Mike Brown

[Rich]

Kyrie is playing selfish ball at a team position. There's no ball movement on the court when Kyrie has it because they know, odds are he's taking it. Who is at fault here? Kyrie or Mike Brown?

Mike Brown is trying to build a contender. Not a 5 seed in a weak East. When a man like Popovich comments on the system Mike Brown is installing and says 'it takes years, not months, to perfect.' Well I'll listen to that more than a selfish volume point guard who played no defense having a dip in production.

It's just an argument against K14 claiming Dion owes his improvement to Mike Brown. I mean he's a second year player. Any 2nd year player with talent is going to improve most of the time, regardless of the coach. Point was if we're gonna give Mike credit for Dion, then he should probably get the blame for the regression in Kyrie's game.

 

[KingDelonte13]

I hate when people quote the players talking positively about the "city,coach, gm, cheerleaders, defensive setup, owner". What the fuck else is Dion going to say?? If he says "hell no, Mike is an moron, I mean at the end of the day, it took him all year to finally start me, what other moron plays Jarrett Jack more than me, I hope he is gone next year"--and then Mike comes back, where does that leave Dion?

Sure. He'll follow that up with "and Jim Boeheim was an idiot too for benching me" Dion could have just did what Kyrie did last season when he was asked about Byron.

 

[KingDelonte13]

It's just an argument against K14 claiming Dion owes his improvement to Mike Brown. I mean he's a second year player. Any 2nd year player with talent is going to improve most of the time, regardless of the coach. Point was if we're gonna give Mike credit for Dion, then he should probably get the blame for the regression in Kyrie's game.

I think Kyrie grew this year. He gave way more effort on defense and started moving the ball more. Towards the end of the season you started to catch glimpses of Kyrie playing within the offense rather than dominating it. Some dips is efficiency stats don't necessarily equate to a player going backwards.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

No they weren't. 33 wins is less than the bare minimum this team should have achieved. This team underachieved and Brown is part of the reason. Took him well over half the season to stop with the mandatory hard hedging. Took him 4/5s of the season to realize Dion Waiters is a better player than Jarrett Jack. At no point did he realize Delly was a better player than Jarrett Jack.

32 wins should never guarantee any coach another year. Improvement can't be viewed in a vacuum. Comparing this year to last year doesn't work when you consider the Eastern conference was worse than last year and we brought in waaay more talent than we did last year. Put Luol Deng and Hawes on Jack on last year's team, do they not win more than 25 games?

I thought this team would win 36-38 games prior to the season, and a lot of people thought I was being a downer. But that was before we traded for Luol Deng. 36-38 wins would have been an underachievement at that point. Instead we managed to fall way short of even that modest win total.

Always excuses, with Brown. Always excuses for failure.

But no hesitation in taking credit for success, when he was along for the ride.

 

[CosmoKramer]

It has gotten to the point of ridiculousness with the MB apologists.

Again, this team was not as young as everyone keeps saying. We had a lot more "vet" help. Andy played 60+ games, Kyrie 70+ games, Deng, Hawes, and like him or not (and I don't) Jarrett Jack was a big piece on a playoff team last year. The young guys were SUPPOSED to improve--that is what happens to young guys all across the league.

Trying to compare the "improvements" this year vs last year has got to be the dumbest argument ever.

Last years team did not improve down the stretch is really a complaint? We were shooting for the #1 pick, that WAS the goal, the front office made that clear with the moves they made.

God forbid Byron didn't get them to improve down the stretch (when he was purposely given as bad a roster as possible), no Andy, no Kyrie-how dare Byron not make us improve with the stellar group of Omri Casspi, Mo Speights and Kevin Jones--hell Wayne Ellington STARTED! We played a rookie Center the 4th most minutes, a journey man (Gee) played the 2nd most minutes, a 2nd year PF who is a backup center played the most minutes for us because we had NO CHOICE, Mike Brown played this 3rd year PF BY CHOICE a ton of minutes.

