Can Mike Brown lead the Lakers to a title?

I'll admit, as a Lakers fan, I'm not overly excited by this hiring, although, I'm not disappointed either. Sure, there were some sexier names the team could have hired, Rick Adeleman, and possibly more exciting ones as well, Jeff Van Gundy, but they also could have done much worse, Mike Dunleavy, or gone with Brian Shaw, who has no experience.

As the news of this hiring washes over me, I feel reticent.

In my reticence, a few thoughts and questions have popped into my mind about how Brown will fit as the Lakers next head coach...

The most obvious question is how will Brown's style mesh with the current talent in LA? Brown comes from a defensive pedigree. Before coaching the Lebrons in Cleveland, Brown was an up and coming assistant with the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons.

While the Lakers have played solid defense in stretches, no one is going to confuse Pau Gasol for Tim Duncan, or Andrew Bynum for Ben Wallace.  Also, Brown's teams in Cleveland with Lebron had more defensively minded players, but defense was always a priority because of Brown.

I, for one, like this part of the Brown hiring. LA goes through stretches where they lack defensive intensity and too many teams find easy layups and alley-oops. Brown will certainly focus on putting an end to lazy team defense and players who don't rotate fast enough.

Reversely, while in Cleveland, the Cavalier's offense was never exciting and subject to scrutiny. Outside of Lebron, Cleveland didn't have any real scoring threats, which put a lot of pressure on James to make the offense happen. Quite often the team's offensive struggles were hidden, though, by a defense that won games for Cleveland

In LA, Brown will be in no short supply of offensively capable players. His job will be to let the offense keep on rolling, while implementing his defensive schemes to match. If he can get the Lakers to trust each other on defense, rotate and dig in a little deeper, the 2011-12 Lakers could be very scary.

However, the biggest issue Brown will face in LA is trust. Can he get the players to trust him after following Phil Jackson for so many years? Brown is an accomplished coach, but Phil Jackson is a legend, with a track record of getting the most out of his teams, especially when it comes to blending egos.

This is the most interesting dynamic of the Mike Brown hiring. Yes, he coached Lebron, and his ego, in Cleveland, and did so to the tune of a 272-138 record, a trip to the NBA finals, and two stops in the Eastern Conference Finals. That was a young Lebron though, and a young Cleveland team. Handling Kobe and the rest of Hollywood is a far cry from the mistake by the lake.

No doubt the Lakers brass talked with Kobe before the hiring, but Brian Shaw had the public endorsement of Kobe Bryant early on, so the question is how will Kobe support this hiring?

Kobe is on record as saying he wanted a coach who would improve the Lakers on the defensive end, so my guess is Kobe will appreciate Brown's attention to detail on defense and will enjoy not always having to yell at his teammates for not playing hard enough.

To keep winning championships, Kobe knows the Lakers needs to improve defensively. Kobe is a throwback player he digs in when it gets tough, works hard when he need to get better and will not shy away from a challenge. With Brown, he'll have a head coach who is all about the same things.

So, if you live in Lakerland and are questioning this hiring, I advise you to let this one wash over you a little more before you decide how you feel.

Hey, it's only been 15 paragraphs since the start of this article and I feel better already.