Mike Brown Is a Pussy

I think that conclusion is pretty much set. Mike Brown is indeed one big pussy. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been trying to follow the dynasty frame of, coincidentally, the San Antonio Spurs through the past years and they have been rewarded fairly well by receiving the opportunity to compete in the NBA's biggest stage against their "mentor team". They acquired a former-Spur GM who has been trying his best to mimic the backbone of the Spurs franchise for the Cavaliers, and took a coach who worked under coach Gregg Popovich to try and instill the skill and experience of Popovich into the rest of the coaching staff and finally towards the players. The design looks brilliant and the outcome has been great especially for this year, with consideration to the weak teams Cleveland had to get through to make it to the NBA Finals; but has following a set of steps and instructions totally ruined and abandoned reason and self-imposed coaching, and turned Mike Brown and the coaching staff into robots?

It seems like so because Mike Brown seems like he has yet to feel a sense of urgency and has failed to realize that this is the NBA Finals and he must make his players give it their all for the final four wins of their season. He has been treating every game like they were regular games and has not reverted to drastic measures and risk-taking. Drastic and risk sound like connotations, but in Mike Brown's situation, it is definitely what he needs. It means jumping out of the safe zone and living the moment; yet, he has stifled himself and his franchise player from doing so. Mike Brown has been removing LeBron James time and time again from crucial stretches in the game due to "foul trouble" which result in Cavalier-fall-out. It is completely taboo. You can't do that, you CAN NOT remove LeBron James from the game when he is the backbone of the four other players on the court. Take him out, and the Cavaliers fall apart; exactly what happened in the past two losses for the Cavaliers. I would rather have LeBron James play his full potential-minutes for the game rather than take the back seat and "conserve" him for the crucial stretches of the game.

On most occasions, the players who were taken out in fear of fouling out before end-game never really garner their 3rd or 4th foul; which means they were denied many valuable minutes in the middle of the game for a fear of nothing. I think every single minute of the game is just as important as the other minutes. Coaches try to conserve their players for crunch time, but isn't crunch time just as valuable as the first half? Does a field goal score a team more points in the final minutes of the game than it does in the first minutes of the game? I do not think so. So why do coaches insist on reserving their players from fouls when in the end, it turns out that all they did was waste valuable playing time? There can be argument stating that LeBron James or any other star for that matter are clutch players and they are MANDATED for the final minutes of the game if the team wants to win. But here's an interesting thought, if LeBron James or any other star for that matter was not taken out of the game, would it even come to that situation where the team would be in danger of losing in the final minutes of the quarter? And how sure are they that if they take out LeBron James or any other superstar for that matter, that they would even have the opportunity for a win in the closing minutes of the game? Like I said, every minute is just as big as any other.

A perfect example of the star-subbing controversy was contributed by coach Mike Brown in the past two games, with much appreciation. In Game 2 of the Finals, Mike Brown substituted LeBron James out of the game with 9 minutes left in the first quarter after acquiring 2 quick fouls. How preposterous is this? Very much. The Cleveland Cavaliers were already having trouble running their offense to start with, especially after failing to run the ball through James (how can you not run the ball through your superstar?), and Mike Brown contributed to that by taking out James. Sure, they were already doing bad, but aren't they supposed to fix problems and not contribute to them? Taking LeBron James out so early only worsened the situation, and the lost Cavaliers only fell deeper and deeper into the hole that the Spurs were digging for them until they were already six-feet under. That substitution could have very much sealed the game for the San Antonio Spurs there. LeBron James finished Game 2 with only 3 fouls. In Game 3, Mike Brown took LeBron James out of the game when he acquired his 3rd foul with 6 minutes left in the first half. The Cavaliers were up by 5 then; and the rest of the Cavaliers were able to increase the lead to 8, before the Spurs stepped on the gas and ignited a 10-0 run to take the lead right at halftime. If LeBron James were present, couldn't he have held the Cavaliers together and maintained the lead? LeBron James finished Game 3 with only 3 fouls.

It is a really shocking phenomenon on the part of Mike Brown's decisions. This is the NBA Finals, and it is hard to believe that he is still dipping his feet in the water. It is hard to believe that he is stifling the efficiency of his team on the court by pulling out the backbone of the team because of fear of him fouling out. Well, guess what? He didn't foul out, but he wasted crucial minutes while he was sitting on the bench. One would think that Mike Brown would have learned his lesson by Game 2, but insisted on conserving LeBron James once again in Game 3. They only lost by 3 points in Game 3, could it have been any different? Maybe Mike Brown needs some lessons from Don Nelson on how to grow some balls. Until then, he is going to keep losing at these stages of the season. All I can do is to wish them luck. Good luck Mike Brown, you're going to need it.