This much is obvious: there’s no way Mike Brown and LeBron will both be on the Cavaliers sideline next season. I’ve been a Brown defender over the years, and looking past Boston instead of putting real time into developing some lineups with a Varejao/James/Moon frontcourt is really the entire organization’s fault. But when teams fail to meet expectations, it’s the coach who’s usually the first to go. So, assuming (for the time being) that LeBron comes back, here are the qualities should look for in a new coach:
1. He has to be able to convince LeBron to stay.
Let’s all be honest with ourselves for a second. If LeBron returns, the Cavaliers will at least compete for a championship in the next couple of years. If he leaves, they will not. It doesn’t matter if the LeBron-less Cavs get a coach who is inhabited by the spirits of Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson, Tex Winter, and John Wooden. The Cavs will be better with LeBron if their new coach’s strategy is to turn the frontcourt into the Human Centipede. Pretending otherwise would be foolish. It’s not ideal, but there it is.
Do I wish that LeBron wasn’t so insistent on hand-picking a coach, especially when he may value personal relationships over coaching prowess when he makes his selection? Of course. On the other hand, look at things from LeBron’s point of view. He’s the guy getting most of the blame when his teams lose, and it’s his legacy on the line more than anybody else’s. So you can’t blame him for wanting to have as much control as possible over his situation. It is what it is.
2. He has to coach defense first.
Mike Brown was a defense-first guy and things didn’t work out. That said, going out and getting a run-and-gun coach would be putting out a fire with gasoline. This was the most disappointing Cavalier playoff run in recent memory. This was also the season where the Cavs were more inconsistent on defense than they have been since Mike Brown took over. I can’t remember a Mike Brown Cavs squad ever being as content to try and outscore opponents as the Cavs were this season. It worked in the regular season, but it was their downfall in the playoffs.
It’s not a coincidence that the Magic, Lakers, and Celtics were all top-five teams in defensive efficiency this season. Tom Thibodeau has picked apart the Cavs and Magic by coming up with two brilliant defensive strategies — load up the strong side against LeBron and anticipate the skip pass/kick-out, and single cover Dwight Howard and stay at home on the Magic’s shooters. Even when Dwight started scoring on Perkins in game two, Thibodeau stuck to his guns. Compare that to MB, who panicked after KG hit a few step-back jumpers over Shaq in game six.
3. He has to take advantage of LeBron’s versatility.
LeBron can play the four in a small-ball lineup. He can run the point effectively at times. He’s deadly off the ball, and just as good as a playmaker. LeBron showed all of those things this season, but when push came to shove MB didn’t deviate from lineups that featured him at the three. The next Cavs coach has to be confident in his ability to mix up his strategy when it matters most, and that starts with using LeBron in a variety of ways.
4. He has to manage the game, not the egos.
This is where having a “big-name” coach helps. Mike Brown was way too hesitant to bench his big stars when they weren’t getting the job done, and that killed the Cavs against the Celtics. Shaq’s minutes needed to be slashed. Jamison had no chance against KG. LeBron should have been spending time guarding KG. LeBron should have been posting more. Mo Williams should have been spending a lot more time on the pine. Jamario Moon needed to play a lot more.
Despite all of that, Brown continued to give the players with the biggest names and the biggest salaries minutes over the players who would have given the Cavs the best chance of winning. Maybe convincing Shaq to come off the bench was an unwinnable battle, but there were other situations where Mike Brown could have benefited his team by standing up to its players.
5. He has to find a way to coach LeBron.
Coaching LeBron correctly is a catch-22. On the one hand, LeBron is one of the most dynamic talents the game has ever seen, and limiting his freedom on the court will almost always end up hurting the team. You want LeBron being involved in any play as much as possible, because no player can impact a game in more ways. Is a possession where LeBron is forced to wait on the block or the weak side for a good shot, possibly never getting touch the ball, really better than giving LeBron the ball at the top of the circle with 18 seconds on the clock and living with the results?
At the same time, there are times LeBron desperately needs coaching. His footwork in the post needs improvement. He needs to be more aggressive when he does post up. His shot selection from the perimeter is often puzzling, particularly his heat-checks. So what do you do when he disobeys you? Bench him? The team will always be worse off with LeBron on the bench, and LeBron knows it. That makes him tough to discipline. It’s not an easy task, but LeBron’s coach needs to find a way to get through to him without handcuffing him in any way. Good luck.
