an effective, fluid offense there will be some bad growing pains. It will be worth the slow start if it starts to really kick into geat around January, and then be well-oiled for the playoffs.

[JYD]

It's not too far off from the triangle. The issue with that offense for this specific team is it basically nullifies most of Nash's abilities, and without him performing at a high level I can't see this team beating Miami, and they will have a very tough time getting through the likes of OKC, SA and LAC.

My Dad was saying they had Nash primarily playing off the ball when he was watching one of the Lakers games a week or two ago before Nash got hurt. Is that true? I really have not watched much of them.

[Lkr]

My point is that Spo did a lot of things wrong early on as well, and also did things right that looked wrong, but as the team developed they turned out to be smart decisions. The Princeton offense could turn out to be a good thing...it's not much different than the triangle, but as you know that takes a while to develop. With Nash I question it's effectiveness, but with him out it can definitely make this team dangerous, and when he comes back they will have a system which they can fit Steve into, along with occasionally breaking it off for Nash/Howard PnR's and Kobe/Howard iso's. But in order to get to the point where they have an effective, fluid offense there will be some bad growing pains. It will be worth the slow start if it starts to really kick into geat around January, and then be well-oiled for the playoffs.

Mike Brown has also been around a lot longer than Spo. Spo overperformed with some Miami teams before LBJ/Bosh showed up, and it did take him a year to get them all on the same page(for any other team, making the Finals would have been a good accomplishment in one year). Mike Brown simply isn't a good coach, and it isn't like he is going to immediately get better after 5+ years of being a head coach.

 

I wonder why Sacre doesn't get any minutes. The guy put up decent numbers in the preseason, and it is better to play him 5-7 mins a game and give Pau or Dwight some rest