Larry Brown on the Failed Adam Morrison Experiment

The kid, according to his former coach, just couldn’t handle the pressure: “I was happy Adam got to leave because he was never comfortable here. You were hoping it would be a new lease on life for him. I still think it can be,” said Brown of the Feb. 7 trade that dealt Morrison to the Los Angeles Lakers. Brown said the other factors — the glut at shooting guard and small forward and Morrison’s recovery from a knee injury that cost him the previous season — were secondary to how expectations rattled Morrison. “As the season progressed, I sensed (his frustration). You’d hear some things in the crowd and see him react. So I had some talks with him and that’s when I realized (how unhappy he was.) He said all along he’s never felt comfortable here. He told me everybody had high expectations. When you’re the third pick in the draft, that’s just the way it is — it’s not going to change. Hopefully with a year under him (elsewhere) he’ll fill his potential.”