NBA Rumors: Golden State Warriors Replacing Luke Walton With Mike Brown

Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr knew that Luke Walton was going to be leaving the team soon. The success of the franchise made him one of the hottest head coaching candidates in the NBA. Walton was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers to be their new lead guy, so the Warriors need a new associate head coach.

According to Sports Illustrated, the Golden State Warriors are leaning heavily towards hiring Mike Brown as their new associate head coach. As a former head coach in the NBA, Brown would bring much needed experience to the Warriors coaching staff, possibly making them even better than last year.

While the Golden State Warriors were competing with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the NBA Finals, Mike Brown and Tyrone Corbin had emerged as the top two candidates to replace Luke Walton as the associate head coach under Steve Kerr, a position that has become one of the most highly coveted ones in the league.

Ty Corbin going to Phoenix has made Mike Brown a strong contender to land on Steve Kerr's Warriors bench next season, coaching sources say.

— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 26, 2016

Tyrone Corbin took himself out of the competition by signing a contract with the Phoenix Suns. He’s now the top assistant under Earl Watson, who was recently given the full time head coaching position after serving as the interim head coach.

According to Fox Sports, Mike Brown coached the Cleveland Cavaliers to two consecutive seasons where they won more than 60 games. That type of experience will be quite useful for Steve Kerr, who is now tasked with needing to figure out how to beat LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

As an assistant coach, Mike Brown has worked under Gregg Popovich. That should make it easier for him to bond with Steve Kerr, who played for the San Antonio Spurs. Kerr is a longtime admirer of Popovich, so he and Brown can share some notes on what they learned from the longtime Spurs coach.

Mike Brown has been out of the NBA since 2014. That was when he was fired by the Cleveland Cavaliers as their head coach. Brown was replaced by David Blatt, who was eventually replaced by Tyronn Lue. After beating the Golden State Warriors earlier this month, Lue can now add a world championship to his resume.

ESPN reported that Alvin Gentry became head coach of the New Orleans Pelicans after acting as the top assistant under Steve Kerr. USA Today reported that Luke Walton was hired as the new head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers earlier this year.

There are many in the NBA that were under the impression that Mike Brown would never be a head coach on the professional level again. However, as we saw with Alvin Gentry and Luke Walton, having success with the Golden State Warriors makes you a hot head coaching candidate.

Mike Brown is considered a defensive minded coach. He’s not as strong on the offensive end. Fortunately for Brown, the Golden State Warriors are doing pretty well on the offensive side of the court. Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and others do a pretty good job of putting up points.

By signing with the Golden State Warriors, Mike Brown will now get the chance to build a defense around dynamic defenders like Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green. Their versatility will enable Brown to be much more creative than he has ever been with an NBA team. He might even be able to make the Warriors more dominant defensively than they already are.

The Golden State Warriors are a well oiled machine. They’re going to continue doing well in the NBA. That means that there is less pressure on Mike Brown. All he needs to do is to join the team and help in whatever way that he can.

[Photo by Jared Wickerham/Getty Images]