CURSEDCLEVELAND.COM

HOUSTON – You might be wondering, wasn’t Mike Brown involved in a disaster where the Hornets, not the Rockets, play?  Beware Cavs fans, in the next few days, Ivy league sports and stats-geeks from around the country will be creating and frequenting the soon to be created “www.FireMikeBrown.com.”  In this new age of statistics taking over, Rocket’s GM Daryl Morey and others have incorporated using numbers to make basketball-personnel decisions.  Even the Great Dan Gilbert has employed one of these geeks, Dan Rosenbaum, to crunch numbers in order to do anything possible to make the Cavs as winning a franchise as humanly possible.  One only needs to look to LeBron’s possible future team to see teams utilizing stats in making coaching staff decisions, as the Brooklyn Nets just fired head coach Lawrence Frank after his win-loss stat in 2009 was 0-17.  Finally some new data has smacked us all right in the face!

Rosenbaum and others are fans of “adjusted plus-minus,” a version of the popular hockey stat that measures a team’s results on the scoreboard when a player is in the game or on the bench, adjusting for teammates and opponents.  While Johnny Hollanger cannot use his PER to analyze the performance and effect of the head coach, this tool gives us everything we need to know whether Mike Brown should remain as Cavalier Boss.

Wednesday night Brown was ejected with 2 minutes left in the 1st half.  His plus/minus was MINUS SIXTEEN in just TWENTY-TWO MINUTES!  The last portion of that damage was done when Coach Brown GIFTED the Rockets two points on the scoreboard after getting ejected arguing a no-call on a King floater.  Assistant Mike Malone (son of longtime basketball-mind Brendan) took over and “played” well in his 1st career game, posting a PLUS SIX in TWENTY-SIX MINUTES!!!  Sports and basketball savants everywhere opined after the game.  Jim Rome, Charles Barkley, Ashley Judd and Mike Trivisano all spoke to the effect of, “We were down 16 to the Rockets in the 1st half???  I can’t tell you one player on their team, but didn’t the Cavs improve on a 66-win team this year?”

Now those critics of the new statistical evolution might argue “Well coach got his team motivated to play better by releasing that temper and lighting that comeback fire.”  No no, under Coach Brown, LeBron was jacking 19 ft 2-pointers and 29 ft 3bombs.  Under Coach Malone, it was many more layups and bunnies from the painted area and a 3 pointer from 24 ft when the game was still in question.  Coaching and leadership can be seen in shot selection on offense and effort on defense and rebounding, not simply calling an official’s mother a whore.

One thing is for sure, with the Cavs having Rosenbaum on the payroll as a consultant, Mike Brown may want to utilize the strategy of Brett Favre, Cal Ripken Jr. and Peyton Manning.  Do not EVER let your replacement see the floor!  This Cavs fan predicts no more Mike Brown ejections, sick or personal leave games this season.  The imposing shadow of Mike Malone looms large.  Its kinda like how Steve Young had to wait for Joe Montana to leave, except that Mike Brown is without those pesky multiple championship rings.  Hey noone remembers who coached the Lakers and Bulls before Phil Jackson arrived right(ok it was Kurt Rambis and Doug Collins).  GO CAVS (shoot me now).