And for those of you giving him a pass on Bynum, I think it is bullshit. There is no way in hell Gilbert and Grant did not consult with him about Bynum. They had to have asked him about Bynum and his attitude and I am sure MB thought he could handle him--he was WRONG. And you are the head coach-if the player is not buying in, you don't fucking play him. This is why I don't like MB. He is not strong enough to make the tough decisions. It is why we lost to the Celtics in 2010. Shaq did not belong on the floor in that series, but he couldn't bench him-even though I know some coaches on the staff thought they were better off to do so. I mean the obvious things he just doesn't see-Shaq and Jamison was a sieve on D-just because they were vets and paid a lot does not mean you HAVE to play them--you HAVE to win-do what is nec. to win, period. We ran the Celtics off the floor and we were a freakish team with LBJ at the four that year--CREATE the mismatch for once damn it!


And now to discuss our awesome defense this year. Some of you are using FG% as your barometer. This is not 1994. eFG & and TS% are available. PP per 100 possessions is available.

We gave up 2083 three point shots. That is 85 more three point shots than than the 2nd most in the league. And I went back to 2006-07 looking and no team was over 1900 threes against!!! I got lazy, but I am betting that 2083 is a record number of three's against a team.

Think about that. Why does it happen? Because of our awesome interior D or because the three point shots are so fucking wide open that the opponent shoots the damn ball? I will go with B, since that is what I observed at all of the games I watched/attended. This is where stats with eye test works.

Our defensive rating per 100 possessions adjusted for strength of opponent placed us 22nd on the year. http://www.basketball-reference.com/leagues/NBA_2014_ratings.html

We had the talent to make the playoffs this year. Without question. I am convinced there are a few hundred people posting in this forum that could have "coached" us there.

Obvious adjustments he never sees. It took him 50 games to even try CJ at the three spot--yet we ran Dion or Delly as a fucking SF for large minutes this year. Ugh. I wish I had a job that I could tank for 3 months, then improve a little bit and then point to the improvement instead of the severe under performance.

Was there improvement from early on? Not by the coach. This team severely under-performed its talent level-ALL YEAR. It was just worse the first half of the year. And in every "big" game we had down the stretch we folded-and our defense got blitzed.

I haven't been posting much due to apathy. I did NOT renew my season tickets and won't do so until MB is fired-and my ticket rep knows this. I hope we have a new coach next year so I have something to look forward to.

Most important stat on the year:
33-49=major failure

You basically lost me on the second sentence. We went into the year as the 2nd youngest team in the league, pointing out that we added a couple complimentary vets doesn't change that. A 9 win improvement was lower than I expected, but it's not worth growing apathetic about my favorite basketball team over.

This isn't your first empty threat about being done with the Cavs over MB. Who knows, maybe you're actually done. Regardless, have fun watching us make the playoffs next year under your favorite coach in the world.

 

[KilgoreTrout]

he'll be the head coach next year. The team showed improvement and we cant keep changin head coaches every year like this

Just like Chud, he should never have been hired in the first place. And, just like with Chud, the FO that hired him got sh*t-canned.

When the owner makes an obvious mistake, he should move on. Of course, Gilbert has made a series of bad choices since he bought the team. So it's not like I trust his judgment either.

In any case: no matter what the question is, Mike Brown is never the answer.

 

[caf]

No they weren't. 33 wins is less than the bare minimum this team should have achieved. This team underachieved and Brown is part of the reason. Took him well over half the season to stop with the mandatory hard hedging. Took him 4/5s of the season to realize Dion Waiters is a better player than Jarrett Jack. At no point did he realize Delly was a better player than Jarrett Jack.

32 wins should never guarantee any coach another year. Improvement can't be viewed in a vacuum. Comparing this year to last year doesn't work when you consider the Eastern conference was worse than last year and we brought in waaay more talent than we did last year. Put Luol Deng and Hawes on Jack on last year's team, do they not win more than 25 games?

I thought this team would win 36-38 games prior to the season, and a lot of people thought I was being a downer. But that was before we traded for Luol Deng. 36-38 wins would have been an underachievement at that point. Instead we managed to fall way short of even that modest win total.

I'd really wish I could do a Q&A with Mike Brown. My biggest complaint of his was that it took him so damn long to start Dion over Jack. Which is so very odd to me considering Jack was brought in to be the backup point.