6. Develop a lineup that can actually fast-break and put pressure on teams with their length and athleticism.
Not all fast-breaking teams need to be bad defensively; just look at what the Celtics did when the Cavs played them. Lineups with length, a real push guard next to LeBron, and solid, swarming defensive rotations should be able to force turnovers, grab long rebounds, and get out on the break. LeBron might be the best open-court player in the history of the NBA, so this isn’t rocket science.
That’s what I have for tonight. Let me know your thoughts.
Ok so the Moon comments were right on. I am not saying he was the answer but maybe a little more elaboration here will help. Everybody understands match ups and the playoffs you want to exploit them more. However the Cavs went from a 8-9 deep team to a 7 player player deep team in the playoffs. Hickson was astarter for pretty much the entire season but gets 10-12 minutes a game in the playoffs. Part of the success agains tthe Celts this year was the movement off the ball that hickson and Andy supplied. Both together make things difficult for the celts during the regular season because that would be a lot to ask of the heavier and older players on the celts. As much credit as the celts deserve for their play (and they deserve a lot) Brown’s lack of coaching made things much easier for Doc rivers.
Why does no one mention Sebastian Telfair when they talk about a push guard and/or someone to guard Rondo? Sure, he’s not as big a talent as the ideal push guard but in the middle of the Boston series I think he could have thrown the Celtics off balance.
Great post, John.
I wasn’t even necessarily thinking about a AV/James/Moon frontcourt against the Celts, I would have actually been interested to just see James and Jamison switch assignments.
It’s not that Jamison is “slow”, and with Pierce already struggling, wasn’t it worth a shot to put Jamison’s length on him? With the defensive scheme they were using on help, really all Jamison had to do was get a hand in his face on jumpers and at least slow him down on drives.
First off, thanks for the continuing posts even though the season is over with a disappointing end.
Also, I’ve typically been a Mike Brown supporter. I’m not jumping off his band wagon or anything, but the last couple of years there seems to have been a disconnect between him and his team, especially at critical moments in the playoffs. I know change for the sake of change doesn’t work all that often, but it might be time. I Honestly hope with all my heart that the second the Cavs announce Brown has been let go his phone starts ringing.
Man, did you really need to make the Human Centipede reference? It’s a good thing it’s the off season for the Cavs, or I would have a hard time looking at the front line.
Human Centipede references are pure win.
Sorry to go off topic, but Calvin Murphy (not the best of people) claims the Delonte/Lebron’s mom rumor is absolutely true. He says his source within the NBA is legit. At some point, this thing needs to be addressed in full.
If it turns out to be true, this will be an epic story… like, Boston selling Babe Ruth for 100k epic. Someone should review the tapes from games 4,5, and 6 to see how LeBron interacted with Delonte. I hate to push this, but think about it… if this is true, it would explain everything. Anybody who has watched LeBron over the years could tell you he was never as disengaged as he was in those games. In the first 3 games, even in the game 2 blowout, he was barking orders,showing disappointment in teammates who were missing defensive assignments, and was an overall presence on the court.
What is the Delonte/LeBron’s mom rumor?
I was listening to The Common Man and the Torg radio show on 97.1, for all those not in the Columbus area. They broke the news that they have a very trusted source from ESPN that not only is the rumor true, but that LeBron put the kibosh on ESPN ever reporting it by threatening to never do an interview for an ESPN broadcast in ANY fashion ever again if they reported on it.
This guy said that a memo went out to all ESPN owned broadcasts, be it television or otherwise were told not to touch it. Now, that wreaks of conspiracy theory, but these guys never try to BREAK any news stories. It’s not their M.O. and I’ve never heard them do anything like that before.
The rumor is that Delonte was having an affair/relationship with Lebron’s mom that was being kept secret but that Lebron found out about it during the playoffs, presumably before game 4 of the Celtics series.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/calvin-murphy-lebron-jame_n_583135.html
“Murphy is confirmed to have fathered 14 children by 9 different women. In 2005, he faced trial in Houston for sexually abusing 5 of his daughters. He was acquitted of these charges in December of that year.”
I’m not sure that this guy is the most reliable source.
:/
Having said that (and I know I’m fueling the fire here) if this were true it would explain a lot. The distant behaviour LeBron showed in the playoff games, the vague comments in his post-game press conferences, the lack of minutes for West, the bad team chemistry issues.
Yeah, he seems like a guy trying to get in the spotlight to play a Jose Canseco role in the whole thing.
The details regarding another party being involved and everyone else in the organization knowing about it except for Lebron both seem like someone trying to make the rumor as scintillating as possible. LeBron’s teammates supposedly genuinely like him, and management obviously has big incentive show they actually care about him, so it makes little sense for James to be the last one to know if others were all aware.
