Mike Woodson was fired by the Atlanta Hawks after leading the Atlanta Hawks to their best regular season finish in over a decade. Should it be any surprise that the Eastern Conference regular-season champions have fired their coach?
Mike Brown was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers after 5 seasons as head coach. The former assistant for the Washington Wizards, San Antonio Spurs and Indiana Pacers, he was the only coach NBA All-Star LeBron James has ever had. That’s good news and bad news for Brown. With LeBron comes instant wins but monumental expectations.
Brown is one of the most successful coaches in Cavs history, going 314-177 the past two years and qualifying for the playoffs in each of his five years. However, after winning coach of the year in 2009, a year in which the Cavalies won 66 games, he was unable to duplicate the regular season’s success in playoff wins. Finalists in the NBA in 2007 (the only appearance in Cleveland history), the Cavaliers have regressed every year, losing to the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference finals last year and falling to the old Celtics in the second round this year.
Brown’s fate was sealed by his team’s performance in this year’s playoffs. A slow, well-contested first-round series against a struggling Bulls team may have been a sign of things to come. Despite excellent performances from LeBron James, the Cavs never felt comfortable in the series. Game 1 of the second round against the Boston Celtics started ominously for the Cavs as they trailed by double figures well into the second half. But a fourth-quarter outburst from LeBron led to a win and a 1-0 series lead. Two more games, and it was 2-1 for Cleveland. Inexplicably, the team lost 3 games in a row, some crushingly to a Celtics team on the back of their careers.
More than the loss, it was the way they lost. Mike Brown was completely outclassed by Doc Rivers. The Cavs weren’t inspired and simply stopped playing the last two games. The mix of lineups fielded by Brown was ill-timed and he played directly into Boston’s hands.
In the end, Mike Brown is an excellent season coach. But Cleveland knows he needs to deliver more to keep LeBron and more of the same just isn’t enough. For now, Mike Brown can work on his golf swing. The next head coach will either work harder to win or his tenure will be even shorter.