*Originally published on Yahoo! Contributor Network in 2012.
From 1999-2011, Phil Jackson coached the Los Angeles Lakers for 11 of 12 seasons. His teams won 5 NBA Championships in 7 Finals appearances during that span. With that said, Lakers’ personnel, media, and fans have set the highest of standards at which to evaluate new head coach Mike Brown.
From 1999-2011, Phil Jackson coached the Los Angeles Lakers for 11 of 12 seasons. His teams won 5 NBA Championships in 7 Finals appearances during that span. With that said, Lakers’ personnel, media, and fans have set the highest of standards at which to evaluate new head coach Mike Brown.
To his credit, Brown has a strong track record. After rising up the ranks as an assistant coach under Bernie Bickerstaff, Gregg Popovich, and Rick Carlisle, Brown spent 5 seasons as the head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Each season, the Cavaliers advanced to at least the second round of the playoffs. The Cavs were eliminated by either the NBA champions or the Finals runners-up in 4 of 5 appearances, including a sweep at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs in the 2007 Finals.
With much criticism and skepticism surrounding Brown’s hiring, there are four main areas of the Lakers’ performance to evaluate going forward: defense, offense, management of star talent, and number of NBA championships won.
Defense: Brown is regarded as one of the best defensive minds in today’s NBA. His defensive philosophy is based upon a ‘misdirection’ approach. Rather than looking to force turnovers, Brown’s defensive system asks his players to defend the ball and force either tough, time-consuming crosscourt passing or tough, questionable shot selection by the opposing offense. The defense builds on this by limiting opponents’ second-chance scoring opportunities through effective defensive rebounding. In Cleveland, Brown’s teams ranked no less than 8th in the league in defensive rebounding percentage, including ranking 2nd 3 times (2006-2008; 2009-2010).
As Jackson ran a more traditional man-to-man rotation defense, it will probably take a few months to integrate Brown’s system. In fact, Brown’s Cavs had a modest defensive performance in his first season there, ranking 10th in points allowed per game (95.4), 14th in defensive efficiency (105.4), 18th in opposing field goal percentage, 14th in opposing three-point percentage, and 10th in opposing three-pointers made. However, the team improved in all of these categories over the next four years, including leading the league in fewest points allowed per game in 2008-2009 (91.4), twice ranking in the top 3 in opponent’s field goal percentage (2008-2010), twice leading the league in lowest opposing three-point field goal percentage (2006-2007; 2008-2009) and three times ranking in the top 6 in defensive efficiency (2006-2007, 2008-2010).
After 8 games in 2011-2012, the Lakers rank 8th in points allowed per game (91.9) and 12th in defensive efficiency (100.9). In comparison, the Lakers were a top 6 team in defensive efficiency in each of the last 4 seasons. However, the Lakers have already moved up to 8th in defensive rebounding percentage this season after ranking 22nd last season. Furthermore, the Lakers rank 2nd in opponents’ field goal percentage.
Offense: Brown and lead assistant coach John Kuester will have their work cut out for them in trying to match the productivity of Jackson’s/Tex Winter’s triangle offense. The triangle offense is renowned for its ability to help with floor spacing and movement, with effective passing replacing the need for lots of dribbling. With the triangle offense, Jackson was able to eliminate the Lakers’ need for a top-ranked traditional point guard, with Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, and Lamar Odom primarily starting the offensive sets over the past few years.
Under Jackson, the Lakers had one of the most efficient offenses in the NBA. As recently as 2007-2009, the Lakers ranked 3rd in offensive efficiency, which included ranking 3rd and 4th in field goal percentage in those two seasons. However, Jackson had slowed the team’s pace down over the past couple years to accommodate the roster’s declining foot speed, which matches Brown’s overall offensive philosophy of steady half-court sets. While Jackson’s Lakers ranked 21st in pacing last year at 90.7 possessions per game, Brown’s Cavaliers ranked anywhere from 18th through 25th in pacing—with an average of 90.2 possessions per game. Fastbreak scoring was not critical to Jackson’s offense and is not critical to Brown’s offense. While the Lakers ranked an average of 20th over the past 4 years in fastbreak points per game (11.2), the Cavs ranked an average of 16th over Brown’s 5 seasons at the helm (12.2).
In the offseason, Brown, Kuester, and the other Lakers’ coaches reviewed hours and hours of game footage in order to help them understand individual players’ strengths and weaknesses. In turn, they will use this understanding to help place players in optimal positions and situations as much as possible. This will include some offensive sets based on the triangle offense. As it stands, the Lakers remain an effective offensive rebounding club with Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum leading the post players. While the Lakers’ overall field goal percentage has improved this year (from 11th to 8th), their three-point percentage remains low due to switching from the triangle offense—dropping from 17th last season to 28th this season. It will be interesting to see how the Lakers adjust to Brown’s and Kuester’s offensive playcalling in the months and years ahead.
Management of Star Talent: Over the years, the Lakers have always had a number of stars and superstars. In the past 12 seasons, there have been two main superstar talents for the Lakers’ franchise: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. After a well-publicized dispute, the franchise retained Bryant as the team’s centerpiece. Other ongoing locker room arguments and exaggerated public drama had led some to compare coach Jackson to TV’s Dr. Phil for his effectiveness in keeping the team together.
During his tenure as Cavaliers’ coach, Brown had the opportunity to coach a comparable superstar talent: LeBron James. This included 1 year with Shaq as one of the Cavs’ key players. A number of fans and analysts have criticized Brown for failing to keep James in check, but it is quite arguable that no one—including Brown, Paul Silas, Brendan Malone, Jim Paxson, Danny Ferry, Gordon Gund, or Dan Gilbert—could keep the young local superstar’s ego and entourage in check. The fact that Brown was able to get James to commit to playing defense—a feat at which Silas and Malone were unsuccessful and in which James earned a reputation as one of the NBA’s most feared defenders—speaks volumes to Brown’s credibility to get star players to buy into his system.
Furthermore, while James is still young, Bryant has matured over the years and remains one of the NBA’s most devoted and competitive players. Seeing the metaphoric ‘window of opportunity’ to win championships possibly closing, Bryant and his veteran teammates should be very cooperative with Brown and his staff, at least initially. However, should the team struggle to make the playoffs in any year, the locker room environment could become much less welcoming.
Number of NBA Championships Won: With 16 NBA Championships (second behind only the Boston Celtics), Lakers fans expect a championship contending team to take the court every year. Fair or not, Brown will ultimately be held by these standards. Should his teams fail to win a championship or appear in the Finals during his initial four-year contract, Brown will likely be replaced as head coach. On the other hand, should his teams win at least 1 championship or get very close, he will probably have his coaching contract renewed.
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All statistics are from Basketball-Reference.com, except “fastbreak points”, which came from TeamRankings.com.