Los Angeles Lakers Must Commit to Mike Brown's System or Face Failure

The Los Angeles Lakers are playing Mike Brown basketball, much to the chagrin of Los Angeles Lakers fans. Among things that are as exciting as watching the Lakers play are twiddling your thumbs, playing spoons by yourself and counting the hairs on your head. 

On a scale of one to 10, with a 10 being the Showtime Lakers, this doesn't make the scale. The only way this is exciting to you is if your idea of entertainment is Kobe Bryant taking shooting practice. 

Pau Gasol would like to see more touches in the paint. 

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"I think we can use it a little more," Gasol told reporters before the team's first contact practice of the season. "We have to make sure we use our interior game. Other teams do.

"As I mentioned the last game, Orlando goes to their interior game and I don't think Dwight Howard is that much (more) talented than me and Andrew in the post. Indiana used their post game with (Roy) Hibbert and (David) West. I don't think they're much more talented than we are. Why don't we? I think it's always an effective way to play the game."

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Mike Brown disagrees and thinks that his 10 assists against the Pacers are an indication that his plan to use Gasol's ability to distribute the ball as a big man is working effectively. Granted, the Lakers didn't win that game, but it's important to get caught up in that. 

Yes, winning is important, but how you're playing whether you win or lose matters. 

The most important thing about how you play is how the coach sets things up. Whether you like it or not isn't up to the players to decide. It's simple. Only one person sets the direction for the team, and that's the head coach. 

It might sound like an irrational statement, but even if the coach is "wrong" in the direction he's setting, it's not the team's job to determine whether he's doing his job right. That's the GM's job. The chance of the team succeeding with the coach being wrong is better than it is with a team being split. 

Nothing tears apart a team quicker than division. If the Lakers want to succeed, they need to commit to Brown. Whether that guarantees success is not a promise, but it's a possibility. It's a guarantee that if the team isn't committed, the team will fail, though.