Messina wants to be an NBA coach. But he also "gets it" that he'll have to do a few years as an assistant too. From what I've read, this is why he quit Real. Not sure that it was his failure at Real, or Real's failure of buying into a system that required some humility on their part.
Despite my misgivings on Brown (and there are heaps), I like the way he's started. Approaching Messina and Grgurich is smart. He lands those guys and keeps Persons, it gives him immediate cachet.
http://with-malice.com/ - The half-crazed ramblings of a Lakers fanatic in Japan