I really want to know if he had a deeper reason behind sitting Dion so long. Maybe he saw something we didnt that required Dion to sit. He'd have to do a very good job of convincinge though as I felt Dion should have been starting game one. But Dion's drive at the end of the season seemed really solid. He really bought into what Brown was laying down during Kyrie's absence.

I don't have the answers, and I'm not making excuses for the guy... But I really like the 'team first defense' he wants to install. Nearly every NBA championship team has lockdown defense. You have to have it in a seven game series. When was the last time a run and gun coach won shit?

 

[Lee63]

His two year career. Improvement was almost a given.

Meanwhile Kyrie had the worst season of his career under Mike Brown. Does that count?

You're right as did Deng and Jack had worst stats under Brown. Meanwhile Dion, Zeller, Delly, Hawes, Andy,shooting % improved by far. TT's ft%, TS% improved. It was a mixed bag of results. Bench players plus Hawes improved significantly while the starters declined. Inconsistent starting line-ups and injuries were probably factors. To what extent? No idea but we can't have starters declining like this. No excuse. They're accountable as well. Improvement in offensive coaching is a MUST going forward!

 

[Jack Brickman]

I really want to know if he had a deeper reason behind sitting Dion so long. Maybe he saw something we didnt that required Dion to sit. He'd have to do a very good job of convincinge though as I felt Dion should have been starting game one. But Dion's drive at the end of the season seemed really solid. He really bought into what Brown was laying down during Kyrie's absence.

Dion did start in game one.

 

[caf]

Dion did start in game one.

You little shit. :chuckles: You know what I mean.

 

[KI4MVP]

Dion started the beginning of the season and the end of the season. He was a vastly better player on both ends of the court at the end of the season. I think Mike Brown helped him get there. I always said Brown was more demanding of Dion than he was of players like Jack because he knew Dion could be the far better player and was pushing him to get that out of him,

 

[Willard513]

On a side note: The Bullshit Whisperer is worried about his job so his job is safe, may even get a 5 year extension

 

[staycoolbruh]

I hated Mike Brown through out the year, but I think I am open to giving Mike Brown one more year to see what he can do. Defense has vastly improved, players are starting to trust him a little more. He needs to focus on getting a better offensive system with a lot of player movement and providing good rotations.

I still don't understand why he doesn't want to give young guys like Serge a chance to play, I was really disappointed in that.

 

[billmac91]

If Griffin is retained, I don't think Brown meshes well with the organizational shift to an open brand of basketball. I said it several months ago, but if Phil Jackson were hired as Knicks Prez, I said Griffin would be in running for that GM position based on his philosophy and familiarity with Steve Kerr. It isn't hard to piece togteher these things when you look at backgrounds and philosophy.

I just don't see Griffin staying in Cleveland if he is hitched to Mike Brown because it forces Griffin into a bad situation of trying to build a team around Mike Brown's preferences and shortcomings. The Cavs opened up their tempo towards the end of the year under the GM switch, but you know that wasn't in Browns wheel-house. I'd like to see the Cavs retain Griffin while tabbing a head coach that is nuanced in an open court game and utilizing proper spacing. I'd still love to see us make a gigantic run at Fred Hoiberg.

 

[marxus]

I hated Mike Brown through out the year, but I think I am open to giving Mike Brown one more year to see what he can do. Defense has vastly improved, players are starting to trust him a little more. He needs to focus on getting a better offensive system with a lot of player movement and providing good rotations.

I still don't understand why he doesn't want to give young guys like Serge a chance to play, I was really disappointed in that.

I totally agree. At the end of the season, I was very upset with Mike Brown and put a lot of blame on him. As time has passed and I look back at how the team progressed, I think he deserves another year. I would have loved to see Sergey more and get him some experience, but it was playoffs or bust for this team and MB didn't really have the option of throwing a guy out there to go through the ups and downs. It's not like Sergey was exactly lighting it up in the D-League. He just really wasn't ready to come in and help this team right away.

Pre-All Star break, the Cavs were 3rd worst in the league in assists, post-break they were 10th best and averaged an extra 7 points per 100 possessions. I think Hawes is huge for them too. He goes all out all the time and really keeps the ball moving. I'd love to see this team and staff stick together for a while and allow them to develop some sort of consistency and chemistry.