In perhaps the most shocking personnel move in NBA history, David Blatt was fired as Head Coach of the 30-11 Cleveland Cavaliers. And it may have been the correct move. So let’s debut what I hope will be a recurring feature at RDT World, Five and Five: Five reasons this is the correct move for the Cleveland Cavaliers, and five reasons this is a bad move for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
First, five reasons why this was the correct move for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
No 1: Blatt hasn’t found a way to integrate Kevin Love successfully after a season and a half.
What’s the deal here? Many fans have put the onus on Kevin Love here, claiming he just put up empty stats for a losing Minnesota team for a few years. And while empty stats are definitely a thing (looking at you Monta Ellis), I argue that Love was in fact a great player for Minnesota. The 2014 Minnesota Timberwolves were better than anyone remembers. They only went 40-42 in the tough Western Conference, but had a 48-34 Pythagorean W-L. This means they were unlucky by about eight games. While his raw stats were impressive (20-15, 26-13, 26-12 peak years, excellent 3P shooting) his advanced stats were also amazing (.245 WS/48, 120 offensive rating, 29% usage in 2014). He only has one (huge) flaw, which is that he’s just as bad defensively as he is good offensively. But Cleveland should have found a way to make Kevin Love work, and that’s on the Head Coach.
No 2: LeBron James didn’t like Blatt and loves Tyronne Lue.
If your superstar player doesn’t want you to be the Head Coach you’re going to have issues winning it all no matter what. A great example of this? The 2004 Los Angeles Lakers where Kobe led to the ousting of Phil Jackson. All that dysfunction is difficult to overcome. Players will often follow their leader on the court over their Head Coach when push comes to shove. Don’t forget, LeBron had basically told Blatt what do so in certain situations (like changing the play so he could hit the game winner against Chicago, and the Tristan Thompson sub controversy against Atlanta), and the team followed LeBron.
No 3: Without LeBron the Cavs were awful.
Anyone remember that stretch where LeBron sat out for a couple of weeks last season and the Cavs fell below .500? What happened there? Why is everyone around LeBron James not able to hold the fort? I understand losing LeBron is a huge piece, but a team with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving should have been able to hold the fort in the Eastern Conference.
No 4: Blatt was severely outcoached by Steve Kerr in the NBA Finals.
Maybe it’s hard to fault Blatt since he was missing Irving and Love here, but Kerr’s switch to Andre Iguodala absolutely sunk a Cleveland Cavalier team that somehow was only two games away from winning the title.
No 5: The 34 point trashing by Golden State in Cleveland last week showed how far behind the Cavs were to winning the title.
The Cavs have had two huge tests this year and failed the both. First, San Antonio outplayed them. But that’s fine, the game was moderately close. Golden State on the other hand absolutely embarrassed Cleveland on their home floor. For Cleveland right now, it’s all or nothing. Winning the East means nothing. Of course Cleveland is going to win the East. But they are going to have to beat San Antonio or Golden State and, especially in Golden State’s case, Cleveland is not in the same league as the top Western Conference title contenders. How Cleveland could not show up in such a huge regular season game was baffling.
Now, five reasons Cleveland made a mistake.
No 1: The Cavs are currently 30-11 on top of the Eastern Conference.
Without Kyrie Irving for most of the season no less! They are on pace for a 60-22 season. LeBron is great, but the Cavs have improved from last season (they’d only need to go 23-18 the rest of the way to match last year’s record). Cleveland has had a couple new pieces too that integrated nicely (like Mo Williams). I mean how many teams even with great players go 30-11 for the first half?
No 2: The Cavs beat the Thunder and the Clippers.
They beat the other two Western Conference contenders this season and in the Clippers case, it was a good win. They were close in San Antonio. The Cavs seem like they can hang with the top teams at least and are capable of beating them. I get that Golden State has their number, but Golden State is just in another world right now.
No 3: Blatt has an 83-40 regular season record and a 14-6 playoff record.
Sure he has a great team, but it’s not like the Cavs lost big games they should have won. The promptly took care of business in the Eastern Conference last season and it was a bit of an upset that they took Golden State to six after losing Kyrie Irving. Even if Blatt wasn’t the best Head Coach and LeBron was amazing, it was clearly a combination that could have won the NBA Title last year. 83-40 is pretty good for a team that was slapped together. Remember, Erik Spoelstra didn’t win the title in the first LeBron year either…and they weren’t guaranteed anything after that either. What if Tyronne Lue is worse?
No 4: We don’t know what Tyronne Lue brings to the table.
All we know is players went to him most of the time and that he’s LeBron’s guy. Should we be placating LeBron? Remember, Doug Collins was Michael Jordan’s guy…then he got fired, Phil Jackson became Head Coach and the Bulls won a bunch of NBA Titles. If Cleveland did this just to placate LeBron and keep him in Cleveland I understand, but there’s a serious risk in regards to a coaching change this late in the season. The best case scenario is that the players play really hard for Lue because they like him. The worst case is that players are forced to learn new things in January and it messes up the team. And if Cleveland falls short…what happens then?
No 5: David Blatt was Dan Gilbert’s guy.
It’s being reported that Tyronne Lue is going to be the guy who “gets on his stars” and holds all players accountable, something Blatt apparently didn’t do. Blatt probably didn’t do this because Gilbert doesn’t want LeBron or even Irving to leave Cleveland. What if Lue gets on his stars and his stars end up not playing well? Can LeBron and Love take criticism? And is Gilbert happy that LeBron’s guy is now the Head Coach?
To be honest, I like the reasons to fire him more. If the Head Coach isn’t doing his job well, then he has to go. The Cleveland Cavaliers want to win the NBA Title now and any distractions need to go. They’re winning the East for sure. They just need to find a formula to beat the Spurs or Warriors and it didn’t seem like David Blatt had that answer.