Los Angeles Lakers: Evaluation of the Job Mike Brown Has Done

When the Los Angeles Lakers announced the hiring of Mike Brown to fill the big shoes left behind by Phil Jackson, I was supportive.  

When reports surfaced about his lack of offensive game-planning abilities, I gave him the benefit of the doubt because he hired European offensive genius, Ettore Messina.

When reports surfaced about him allowing Lebron James to do whatever his highness pleased, I once again gave him the benefit of the doubt.  After all, he led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals with Lebron leading the way, so imagine what he could do with a lineup consisting of Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum.  

As the season started, and the Lakers offensive woes began, I once again gave Brown the benefit of the doubt because it was a new offense and he didn't have the point guard to lead it.  

However, after nearly the entire season has come and gone, Brown's substitution patterns, allocation of playing time and stagnant offense has left not only his players scratching their heads—but his few former supporters confused as well.

Brown has continued to play his star players a lot of  minutes, which would be fine if they were 25 years old.  

However, Bryant (in his 16th season) is 33 and logging major minutes on those knees and joints.

Gasol, 32, demonstrated what a tired Pau looked like in last season's playoffs and is also logging major minutes.

This will surely be a disadvantage come the playoffs: The coach has done a terrible job of giving them any rest throughout the season.

After going 0-15 to start the game against the New Orleans Hornets this past weekend, Kobe admitted that fatigue had to do with him missing shots he would normally make.

The story behind Andrew Goudelock's disappearance from the rotation is another mystery that remains to be answered. When given minutes, Goudelock has shown the ability to create shots and points for a bench that is desperately in need of both.

In an interview with ESPN Radio's Mason and Ireland, Mike Brown explained his reasoning behind his decision not to play Goudelock. He stated, "[f]or a young guy, he was doing a terrific job for where he was, or what we asked of him. But having said that, he did not create a ton of shots for himself nor for his teammates. It wasn't like he was getting 14 or 15 points or double figure points off the bench, and so I don't think it's as big a deal or as big a difference when you're looking at production, point-wise, that he was giving us on a night in night out basis." 

Keep in mind that when Goudelock played 24 minutes per game as Derek Fisher's backup during Steve Blake's injury, he averaged approximately 10 points on over 50 percent shooting.  

So what Coach Brown wanted was a Jason Terry type of production off the bench in only 24 minutes of playing time by a rookie?

Although Goudelock is not the best defensive player, he is not so bad that he is a liability out there. In fact, some would make an argument that he is better defensively than Blake, who is ahead of him in the rotation. Therefore, it wasn't as if this was a defensive decision on Brown's part.

The worst part of all this is that Brown has publicly proclaimed that Goudelock will not get anymore playing time: What kind of a coach would do that to a young player trying to make it in this league?

What incentive would the player have to come into practice and work hard if he knows that no matter what, the coach is not going to play him.

Even if the decision is made, a good coach wouldn't put it out there in the media—especially since it's a young player.

As bad as Coach Brown's playing time allocations are, his rotations are even worse.

With his substitution patterns he has cost the Lakers plenty of games. His first mistake was playing Murphy with Gasol, leading to a layup line for the opposing team because both are horribly slow to recover after the pick-and-roll.  

More recently, Mike Brown has started giving McRoberts—the backup big man—some minutes, leading to more defensive intensity and rebounding.

His second mistake was that once he decided to give Sessions the starting point guard spot, he would not play him at all with the bench. In essence, he would sit both shot creators in Kobe and Sessions at the same time, which would cause the offense to stagnate.

It also affected Matt Barnes' game, as he loves to play off the ball with a passer like Sessions. He also saw his production rise with Sessions in there at the same time.

One game that highlights the point is the one against Oklahoma City Thunder.

Lakers jumped out to an early lead and Coach Brown took out Sessions at approximately the three-minute mark of the first quarter, replacing him with Blake.  

Sessions did not check into the game until the four-minute mark of the second quarter. So Mike Brown decided to give the starting point guard 11 minutes of game-time rest while the big lead was evaporating right in front of him.  

As a result, the once double-digit lead turned into only a five point advantage at halftime.

Approximately three minutes into the third quarter, Pau Gasol got into foul trouble. Did Coach Brown put his primary backup big man—McRoberts—into the game?

No. He inserted Troy Murphy and watched the lead disappear. This was a winnable game—even considering the circumstances—had Coach Brown stuck to a rotation that should not have been hard to figure out.

Recently, he has figured out the rotations, which is great but was costly in the loss column in recent weeks.  Coach Brown seems to always have one of either Gasol or Bynum—plus Kobe or Sessions—in the game at all times, which is a great balance to have.

Finally, Brown has had to deal with a stagnant offense, or as I like to call it "Iso Offense."

This is where the team gives the ball to Kobe, Bynum or sometimes even Gasol and just stands around waiting for something to happen.

Recently, this has been more of a problem in the second half of games, especially the fourth quarters.

Part of the problem is having superstars who have games that allow them to get away with it. However, against strong defenses, this type of offense has shown not to work.  

More recently, the Lakers have been incorporating more pick-and-roll and off-the-ball screens in second halves. This has allowed them pull out more wins as they have been putting up over 100 points per game.

Coach Brown has shown the ability to make adjustments to his offense, rotations and minute distributions.

However, the delay in these adjustments concerns me greatly.  

Unlike in the regular season, Coach Brown will not have weeks—just a day—between games to make adjustments in the playoffs.  

His lack of adjustments in the playoffs was highly publicized in Cleveland. Whether he has learned from his past failures remains to be seen.  

Judging  from the regular season, this is going to be a big concern for the Lakers going forward.