About Time The Lakers Hit The Panic Button

After winning 1 game in almost 6 months, the Lakers (finally!) fired Mike Brown this morning.  After an 0-8 preseason, a 1-4 start to the regular season, and a mountain of criticism from fans and media alike, the Lakers felt that something needed to change. The backlash from this decision has already begun, with many questioning why the Lakers would hit the "panic" button only 5 games into the season.  With so many new players and a new system, why didn't they give Brown a chance to direct the team and allow them to mesh?  The answer is clear to anyone who has followed this team since the Brown hire.

Let me start by saying that Mike Brown should have never been hired in the first place.  His only previous head coaching stint was with Cleveland, where he became the only person who could actually stop LeBron James.  The amount of minutes he played James was a joke, and it was no wonder that after burning out James on the way to the 2007 finals, they were swept by the more experienced, and better coached, Spurs team.  He was eventually fired by Cleveland in an attempt to appease and keep James in a Cavs uniform (which we all know how that turned out).  Why would the Lakers, the greatest organization in NBA history, take a flyer on such an unimpressive, remedial coach?  We can thank Jimmy Buss for that, as Brown was hand selected by him after his interview supposedly blew Buss away.  He also never consulted the face of the franchise, Kobe Bryant.

This is a sight Lakers fans should have never been exposed to

While not exactly happy, especially with the wealth of coaching talent available, Lakers fans gave him the benefit of the doubt, and waited to see how the season would progress.  It proceeded to go right down the shitter.  The Lakers underachieved all year, failing to come together as a unit, and clearly had no respect for Brown.  Brown seemed content to run the offense and would never make adjustments at any point in a game.  They had no consistent defensive scheme, despite his reputation as a defensive coach.  This became crystal clear after Denver came back to force a game 7 in the opening round of last years playoffs after a REAL coach (George Karl) adjusted to what the Lakers where (or weren't) doing after game 4.  After barely surviving, the Lakers were embarrassed by the Thunder and sent home for the summer.

So why fire him now and not at the end of last season?

The simple reason is money.  The Lakers signed Brown to a 4 year, 18 million dollar deal.  That's a lot of dough.  And with a hall of fame starting lineup coming in with the additions of Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, the organization wanted to see what he could do with this group.  He was essentially given a stay, but was on a short leash.  And how did Brown respond?  By instituting the Princeton offense (because why would you want one of the greatest PG ever to actually run your offense?), failing to come up with a viable rotation during the preseason, and burying guys like Chris Duhon and Jody Meeks on the bench for no apparent reason.  This would be fine if they were winning, but they weren't.  The Lakers not only have lost 4 of 5, but their offense is atrocious, with guys standing around, no movement, and not running a play until 8 seconds left in the shot clock.  The poor shooting leads to break outs the other way and easy hoops, with absolutely no adjustments.  And the disrespect the players showed Brown was beyond evident.  He had completely lost this team.

But the way they've been playing so far this year is just an extension of how they finished last year; lost.  Lost on offense and defense.  Lost in who is supposed to do what.  Lost in a constantly changing rotation that added no stability to the team.  The Lakers were hoping for something different.  They got more of the same.  And since this was Brown's offense, it put even more of the blame on his shoulders.  Something clearly needed to be done.

This brings me back to the hitting the "panic" button issue.  Like I stated earlier, the Lakers are the greatest organization in NBA history.  Their goal year after year is winning.  The Lakers do not hang banners for winning their division or conference, only championships go to the rafters.  It's this commitment to excellence that has allowed them to reload for generations.  And fans have come to expect nothing less.  If a season ends without a title, that season was failure.  This is that standard the team has set, and this is the standard that us fans hold them to.

The goal each and every year.  Anything less is failure

So when the Lakers are underachieving, have clearly quit on their coach and no progress has been made at all in over a year, are they supposed to cross their fingers and hope for something to magically change?  When the head coach actually says that it'll take until the beginning of the calendar year to "get it together", are Lakers fans supposed to remain patient and content?  You can blame injuries, or new teammates, or a new system, but the same problems that plagued the team last year are still visible this year.  To salvage the season and keep the team together mentally and emotionally, a change had to be made.

Yes, the Lakers hit the "panic" button.  But in doing so they also hit the "reset" button.  And they should be applauded accordingly.