Hired by Michael Jordan, Larry Brown will be motivated to succeed in Charlotte after his one-year debacle in New York. AP Related Links BURNS: Whirlwind summer for Bulls' Del Negro

Eight teams hired new coaches this offseason. What are the unique challenges facing each man and his prospects for achieving them? Let's take a look:

Larry Brown, Charlotte Bobcats

Challenges

• Patience. Famous for falling out of love with players as quickly as he falls in love with them, Brown needs to resist the urge that prompted him to push for the acquisition of Steve Francis while coaching the Knicks (Brown and Francis butted heads during their short stint together in 2006). The Bobcats have a promising young core, with Gerald Wallace, Jason Richardson and Emeka Okafor, and though it may not be perfectly matched, it has shown it can hang with the league's best teams on a given night. There's no reason to drastically alter this team until its potential is known, especially when a mere playoff appearance would mark a successful season. With a motivated Brown on the bench, the Bobcats finally have a coach who can find that potential.

• Forge a meeting of the egos. The last time Brown matched wits with a Hall of Fame player in the front office, he ended up uninvited to his own team's predraft workouts and out of a job after one season in New York. While history tells us that Brown has a better eye for talent than front-office leader Michael Jordan, this is MJ's team, and MJ isn't likely to be cast out of a job in the state of North Carolina. Working with Jordan, though, could offer Brown more influence than he's had since he left Philadelphia the first time. Jordan has never been a hands-on leader, and being as hungry to rejuvenate his reputation as Brown is his, he'll likely be willing to listen to Brown's suggestions.

• Preach defense. The 'Cats allowed opponents to shoot 46.6 percent from the field last season. Only eight teams ranked worse, and, like Charlotte, none of them reached the playoffs, either. Conventional wisdom holds that defense is merely a matter of effort, but for a team that hasn't played it, well, ever, it's going to take some time -- and some thick skin -- to accept Brown's hard lessons.

Prospects

Charlotte needs to at least get a whiff of the playoff race. The current core hasn't progressed in two seasons, and owner Bob Johnson is probably getting a little antsy to see some sort of positive return after finally opening up his wallet for Richardson, Okafor and Matt Carroll. Given all of that, turning the keys over to Brown this season isn't the worst idea, especially considering the fact that working for Isiah Thomas is no way for anyone to end a career.

Rick Carlisle, Dallas Mavericks

Challenges

• Find a happy medium with the boss. Mark Cuban may be the most innovative owner in sports. There are few tools or ideas Cuban isn't willing to incorporate to keep the Mavs winning. But his dominant personality can make things difficult for his coach. How can a coach get his players' attention when he has to direct their focus away from the braying owner? How can a coach maintain his authority when the owner is protesting a call more vociferously than he is? The Mavs eventually tuned out Avery Johnson; can Carlisle avoid a similar fate?

• Coax the last few miles out of Jason Kidd. Anyone who watched Kidd in last season's playoffs or in this summer's Olympics witnessed why the Mavs may regret dealing the 25-year-old Devin Harris for a future Hall of Famer who is closer to induction than to helping a team win a title. Harris won't craft the career Kidd has, but his quickness and shooting accuracy (46.7 percent in four seasons) would be of much greater use in the Western Conference now. Worse, a player of Kidd's caliber often is the last to admit his decline. Carlisle will have to be creative in stealing Kidd enough rest each night to squeeze all he can out of those 35-year-old legs.

• Get past the first round. Only two years ago, Dallas was one of the league's brightest stars, with young talent, veteran scoring off the bench and a willingness to play gritty defense. The Mavs still have talent in perennial MVP candidate Dirk Nowitzki, the versatile Josh Howard and relatively reliable backcourt scorer Jason Terry, but now they're just one of many contending hopefuls in the deep West. With the older players they've acquired, and a psyche still scarred by losing the 2006 Finals and a 2007 first-round series to the eighth-seeded Warriors, the Mavs need Carlisle to help shake this team out of its playoff funk.