I can totally see Delonte being the one on his team to do that though. He’s already proven to have some pretty awful judgement.
The first legit news outlet that I heard the rumor from was on that radio show like I said, which supposedly had a different source from ESPN. And I trust the radio hosts a lot more than I do this Calvin Murphy story
So Larry Brown or bust?
How about paying through the nose for Jackson: http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/news/story?id=5202910
Nice post John. I think the Cavs are probably better off waiting on the coaching decision until after Lebron decides to stay or go. Brown is under contract and they aren’t going to get a better coach to come to Cleveland without Lebron. They can always dump Brown before the season if Lebron stays. That said, I hope they can find someone that makes better in-game adjustments & manages crunch time better. This year’s team killed me coming out of time outs when you would think Brown would have set up a play, but it often looked like the team either ignored the play or broke it off early.
The Human Centipede reference crushed my productivity this morning partly because I had trouble stopping myself from reading about the movie and partly because I had to figure out how a centipede offense would work. My best guess is that it would work like the “stack” inbound play we ran as kids from the sideline where the four non-inbounding players line up parallel to the half court line then break when the ref handed the ball to the inbound guy.
Lebron’s lawyer sent a letter to the Terez Owens website warning them about defamation and slander over the Delonte West thing. More than likely the rumor is a lie. You never trust folks when they start talking about their “sources”
A few things maybe we’ve learned:
- Defensive systems are nice, but it all comes down to guarding people. Mo can’t guard Rondo, probably would struggle with Nelson too. Antawn couldn’t gaurd KG. The holes in athleticism and guarding ability at the 1, 2 and 4 have dogged the Cavs for years. Thibidueau’s system is really strong and he is steadfast in sticking to it – but make no mistake, it works mostly because Perkins can hang in there against the top centers. and the other guys all guard pretty darn well. The Cavs had a good system on defense and a couple of good defenders – and that’s good in the regular season. The last 2 playoff runs were ruined by their basic inability to man-up and guard people at key spots on the floor.
- Would be nice for the Cavs to make other teams adjust to them more…..rather than the reverse. We built a team to face the Magic, then never played them! Brown jumped around btw many small adjustments. Lakers and Celtics don’t mess around – they impose their style on others. The small lineup that we wish we saw more of would have been good not because it’s “small” – it would be good because it would force the Celts to react to us for a change.
- Conventional wisdom was that you surround LBJ with shooters, spread the court, capitalize on his great vision, punish the opposition for doubling. And that’s fine. At playoff time, the pressure ratchets up. The Cavs have had a real hard time making shots in pressure games -look it up. And no one has ever won the NBA title from the 3-pt line. Sure, having shooters is a nice weapon. But what we really lack is a player that can take advantage of the massive driving lanes that exist when teams load up on LBJ, as the Celts do. Jamison did a little of that – it was one of the only things that the Celts couldn’t deal with at all. Players that can drive also tend to fuel a fast-break game, something the Cavs aren’t good enough at, outside of LBJ. This kind of player also tends to be somewhat athletic, meaning they might be decent on-ball defenders. Makes me wish Ariza had signed. Makes me wonder if we could have hung on to Shannon Brown. Instead we had semi-stationary players around LBJ. And in February, they ring the bell. In May and June, not so much.
Let’s hear names. Who is this perfect coach? Does he exist? Is he available? Also, should the Cavs dump Mo Williams? Is there an established point guard out there who could run this team the way you describe? How about Chris Paul? He would seem to be no longer untouchable with the development of Collison.
yes i agree – lets trade Mo for Chris Paul.
but seriously, Mo wasnt the issue. he is hardly a superstar but he is much much better than most other PG’s, especially at the price he is being paid. dont forget, you absolutely have to have a guy at PG who can be a spot up shooter from 3 or long 2′s. mo is excellent with that. guys like devin harris are not. im all for an upgrade at PG, but i dont see the point of upgrading to a guy who is a better passer at PG but a worse shooter.
Mo makes $9.3mil, then $8.5 and $8.5. not outrageous at all. for sake of comparison, kirk heinrick $9mil and $8, jamal tinsley $5.5, mike bibby $5.5 and $6.2, raymond felton $5.5, jameer nelson $6.7, $7.3 and $7.8, jason terry $10.6 and $11, marko jaric $7.6, etc.
As far as Delonte goes, anyone go to game 5 or have a recording of game 5….in the pregame, when the Cavs go thru their team introductions, did Lebron and Delonte have their normal game of pattycake and saluting of each other? This right there would tell ya if the rumor were true or not me thinks.
