Mike Brown Fired

What a panic-driven move if I've ever seen one. While anything is possible, I feel like the Los Angeles Lakers have significantly reduced their chances of winning a championship this year with the short-sighted, knee-jerk reaction firing of Mike Brown today. And, it's not as if those chances weren't already slimmed down thanks to the injuries to Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant, the winless preseason, and the inability of the big four to mesh together overnight.

For all the faults that Brown is perceived to have (both real and imagined), he owns a 314-167 regular season record (a .653 winning percentage) and has coached a team to the Finals that really had no business being there. He was hired by the Lakers in a lockout shortened season with limited training camp and immediately lost the reigning sixth man of the year thanks to a vetoed trade by Commissioner David Stern that negatively affected the Lakers and the Houston Rockets. Midseason, he had to deal with integrating into the lineup a ball-dominate, fast-breaking point guard who can't shoot to a team that was a slow-it-down, work the post offensive unit. Despite all of these major factors, he still improved the Lakers defense in year one, and led the team to a third seed and the second round of the playoffs where they lost to the eventual WCF finalists. He won one more game than Phil Jackson had the season before, despite the fact Jackson had a more talented team.

All that said, Brown wasn't even allowed a full 82 games to prove his mettle. And because of Nash's leg injury, Brown only had the big four of Bryant, Nash, Pau Gasol, and Dwight Howard for 1.5 games. That's it. The crazy thing is, the offense wasn't the Lakers problem. They were still a top-10 offensive team despite all of the turnovers accumulated due to learning a new offense. The team's defense was horrid. And defense is even harder to get right then offense because it takes trust, smarts, and a ton of effort to do well. It also takes time. Five games simply isn't enough.

So, who will coach this team? Even if Jackson returns, what offense will he run? If people thought that Nash was stifled by the Princeton offense, they'll officially declare Nash dead if he's asked to direct the Triangle. And, who's to say that Jackson even wants to return to coaching, especially under these less-than-ideal circumstances?

Another popular name being floated out there is Mike D'Antoni, who oversaw Nash's rise to super duper stardom and whose system earned the Canadian dime machine two MVPs. But Nash is 38-years-old with an injured leg and we all saw the consequences of D'Antoni's distribution of minutes with Jeremy Lin last year. Lin ended the year on the disabled list. Also, D'Antoni has never utilized a bench effectively, and certainly wouldn't have the patience to try and develop the Lakers league-worst bench unit. Then there's the fact that D'Antoni's system calls for shooters, which the Lakers don't have, as well as for Nash to basically run the entire enterprise. Will Howard and Nash be devastating? Sure. But Bryant, who is having the most efficient season of his career thus far, would too often become a stand still spot up shooter in the corner. As would Gasol (who, despite what people believe, is a poor pick and roll finisher). That's certainly not the most effective way to utilize their talents. Furthermore, as stated above, the real problem is with the Lakers defense. Ask Amare Stoudemire how much defense he learned after six years under D'Antoni.

How about Brian Shaw? Well, first of all, Shaw is currently the associate head coach of the Indiana Pacers. There's that small detail to navigate around. Secondly, while Shaw is certainly familiar with the Lakers organization and has the approval of Bryant, he has never been a head coach at any level anywhere.

And Nate McMillan? His slow-it-down, half court offense would be like watching molasses ooze down the side of a tree. Plus, he's never been past the second round of the playoffs.

The other option floated out there is Mike Dunleavy Sr.

Nuff said.

While the possibility remains that the Lakers talent will figure things out regardless of who their head coach is, it is far more likely that the team and its fans will regret this rash, unnecessary decision to cut ties with Brown so soon into the season.