One of our ongoing angsts of the 2006-07 NBA season has been the obvious offensive buffoonery of the Cavaliers own Coach Mike.
Bad offense, low motivation, and strange rotations plagued this team all year – so much so that we pretended to stop watching them twice.
The results are truly stunning – the team is in the NBA Finals.
What does a franchise do when such things go down? Extend the man and give him a raise.
According to team sources, once the NBA Finals are completed, Brown and the team are expected to enter talks about a raise and an extension of his contract.
While Brown has taken some criticism for his offensive schemes, team insiders report Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is thrilled with Brown’s performance and his installation of a system that has turned the Cavs into a defensive juggernaut.
As we have with the rest of the team, we’ve pretty much been forced to do a complete 180 in terms of how we feel about Coach Mike.
Never has “what the heck is this team doing?” been switched to “this team is inspiring” in so short a time. Remember only two weeks ago, when the Cavaliers came out and let the Nets handily take Game 5 in Cleveland?
Now they’re in the Finals. Somebody is doing something right – they still kinda Retarded Chameleons, but when you’re going up against better teams, we guess that works.
Two clauses we’d like worked into the extention:
First, an actual offensive system should be installed, preferably under the guidance of a specialist assistant coach ala the Tex Winter/Phil Jackson set-up. Second, no more “dead puppies” halftime speeches, unless there are actually dead puppies all over the arena, in which case it’d be awkward to at the very least address it in some fashion.
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I have vacillated on the whole coasting thing all year long. There were times when I was on-board with the hate and other times I’d send long emails explaining (rationalizing?) their seeming malaise. But, the biggest problem with that narrative was the defense. Defense is, what, 80% effort? And they played good defense all year. Sure they had an off game here and there, but they mostly brought the D – especially LeBron. He played great D on Prince, a guy who usually scores a lot on him. (I know it’s only because Detroit was “struggling” with their shots for 6 consecutive games. It had nothing to do with the Cavs D).
There is no question that the Cavs D was borderline excellent this season. The question is, will they hire an assistant coach who can install an offense and an offensive game plan to maximize the strengths and minimize the weaknesses that the Cavs have. Then, if they decide they are going to go find that guy, the question is….from where? Who are the candidates?
Making it to the finals and getting extended will actually give mike brown more security to hire a offensive coordinator. He would have been looking over his shoulder if he brought in a guy to run the offense and he still wasn’t on solid ground. That being said, i give the ‘hire an offensive assistant coach’ an 8% chance of happening.
Making it to the finals and getting extended will actually give mike brown more security to hire a offensive coordinator. He would have been looking over his shoulder if he brought in a guy to run the offense and he still wasn’t on solid ground.
That’s actually a very good point. I hadn’t thought of that.
“Two clauses we’d like worked into the extention:”
or extension right? I didn’t want to get all “Paxson Jackson from BlogABull” on ya, but you are some people’s mentor so umm… it’s best if you put forth a solider spelling effort.
(I know solider is not a word, it’s a funny take off of the “more solid” verbage).
Boney you are grouchy these days…..
But didn’t Coach Brown almost blow a game by using up all his timeouts too early in just the last series?
You guys are doomed.
Yes, very bad on the TO thing. Many f-bombs dropped on the tables of BW3.
He has been atrocious at some in-game decisions. True. But he’s gotten better. I have to give him mad props for his judicious use of Snow/Jones/Marshall. He especially seemed to have the magic touch on when to bring Snow in to D up on Billups. On the 3 to win at the end of game 5, Snow knew Billups would be leaning a little, looking for contact and he edged out of the way while still getting a hand up.
Coach Mike is in a position he’s never been before, so yeah- he’s making some second year head coaching mistakes in the biggest games the franchise has ever been in. None of his mistakes has cost them a playoff series, and he is definitely getting better. The offense will come eventually. As it is, it is becoming increasingly difficult to complain; like impossible actually.
The real value of Coach Mike is that he seems to have a great relationship with his superstar player. If you get rid of Mike, who would you bring in that James wouldn’t butt heads with? Short of LBJ becoming a player/coach, I don’t see another coach working at this point. The fact that Mike seems to be some sort of defensive wizard is a tremendous bonus.
They’re in the Finals! Get that man a contract!
I just read what I wrote above and I am suddenly amazed that we even have to talk about this. Holy Crap! Get that man a contract!
To recap: Holy Crap! Finals!
JackCobra,
you’re a sexy beast!
My bitterness is coming to an end… once the Finals are over I’ll be 100% fine.
Mike Brown is getting a pay day in the USA!!!!!
Brown is becoming a very good coach, but with all due respect, they may not have beaten the Pistons unless LeBron James goes off in Game 5. Brown was very, very lucky his ill-advised timeouts didn’t come back to haunt the team.
Also, you have to wonder how much of the team’s success is based on LeBron. Brown has them playing championship D, but their offense is very bad even if they are in the Finals. Just because this team is in the Finals, doesn’t mean the team and the coach don’t have some pretty serious deficiencies that need to be addressed.
They absolutely have to get an offensive coach in here.
More like “You have to wonder how much of the team’s success is based on Greg Popovich.” I’m concerned that the pupil may fail this test of the teacher’s…
I just heard LeBron made it to the NBA Finals. Any news on this??
BEAT THE SPURS! BEAT THE SPURS!
That is all.
LeBron is going to be tired from all of the rubbin’ n tuggin’ he’s been receiving from Rachel Nichols…
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