Getty/Ezra Shaw Head coach Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors (right) and longtime assistant coach Mike Brown.
When your franchise has been dominant for the better part of a decade, your coaches are bound to be poached by other teams. Like the New England Patriots, the Golden State Warriors have watched several of their assistants leave for other opportunities.
Now, it might be longtime assistant Mike Brown’s turn to move on.
Brown’s name has been mentioned in connection with the Los Angeles Lakers‘ head coaching job, according to a Jake Fischer story published April 5 in Bleacher Report. Vogel is currently coaching the Lakers, but his job could be in trouble now that the Lakers have missed the playoffs.
“As the Lakers are expected to focus on candidates with previous experience, former Los Angeles head coach and current Warriors assistant Mike Brown, who hired Snyder for that 2011-12 campaign, is known to have interest in departing Golden State for another opportunity in a team’s first chair,” Fischer wrote.
Warriors Assistants Who Have Left
Former Warriors assistant coach Willie Green, who is in his first year as head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans, left head coach Steve Kerr’s staff after the 2018-19 season to be an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns. After two years with the Suns, the second of which they went to the NBA Finals, Green was able to parlay his success there into a head coaching job with the Pelicans.
In June 2021, Jarron Collins, who’d been with the Warriors since 2014, left the team to seek a job as head coach in the league. Eventually, he joined Green on the Pelicans’ staff as an assistant coach for the 2021-22 season.
The most famous exit was that of Luke Walton. With Kerr recovering from a back surgery before the 2015-16 season, Walton took over head coaching duties and led the team to an American professional sports record of 24-0. Kerr returned in January with the Warriors at 39-4. The team ended up finishing with an NBA-best 73-9 record but came up just short in the Finals, losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Walton’s strong showing as interim coach led to a three-year head coaching stint with the Lakers. And to replace Walton on Kerr’s staff, the Warriors hired Brown in 2016 as associate head coach.
Mike Brown Previously Was Lakers Head Coach
When Kerr again was sidelined with back pain, Brown led the Warriors to a 12-0 record in the 2016-17 playoffs. That same season, the Dubs finished the playoffs with a 16-1 record, the highest winning percentage in NBA postseason history.
Almost a decade earlier, Brown was hired to succeed Phil Jackson as head coach of the Lakers. The marriage did not last long as Brown was fired in his second season after just five games, the third fastest coaching change in league history.
In his Bleacher Report story, Fischer wrote that the Lakers are looking at candidates who have worked there previously.
“It’s also widely believed that Los Angeles, as has been the franchise’s custom, will prioritize coaching candidates with past connections to the organization,” Fischer wrote.
Additionally, Brown has a track record with Lakers star LeBron James. Brown was hired as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers in James’ third year there, in 2005, and coach the Cavs until 2010.