Former Los Angeles Lakers coach Mike Brown has had three months to ruminate on his former team and its struggles amid the additions of coach Mike D'Antoni, Dwight Howard and Steve Nash, and the departure of Andrew Bynum.
Brown says despite a slow first half, he sees a Lakers team that can, with some work, turn its season around.
"I think it can be done," Brown said Wednesday in a telephone interview with "The Herd with Colin Cowherd" on ESPN Radio. "Mike has a different philosophy, and it's worked for him the many years he's been coaching in the NBA. And I'm sure he'll figure it out, which he's been doing.
"He's been making some adjustments as time's gone on. So I think it's a matter of time before they get it going."
Brown noted he was skeptical when D'Antoni, upon his hiring, said the Lakers would implement a run-and-gun style offense and score in the 110-115-point range -- "be the old 'Showtime.'"
"I did not feel that was a running team," said Brown, who was fired in November after a 1-4 start to the season. "Kobe [Bryant] is a guy who can run, but if you look back at the history of his career, he really hasn''t been on a running team, in his 15, 16, 20 years -- whatever he's been in the league.
"Then you talk about having two bigs," Brown said of Howard and Pau Gasol. "And both of those bigs are agile and capable runners, but they're not the type of runners that you need to have to play in a system that's going to score those types of points."
Brown related his experience as an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, when they had both Tim Duncan and David Robinson, saying an efficient scoring tandem is indeed possible between players with the skill sets of Howard and Gasol.
Regarding his firing, Brown said he was "shocked" to learn of the Lakers' decision.
"But I always look at it this way," Brown said. "It's their team. They have every right to do what they want to do with it. You know, I appreciate the opportunity that they gave me, and it was a decision that the Busses and Mitch Kupchak came to. They felt they would be better going in another direction. So from that standpoint I respect it, I appreciate the opportunity, but it was a little surprising."