Ladies and Gents of My Dear Lakerland, Your New Coach

(Source: Lakers Blog)

After their sorry exit in the playoffs and after Phil Jackson's retirement, the Lakers wasted no time in filling in the vacant coaching position with former Cavaliers head coach, Mike Brown. Yes, he who handled/mishandled Lebron James for 5 seasons in Cleveland before that all too famous meltdown during the the second round of the 2010 Playoffs against the Boston Celtics and the subsequent firing of Brown from the post and the "the Decision" by James to take his talents to South Beach.

Let me go straight to what i'm feeling. I'm confused and worried. Sure the Lakers need an overhaul after the way they were swept by the Mavericks, but this doesn't seem to be the direction they should be taking. I understand the focus on establishing a solid defensive system, but what about the offense? Brown isn't really known to have any real offensive structure given that he mostly depended on James to do his thing on the court, but he can't do that with a team like the Lakers and with a pool of talent that can get pretty unfocused and erratic at times. Given that the Lakers are now moving away from the triangle, does Brown have something more effective in mind to replace that? Given that he has, then it's still worrisome because it usually takes a period of adjustment before players get into the system, which brings me to my second biggest concern about this hire - chemistry.

The simple fact that Bryant was reportedly surprised that the Lakers were considering to hire Brown and that he was confused by the eventual hiring of the coach, all the while refusing to comment on the decision, somehow hints at possible issues that may arise during the season. I'm particularly concerned about how he is going to handle Kobe and make him work with his system. Even with Jackson, Bryant was known to veer off the triangle most of the time and thrive on his isolation plays, but we all know that as Kobe enters his 15th season in the league you can't really hoist the bulk of your offensive load on that, like he used to with a much younger James. Furthermore, Bryant along with Fisher and Walton were known to be endorsing Brian Shaw for the job, because of his familiarity with the system and the players. This could only mean one thing for Brown - that he has to somehow prove himself to these players in order to get them to follow the system, and that isn't a very good place for a coach to begin with. But this also means something to the players because moving away from the triangle means that players such as Fisher and Walton may have to be replaced in order to accommodate players that will fit the new system better. I'm all for that, but all in all these are just too many changes in one off-season to handle even for a mature team such as the Lakers.

I guess we all just have to wait and see.

Here's to you Coach Brown, I hope it all works well.