Mike Brown is offensively challenged. We already knew this before he came to L.A. and after one month on the job that was painfully obvious.
So one way to upgrade your offensive production as a team is to add a veteran floor general and an athletic big man. Mitch Kupchak put checkmarks in both categories for the Lakers this offseason. Now its up to Coach Brown to coach up his talent.
Of course Brown didn’t get this far in his hoops career by trying to swim upstream. He knows his limitations which is why the rumored hiring of Eddie Jordan to institute the Princeton offense is anything but surprising.
What’s surprising yet somewhat expected is Brown’s decision to allow Nash to run the show without interference. Brown said so himself in an interview with ESPN.
"“The way that we’ll put it together, Steve’s going to have an opportunity — he’s going to quarterback the team — and so he’s going to have an opportunity to come down the floor every possession and in early offense play pick-and-roll if he wants to. It’s up to him, based on where he decides to take the ball or a call that he makes or an action that he does, it’s up to him to get us into some of the looks of the Princeton offense.“So again, with him quarterbacking, or making that decision, he’ll still have a chance to get the ball back after he moves or after bodies move. I don’t want to completely give away what we’re trying to do, but in a nutshell, he will have an opportunity to play pick-and-roll at the beginning of almost every play set coming down the floor in early offense. And if not, he can also choose to get to some of the looks out of the Princeton by making a pass or doing an action or doing a call or whatever.”"
In other words, Brown is pretty much backing out of the offensive conversation. Eddie Jordan and Nash will take care of that leaving Coach Brown to focus on his specialty – defense.
Can’t blame Brown for handing the keys to Nash. It only makes sense given L.A.’s offensive struggles last season not to mention the Hall of Fame resume Nash has built by leading some of the most prolific offenses in the game. Now all that remains is to see how this all shapes up once the season gets going.