Jeff Van Gundy is the guy we want – I can’t think of anyone else, but Brown has to go.
I’m very curious if this rumor will continue to gain steam now that more “mainstream” outlets have at least partly latched onto it with the Calvin Murphy thing.
Hubie Brown 4 Prez
The whole idea that LeBron told ESPN he would no longer do interviews if they touched the subject is laughable. I actually heard Van Pelt mention it in passing yesterday on the radio. Either way, LeBron needs ESPN WAAAAY more than ESPN needs LeBron. They wouldn’t be afraid to report the story if they felt it had enough evidence to back it up.
The problem, people, is the the manner in which the story was broken was a big joke. A random email, citing an uncle of a cousin of a sister’s friend (I exaggerate). I’ve gotten e-mails claiming I had just won a million dollars, had 3242314 women wanting to date me, and won a new car. Um….they weren’t true.
But what am I saying, pure rumor hasn’t stopped ESPN before. On the NBA page they are reporting attempts by Dallas fans to bring LeBron to the Mavs. You know, despite the fact that Dallas is even more over the cap than the Cavs.
I say bring Dirk here in a sign and trade. Or, LeBron suddenly feels like winning and decides to take less money (not likely).
On the off chance this convinces anyone:
Lebron and Delonte did the handshakes and salutes before game 5 and 6, Lebron was next to Delonte in the tunnel huddle before game 6. Lebron sat in the last seat on the bench for both games.
Did. Not. Happen.
I say keep Mike Brown, but… at this point I don’t think it’s going to happen.
“he has to manage the game” is right on. Going big was an option too. Why not start Varejao on KG? Put Jamison at SF, can Pierce stop him? Put LeBron on Rondo, etc. Would could stop them, but how would they defend us?
You could always persuade Lebron that the faux-photography act with the dancing just doesn’t bode well with teams who are figuratively – and occasionally literally – looking to punch your team in the face. Would Doc Rivers have acquiesced to the dancing and the photo antics? Phil Jackson? Popovich? You’re goddam right they wouldn’t have. Imagine if LeBron tried that crap with Jerry Sloane, LeBron would end up spending most the off-season in the infirmary! OK Lebron, we can see that the Cavs have great chemistry, now STFU and sort out your jumpshot, refine your postgame and be a leader.
Regards,
A very disappointed Cavs fan.
Why do you or anyone for that matter want to keep Mike Brown. Good god. If last years Orlando series did not show us his utter shortcomings, this Boston series totally did.
How bout this Juni – you go buy your own NBA team and hire Mike Brown as coach with a lifetime contract.
And Dennis, what you said sounds good but why for 3 straight playoffs do we try to counter what the opposing team does well. How bout one time in any of those tough series force other teams to stop what we did well. Why was Mike Brown not using this gameplan?? Every series we lost it was because we tried too gd hard to match up to them instead of keeping up with what we do well and force other teams to try and stop the best regular season team. We beat ourselves before we even took the court against Boston, Orlando and Boston again.
so, being a self-proclaimed ‘brown defender’, you basically listed all the ways (fair and unfair) brown has failed this year – haha. of course, lebron has to shoulder (or ‘elbow’) some of the blame. this was the only time (celts series) that i’ve ever seen something possibly wrong with him mentally on the court – he’s been an absolute beast in every playoff series he’s ever played prior.
kudos on the ‘human centipede’ reference (perhaps the most disturbing film ever made).
What exactly is it this team did well Rickc, besides give the ball to LeBron? We tried to impose something if you remember. That was SHaq. That didn’t work against the 2nd best post defender in the league.
In a perfect world, Brown would be a defensive coordinator (Like Kuester was off. coord. last year) and havee a strong willed, offensive guru @ head coach, someone with titles and enough moxie to make LeBron follow.
DF/DG: “Hi, Phil! How’s Montana? Love that place.”
PJ: “Hey, David & Danny.. how can I help? Need some good Buddhist proverbs?”
DF/DG: “Wanna coach Lebron? And win a ring in yet another city?”
“No, not with the Clippers… with the Cavs..”
PJ: “Really?”
DF/DG: “Full personnel control, everything. Hire anyone you want for staff, figure out the right roster.”
PJ: ‘And…”
DF/.DG: “Be the highest paid NBA coach ever? Equity in the team?”
PJ: “What does the Cleveland mayor think?”
DF/DG: “If you come here, you will BE the Mayor!”
(and then… I woke up)