Cleveland Brownout

When I told my 11-year-old stepdaughter this morning that the Cavaliers had fired head coach Mike Brown, she said, "Good! Now I don't have to kill him!" Relax, Mike. She was just joking. (I think.)

The Cavs announced this morning that they had fired Brown, who presided over the most successful period in team history, but couldn't push the right buttons to get the club over the hump. In Brown's five seasons at the helm, the Cavaliers went 272-138, never winning fewer than 45 games. He led them to the team's first-ever Eastern Conference championship in 2007, but they never got back to that point despite winning 66 games in the regular season last year and 61 this year — the two winningest seasons in Cavs history.

He was named NBA Coach of the Year just twelve months ago, but that was before he and his coaching staff couldn't find an answer for Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic; just as they couldn't find an answer for Rajon Rondo and the Boston Celtics this year. (To be fair, Stan Van Gundy and the Magic are coming up with even fewer answers for those Celtics in this year's Eastern Conference Finals.)

Brown is widely regarded as a defensive specialist, and the statistics bear that out. The Cavaliers allowed 95.6 points per game all year, which tied them for fifth in the league in that department. They held opponents to a .442 shooting percentage (fourth) and racked up a .772 defensive rebounding percentage (second). Those numbers all dipped a bit during the postseason, but this was a strong defensive team.

It was on the offensive side that the Cavs suffered this postseason. They struggled a bit on that end of the floor against Chicago in the first round, but then had nothing with which to challenge Boston offensively. LeBron James' elbow was clearly a factor, but that only underscored Brown's offensive lack of creativity. His offensive philosophy all year long (and indeed for all his time in Cleveland) was basically, give the ball to LeBron and let him create. When you've got a superstar like LeBron, that's got to be an easy trap to fall into. But when LeBron's not able to create the way he's used to being able to create, you've got to have some other way of putting points on the board. Brown didn't come up with anything that fit that description, and Doc Rivers and the Celtics ate him for breakfast.

Obviously, the subplot to anything involving the Cavaliers this offseason is whether this improves our chances of signing LeBron. The only person who can give a reasonable answer to that question is LeBron, but an ESPN.com poll is about evenly split: 29% say it makes him more likely to stay, 30% say it makes him more likely to go, and 40% say it will have no effect on his plans. I personally think it makes him slightly more likely to stay, because he may have the chance to practically dictate who the next coach will be, if he so chooses (and if Danny Ferry does what he asks).

It should be interesting. If not altogether pleasant.