Prospects

This isn't a franchise in the middle of rebuilding or one that needs seasoning. The Mavs want a taste of the Finals again. That doesn't provide Carlisle much room for interpreting his results. The good news is that he has the weapons to at least improve on back-to-back playoff flameouts.

Michael Curry, Detroit Pistons

Challenges

• Need for Sheed. Amid all the on-court histrionics and technical fouls, it's easy to forget just how gifted a player Rasheed Wallace is. Problem is, Wallace is just as likely to disappear from a game as take it over. When he believes in his coach (i.e. Larry Brown), Wallace is more likely to respond; when he doesn't (i.e. Flip Saunders), the Pistons suffer. Curry seems to be off to a good start with Wallace, who attended the new coach's introductory news conference. If Curry can extend the honeymoon, Detroit's regular date in the conference finals may not be over. If not, president Joe Dumars will probably be playing divorce attorney by the trade deadline.

• Reach the Finals. Though Dumars suggested big changes after last season, Curry is the only major addition. Given the standard set in Detroit -- six consecutive conference finals, the last three ending in defeat -- that leaves only one mark by which Curry can prove his hiring was the right move: Win the East. That's a tall order: The Pistons' core is aging, and the conference includes the title-winning Celtics, the revamped 76ers and that guy in Cleveland.

• Coach 'em up. Curry, who played 11 NBA seasons, has undoubtedly been exposed to plenty of coaching styles and philosophies. Is one year as an assistant coach under Saunders enough to understand how best to employ his strategies? Curry, a former union president, will have the respect of players who believe he understands what they endure over the course of a season. But will this experienced group cut Curry the slack any rookie coach needs?

Prospects

It's refreshing to see any team eschew the usual lineup of retreads to hire a new man, and Dumars has an eye for talent and chemistry. But the Pistons, loaded with experience, will be quick to notice if Curry doesn't have the X's-and-O's chops to get them to the place they feel they deserve to be each June. And even if you assume Curry does hold this team together, the moves made throughout the East won't allow Detroit to separate itself as it has in years past.

Mike D'Antoni, New York Knicks

Challenges

• Win over the team. On paper, the Knicks have a fantasy team's worth of talent; they should for the $95 million they paid in salaries last season. In reality, under Thomas they gave the effort of a beached whale. Part of that was a result of filling the locker room with the type of me-first players of which lottery teams are built. And part of that was the result of a coach who had lost his players' attention. If D'Antoni can squeeze a consistent effort out of this group, he will have done more than any coach since Jeff Van Gundy left town in 2001.

• Win over the fans. Rare was the night last season when Knicks fans didn't chant "Fire Isiah" repeatedly during games. Beyond deflating the team's motivation, that just wasn't good for business. Who wants to buy a jersey celebrating a team that is a media punch line? Gaining the loyalty of the crowd with a team that clearly plays hard will buy D'Antoni and president Donnie Walsh the patience they need to carefully extract the team from salary-cap hell.

• Win over the media. With a big assist from the team's Kremlin-style media policy, Thomas all but handed a shovel to the New York press, which responded to Isiah's evasiveness and coaching incompetence with an almost daily dose of vitriol. When the media are actively fostering discontent, a coach and his team spend too much time defending themselves. D'Antoni and Walsh need the local press on their side if they hope to sell some of the uneven trades that the Knicks have to make if they hope to slash salary and gain flexibility.

Prospects

D'Antoni should enjoy a lengthy honeymoon period simply because he's not Isiah. Having won an average of 58 games the previous four seasons in Phoenix, D'Antoni will get the respect that Thomas didn't have. That doesn't mean there isn't a difficult year in store, with plenty of losses, an unpredictable Stephon Marbury (assuming he's around fulfilling the final year of his contract) and a fluid roster all to be negotiated.