LOS ANGELES -- If there's anyone in pro basketball who can relate to the trials and tribulations Mike Brown is going through in his first year as Laker coach, it's Rudy Tomjanovich.
Rudy T — who coached Houston to back-to-back titles in the mid-nineties — took over for Phil Jackson following a less-than-harmonious 2003-2004 season that ended with an NBA Finals loss to the Detroit Pistons. Shaquille O'Neal was traded to Miami, Gary Payton to Boston, Derek Fisher left as a free agent and Karl Malone retired. Kobe Bryant was still trying to deflect bad publicity from the Eagle, Colorado sexual assault case, even after the charges were dropped. And the team had to learn a completely new offense after running the Triangle for five seasons.
In a situation amazingly similar to Tomjanovich's, Brown also replaced Jackson. The Lakers were coming off a demoralizing second-round, four-game playoff sweep at the hands of eventual World Champion Dallas, and once again Bryant was upset when camp began, following the voided Chris Paul deal. He didn't like the idea of Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom possibly moving on, and he was even more assertive — negative at first — with his reaction to Odom being sent to the Mavericks. And Brown installed a new offense and defense, Jackson's Triangle once again being tossed aside.
Tomjanovich was mildly successful, compiling a 22-19 record before retiring due to stress-related health issues. (Assistant Frank Hamblen took over, the Lakers went 12-29 and missed the playoffs for only the fifth time in team history.) Brown is 11-8 so far, but his team has been very inconsistent. Except when it comes to playing sub-par offense.
They have scored fewer than 100 points in twelve straight games and just once in 19 contests. At home they're a sparkling 10-2; on the road, 1-6, with 11 of the next 15 games away from STAPLES Center, starting with Saturday's game in Milwaukee.
Brown has preached patience, saying the team's game plan — especially on offense — will get better and more consistent. When it does, he says often, this team play defense well enough "that we'll eventually be a very good team. What I hope will be a championship contender."
Having traveled the same road, Rudy T agrees with Brown's proclamation.
"Oh there's no doubt this is going to be a really good team," said Tomjanovich, a Lakers special assistant. who along with his son Trey is involved with statistical analysis. "When this is all said and done, they're going to be much better than they have played so far. This is going to be a contending team.
"Already Mike has them playing a very good brand of defensive basketball. They're sixth in the league right now (in overall defense) and they're just starting to (learn it.) The offense isn't close to where it's going to be, but it will get there.
"I think you're already seeing Kobe get easier baskets than he did in the last few years, and it's just a matter of all the players getting comfortable knowing where they're supposed to be during any specific play."
Which might have already happened if not for the lockout.
"With a new coaching staff and a new playbook, you normally have the summer league to get some of the young guys in," he said. "Guys can have informal workouts and things like that. But Mike came in, couldn't talk to the players, couldn't even have any contact with them, and unfortunately, we've played nearly the most games of all the other teams. There's been no time to practice, basically, and once they do get that time like they did on (Tuesday), the improvement will be fast.
"From a coaching scenario, it's been a "worst-case" scenario for Mike and his staff as trying to implement a new system. It affected every aspect — the terminology, learning all the plays and the positioning on the floor. I'm sure he would have loved to have a full 30-day camp and the eight exhibition games he normally would have had. This team isn't playing badly now, but they'd be much better if this were a normal year.
"Mike loves to teach, and the time that they lost was all teaching time. Mike is a coach who loves to watch video, break it down and meet with the guys and go over it. Stuff that should have been taken care of before the season starts is now being worked in little by little. Eventually, though, they'll catch up. But until then, it's going to be a struggle some nights."
Much of the concern about the truncated schedule and playing so many games so close together has been that players would tire more quickly and become prone to nagging injuries. The Lakers have already lost Josh McRoberts and Steve Blake for long stretches, both key players who bring high energy off the bench. Tomjanovich says injuries are always a worry for a coach.
"I think you can say that about any team this season," Rudy said. "Everybody is playing under the same set of challenges
"It really hurt to lose Blake; we've got to get him back. He was playing very well. He looked rejuvenated and his confidence level was so high, and it was really great to see after he struggled last year. And in this (schedule) situation, even missing one part — especially one who was playing so well — gives us very little margin for error. One guy out of the chemistry really hurts us right now."
It's been nearly eight years since Tomjanovich last coached the Lakers, and he says that while he misses the camaraderie of the team and the locker room, he doesn't miss the stress one bit. He feels Brown has handled everything — good and bad — as well as he possibly could, and in someways is even at more of a disadvantage replacing Jackson this time around.
"I think it definitely worked in my favor that we had a whole new group of front-line players when I took over. Some guys were traded, some left and Karl retired. We brought in a new system and it was probably easier to teach it to a group of guys just coming in. This year's team is basically the same with the exception of a few guys, and they've all been doing things a different way than Mike does it. Getting them to change that is an awfully difficult thing to do."
There is one major asset that Brown and Tomjanovich have been able to share nearly a decade apart — Kobe Bryant. Kobe was the only star left when Rudy T took over, and he's an even bigger force now.
"Having a guy like (Kobe) around, with a work ethic that's nothing but incredible, was extremely helpful to me. And his leadership abilities back then were just great.
"Now, having Kobe around with everything this team has had to deal with, is a very big constant between 2004 and now. He's just and incredible player and leader."
And according to Rudy, who coached USA Basketball to a gold medal in the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the squad of players surrounding Bryant is much better now than eight seasons ago.
"This team is much more talented than the one I coached," said the five-time All Star. "Kobe's smarter and better, and some of the guys who I had then — like Lamar Odom and Caron Butler — were just starting to become the players they turned out to be."
Tomjanovich is considered the best coach in Rockets history, winning .559 percent of his games (527-416), and he was voted the starting small forward on Houston's all-time team. He's also as tough as they come, playing four more seasons after suffering life-threatening head and facial injuries sustained in a fight with the Lakers' Kermit Washington at The Forum in 1977. He's also beaten bladder cancer and donates his time to cancer research
The native of Hamtramck, Mich., who starred at the University of Michigan and is enshrined in the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, is a man who has endured his share of life's triumphs and troubles. When he speaks it would be foolish not to listen.
"We're not as deep of a team this year as we were before we lost Lamar, but I still think this is going to become a team that can win a championship if everybody works together and all things are clicking.
"Not a doubt in my mind."
