Nash's Effect on Mike Brown

                                     

The 2011-2012 NBA season was incredibly hectic for every team in the league, but for the Lakers it was the most chaotic. First there was the coaching change from Phil Jackson to Mike Brown which left many people surprised. Brian Shaw was the in-house favorite and had Kobe’s endorsement; however the Lakers front office decided to go with Mike Brown who had success in the regular season with Cleveland, but never in the playoffs. Then of course there were personnel changes as Lamar Odom and Shannon Brown were gone and replaced with new faces like Josh McRoberts, Troy Murphy, and Jason Kapono. Throughout the course of the season, Mike Brown found himself in a predicament as fans were quick to point to his shortcomings, mainly in the offensive end. His teams had been successful defensively, but the Lakers under Jackson had been a finely tuned machine on offense. Given that the players on the Lakers were as gifted defensively, it would have been more effective for the Lakers to be scoring more points, but unfortunately for the team that wasn’t the case.

The addition of Steve Nash will not only help turn the Lakers into one of the best offensive teams in the league, but will help Brown turn the Lakers into one of the best defensive teams.  As a big believer in an extension of the coach on the floor, there is no question that is exactly for Nash can be for the Lakers. As someone who sees options that most people don’t and threads needles that even Aaron Rodgers could only dream of, Nash will allow the Lakers much easier opportunities than they had this season.  It is almost impossible to fathom that a coach who is not offensively minded, like Brown, could ever give advice or coaching to Kobe. However Bryant has the utmost respect for Nash who has shown time and time again that he is a true competitor and an offensive maestro. Although he will have to focus on offense as the head coach, acquiring Nash will relinquish some of the duties and effort that he had last season.

Not spending as much time focusing on offensive sets will allow Brown to be the defensive genius that he can be. The Lakers possess several young players who have physical gifts that could turn them into good, consistent defenders like Bynum, Ebanks, Eyenga, and Morris. Although the Lakers aren’t known for having great homegrown talent, these are cheap players that all have shown they could play quality defense. With sound defenders in Metta World Peace and Kobe leading the way, the Lakers should be a very formidable team on the defensive end. Mike Brown has created a lot of doubt about if he can continue to win since leaving Cleveland and it doesn’t really seem like there should be a problem. Despite not having LeBron James, the Laker team is much more talented than Brown’s former Cavaliers teams and they should be able to compete with the Thunder and Spurs for the Western Conference as well as with the Heat and Celtics for the NBA Championship.

Despite having a good deal of people calling for his head after last season, Mike Brown is a quality coach in the NBA and is going to change a lot of people’s opinions in the upcoming season. There is no doubt that he will have a much more talented group of players, but at the same time, it will be his defense that will dictate whether or not the Lakers will be NBA champions.