You've heard the old adage, 'The more things change, the more they stay the same.' That statement has never been more true for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have signed Mike Brown to a five-year, $20M contract just three years after firing him from the same position. It was widely speculated that the Cavaliers owner, Dan Gilbert, fired Brown in an effort to appease LeBron James and keep him in Cleveland when his contract was up after the 2010-'11 season.
As you probably guessed, the move isn't exactly sitting well with the majority of Cavalier fans. There's two trains of thought among those doubters, the first being why hire a coach who couldn't win a championship with the best basketball player on the planet? I am not buying in to that concept.
While it's a fact that Brown was not able to win a Championship with LeBron while the two were in Cleveland, there are very few Superstars who have been able to win a a title on their own--which is essentially what LeBron was trying to do in Cleveland.
The Celtics had Larry Bird, Bill Russell and Robert Parish. Michael Jordan had Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman. Tim Duncan had David Robinson, and that was before he went on to play with Manu Ginobili and one of the best point guards in the league, Tony Parker. Most people seem to forget that after Kobe Bryant ran Shaq out of town, he demanded that L.A. trade for another Superstar or trade him after missing the playoffs without Shaq.
LeBron made it clear to the Cavs front office that he wanted them to bring someone in who was capable of taking some of the scoring load off of LeBron's shoulders, so management went to work. Despite having a deal on the table that would have landed them Amar'e Stoudemire (for those of you who are new to the NBA, Google him, you'll find out that he used to be a bona fide Superstar, not the shell of his former self that is always hurt and riding the bench in New York), the Cavaliers brass was unwilling to part with J.J. Hickson (only to trade Hickson to Sacremento for Omri Casspi a year later). Who was the only player Dan Gilbert and the Cavs front office was able to land? Antawn Jamison, a very good player in 2010, but nowhere near the help that James wanted.
Another thing Cavs fans are pointing to as reasoning why Brown was a bad hire is the fact that he was fired from Los Angeles after only five games this past season. While he did have an early playoff exit at the hands of Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2012, judging Brown on five games from this past season is insanely irresponsible. Critics points out that he couldn't get it done with Dwight Howard, Steve Nash, Pau Gasol and Kobe Bryant....but no one seems to remember that Dwight was coming off of back surgery last summer and was nowhere near healthy to begin the season and that Nash only played TWO games before being sidelined for almost two months.
There's no doubt that Mike Brown's resume looks great on paper, albeit a little misleading based on the fact that he has only been a head coach for six seasons, and had LeBron James for four of those seasons and Kobe Bryant for the other two. That said, Brown has the sixth-highest winning percentage (.652) among coaches with at least 400 games coached. He was also one of only two coaches out of work (Phil Jackson) to make the playoffs every season he's been a head coach. On top of that, if Gilbert wanted to re-hire Brown, he knew he was going to have to act quickly as Brown was wanted by Phoenix (he reportedly turned that job down), and it's widely speculated that Atlanta GM Danny Ferry (who is good friends with Brown, and was Cleveland's GM when Brown was in Cleveland) was going to make a play for him after firing their current coach, Larry Drew, when the Hawks are inevitably eliminated from the playoffs by the Indiana Pacers.
Perhaps the biggest question Cavs fans have about this hire is why hire a guy who, if you believe media reports, was fired because LeBron didn't like his coaching philosophy when you're set to make a run at King James next summer? Chris Broussard has reported that hiring Brown is not going to hurt Cleveland's chances at landing James, but you can understand why some Cavs fans are skeptical.