Cavaliers Players Weigh in on Mike Brown

Scene was down at the Cleveland Clinic Courts in Independence for Cavs’ Media day earlier this week. In conjunction with our cover story on head coach Mike Brown, we asked some current players how they feel about their new boss. This is what they had to say:

ANDERSON VAREJAO: Coach Brown was great to me [last time around]. When I heard that he was coming back, I was happy for him, happy for his family, and happy for this organization because I really think that he’s a good coach… Whatever coach Brown wants me to do, that’s what I’m gonna do… I didn’t have much time to talk to him, but Coach seems like he’s more serious now. At the end of the day Mike Brown is going to be Mike Brown.

TRISTAN THOMPSON: Coach Brown is a teacher. He looks like he’s a professor at the University of Texas. There’s gonna be a lot of teaching. And he’s a defensive guru. I’m getting mentally prepared to learn new concepts and his style of play.

ANDREW BYNUM: “My relationship was never strained with coach Brown. I think that was more of a media thing, obviously concerning the three-pointer. But I’ve never had a problem with him. Honestly, I had the best year of my career while he was there [in L.A.] coaching. That was kind of a mission of his, to get me to be a high-caliber player, and he did that.”

KYRIE IRVING: “It’s just a preparation that Coach Brown has, the attention to detail that he puts into games. He knows nuances. We win games on the defensive end… It’s been an energy change for us. He’s taken steps to prepare us, so I’m looking forward to being in a defensive stance for 31 days.”

SERGEY KARASEV: “Everything is the best here: Best courts, players, coaches. I think that I will adapt to Mike Brown’s system very quickly.

C.J. MILES:First of all, we talked about team defense, off-the-ball defense. We talked about being in the best shape as possible, because defense is 99.9 percent effort.

This article appears in Oct 2-8, 2013.