Cavaliers remove Tyronn Lue

Now that I finally have gotten past what seemed like twenty items to have time to write this, we finally move to the Cleveland Cavaliers firing of Tyronn Lue.

The Cavaliers had lost their first six games under Lue, but under interim head coach, Larry Drew won their first game last night over the Atlanta Hawks 136-114.
Lue, who won over 200 games at a percentage of over sixty percent, was the winning coach of the only championship team in franchise history.

The Cavaliers stumbled early with an injury to Kevin Love's toe, which is expected to keep him off the floor for as long as a month, but the larger factor seemed to be the pace of play installed by Lue.
Lue wanted to play at a faster pace, which the NBA is moving towards today, but still had personnel made for the surrounding cast for LeBron James, which to paraphrase the Boss, wasn't quite "Born to Run".

Another issue with Lue was that he wanted to continue to give the veterans (George Hill over Collin Sexton as the biggest issue) more playing time than the younger players, who would be more of a part of the rebuild.
General Manager Koby Altman had sold Lue on their intent to contend for a playoff spot and Lue was playing veterans that he thought (often incorrectly) would give the team a better chance to win.
The only argument that the front office could make would be that the more that veterans like Kyle Korver (very valuable to a contender), J.R Smith ( I'm not sure that the team could give Smith away under almost any circumstances) and Channing Frye (brought to help the younger big men, not to log huge minutes) would play, perhaps they could improve their marketability.

The Cavaliers are trying to have their cake and eat it too as they want to play the predominantly younger players, yet proclaim their interest in making the playoffs in which they aren't nearly as likely to challenge for the postseason using those players.
However, if the Cavaliers truly want to play the younger players and hope for the best, Tyronn Lue wasn't the best choice for the job.
They could have done a much better job in communicating that decision to Lue and perhaps this split (Much like the Browns with Hue Jackson) would have been better to have taken place during the summer to benefit both parties.

Of course, this being the Cavaliers, there is a certain amount of stress as interim coach Larry Drew wants to be named the full time coach at a bump in salary, while the team has named him interim coach for now.
This means that of course the relationship has stumbled out of the gate and no matter how well things turn out for a while, this will be remembered and will come up again sooner or later.
Drew spent three years as the head coach of the Atlanta Hawks and one with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Drew coached the Hawks to the playoffs for all three seasons in Atlanta, before spending the next year in Milwaukee, where a disastrous 15-67 season gave Drew a deceiving 144-169 record.

Drew coached the Cavaliers to wins in eight of nine games last season during Tyronn Lue's medical absence, so he's somewhat used to being the head man.
Drew could be a good choice for the rest of the year, but considering this organization's history in bungling (other than having the world's best player want to return to his hometown team, it's less than dazzling under the ownership of Dan Gilbert), doesn't really give me confidence to say this will end well.

Tyronn Lue could have been freed in the off-season, it would have been the right thing to do, but sometimes you have to actually see a bad idea instead of imagining it.
Still, the firing now will help Lue be the more than likely favorite for the "team that many expected to contend, but have underachieved" head coaching position before the end of the season.
Now, the next step is to see if improvement comes under Drew and just what changes are made under Drew...

Next time- I hope to start the TRS boxing ratings or a piece on Emanuel Steward that I've been holding for a slow day.

No more excuses-Cavaliers axe David Blatt

The Cleveland Cavaliers surprised the basketball world and knocked the Browns and their hires to fill out Hue Jackson's staff off the front page with the firing of David Blatt as head coach.

The Cavaliers posted a 30-11 record thus far this season under Blatt,which was the best record in the Eastern Conference,so on the surface-one could wonder just what the hell is going on in Cleveland.
However,if you have watched the team under Blatt over his tenure with the team,you can understand it pretty quickly.
David Blatt never seemed to grasp what type of team that he had in Cleveland and this goes all the way to when he was hired.
Please recall that David Blatt was hired before the return of LeBron James,so Blatt accepted a job that was offered that was still a rebuilding effort built around Kyrie Irving,Tristan Thompson,the departed Dion Waiters and the just drafted Andrew Wiggins.
Compare that to the setup that he would wind up with-LeBron James,Kevin Love etc and you can see that Blatt was far better suited to coach a young team in the beginning stages of development than one loaded with veteran talent with the potential to win a championship.

I loved Andrew Wiggins from day one and was against the Cavaliers trading him for Kevin Love,although I understood considering the credentials of Love- especially if they could re-sign him to a deal (They didn't right after the swap,but would after the season).
I believe it was that trade that began the eventual destruction of David Blatt as the Cavaliers just never seemed to mesh between the pair.
I don't think it is much of a stretch to say that Kevin Love has been a disappointment,but calling him a bust as some have is an even bigger reach.
Kevin Love is the player most on the spot now (in my opinion) even more than LeBron James as he will have a chance to overcome the perception of Blatt's inability to make the best of Love's skills.
In other words-Love is out of excuses.

Blatt at his core is a coach that believes in keeping the basketball moving and the team he was hired to coach might have been able to develop into that type of team.
Instead,he had a clear the floor squad with three talents that may not need to have the ball in their hands at all times,but certainly aren't the types to avoid having it there often.
Blatt seemed to struggle with X's and O's,which was the opposite of the reputation that he came in with and often seemed to be a wallflower when dealing with his star players.
I'm not going to speculate on the locker room because I'm not there and no matter what you read-it's all speculation,but it seems by almost all accounts that there was issues and respect had been lost.
It isn't very often that a successful team makes this sort of move,but I can see why the move is made.
Clearly,the Cavaliers have work to do in order to defeat Golden State,San Antonio or any other Western survivor in a possible NBA finals and with only one slot available for an upgrade (a possible buyout free agent),this move might be the only one that has the potential to make the type of progress needed....

As far as Tyronn Lue goes,he is reported to have the respect that Blatt lacked as a former player,Doc Rivers protege' and assistant,Lue has been one of the top assistants mentioned that would be ready to make the jump to head man.
Lue was hired at head coach dollars to be the top assistant in case that the Blatt experiment went awry and he'll need to do a Pat Riley level ascension in order for the team to top a finals visit.

Only in Cleveland,could a first place team create such drama,but any observer could see that change had become needed,if not mandatory.
David Blatt is not a bad coach and I don't hold him accountable for some of the shortcomings.
However,LeBron James is only getting older and I don't want to waste chances-I'm OK with it,even if it wasn't all David Blatt's fault.....