L.A. Lakers: How Mike Brown Is Ruining Kobe Bryant's Season

The Lakers left the court in Oklahoma City with another loss and a flood of questions drowning the franchise. Among them is whether Mike Brown is succeeding in his first half season as Lakers head coach, and he is not. 

Let's be clear, the season does not rest solely on Brown's shoulders or what he has done wrong to begin his purple and gold tenure.

The front office that is currently in a Jim Buss limbo has the luxury of being the impetus to the current mediocrity in which the Lakers find themselves.  

Brown, however, is not exactly killing it from the bench. It may be unfair to compare him to that other guy that ripped off a handful of titles in Los Angeles, but we never said anything about being fair. 

All we know is that there has been a dip in production in nearly every facet in the Lakers organization, and that includes the head coach. 

Kobe Bryant only has a precious few seasons left in his prime, and this current one is being blown. 

Triangle Point Guard

You might ask what the hell a triangle point guard is because no such thing exists. That's the point, because the Lakers do not currently employ a point guard worth all that much. 

That sort of deficiency could be hidden by the triangle offense, a scheme that doesn't call for a prototypical point guard to run the offense. 

While Brown has used a form of the triangle in touches, it's not the prominent offense the Lakers run, and the people they have running at the position make that a problem. 

The Lakers are forever looking for a star point guard, but this year it is imperative that they get a guard that can break down a defense and command a great deal of attention all on his own. If we aren't running the triangle, we need another point guard. 

We aren't asking for a Derrick Rose, but we surely need better than Derek Fisher. 

Pau Gasol 

The woes on offense continue and we were promised that a team that ranks 22nd in points per game. The Lakers struggle to breach 100 points, something they did with regularity last season. 

Some of that is a new offensive system, and some of that is players playing out of their comfort zone. Fisher is a long-time guard that is now running a new offense. Old dog, meet new tricks. 

The same goes for Pau Gasol who is being pulled away from the basket with regularity. Mike Brown sees a versatile power forward and thinks he has the second coming of Arvydas Sabonis. 

Gasol's 17 points per game is currently the worst of his career and some of that is his being plucked from the pain and playing far too many possessions on the perimeter. 

This has been remedied in recent games, but that Brown would entertain flipping the script to this level is ridiculous. 

Leadership

Lastly, we come to leadership and being a face of the franchise: Mike Brown has delivered little on either.

Again, it's unfair to measure Brown to the great Phil Jackson, but I am not the one that decided to take over the exact job he held.

The flames of a burning franchise are just being seen now by fans. The front office is a circus right now and it takes Kobe Bryant to call a player only meeting to set things right.

It takes Kobe Bryant to stick up for his Spaniard star when he is getting pummeled by rampant trade rumors.

Brown can hardly make a mark on some of that, but he can certainly do a lot more. The beauty of Jackson was his ability to sneak in a comment to the media when needed or to bring a bunch of egos together to play unified basketball.

We never expected to see all of that, but we have none of that being delivered by Brown right now.

The Lakers enter the break at 20-14, hardly a horrible effort, but not a world-class showing. That's the problem.

This is a franchise that is always gunning for more, where the biggest and best is provided, but that just isn't the case with Mike Brown's Lakers.

There is no reason to employ Kobe Bryant if his talent is going to be wasted. 

Follow @gabezal