Magic Johnson criticizes Mike Brown's coaching job with Cavs

Magic Johnson was never sold on Mike Brown as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, and he pointed to some of Brown's failures in Cleveland as proof that the recently fired head coach was never the right man for the Lakers job in an interview with USA Today's Sam Amick.

Brown compiled a 272-138 regular season record in Cleveland, but only reached the NBA Finals once despite having LeBron James throughout his entire Cavaliers tenure. Johnson said that if Brown could not win a title with James leading the team, there was little chance that he was going to be successful in Los Angeles (h/t to Waiting For Next Year):

"We have to go back to history with Mike. Mike didn't get it done in Cleveland. If he can't get the championship done in Cleveland, having the game's best player (LeBron James), how are you going to come to Los Angeles and win it? It's just too bad."

Johnson pointed specifically to one problem in Brown's coaching: his in-game adjustments. When things started to go bad, Brown's squads were usually never able to make the proper changes to turn things around:

"Mike Brown has one big flaw in his coaching: he does not make adjustments in game. That's what killed him in Cleveland, and that's what killed him with the Lakers. If you go back to every series that the Cleveland Cavaliers lost, and every series that the Lakers lost, Mike Brown did not make adjustments within the game. That's it. Let's keep it real."

Brown was just fired by Los Angeles after the much-hyped Lakers started poorly at 1-4. While many thought the Lakers would bring in former coach Phil Jackson, management shocked the NBA world by going with Mike D'Antoni instead.