If you look at the NBA standings, out of the 16 teams in the Eastern Conference, one squad stands tallest. It’s the Cleveland Cavaliers. Sporting a 30-11 win-loss record (that’s a 73.2 percent winning clip), they lead the second-placers Toronto Raptors by three games. The Cavs carry an impressive 16-2 record when playing at “The Q,” their Quicken Loans Arena in downtown Cleveland.
Their last 10 games? They won eight. And who can forget them reaching the NBA Finals last season, leading the Warriors two games to one before losing 4-2. Impressive numbers, right? Absolutely.
Well, not exactly. In a bold, decisive and, to many, shocking move, the Cavaliers management have fired their head coach David Blatt. What? Yes, despite leading the conference and getting poised to trample upon the much-weaker East, they tore apart his $5 million annual contract that was stipulated to end next season.
Perplexing? Yes and No. First, “The Loss.” This, to me, was the final episode that tipped the Cavs owners to make the astonishing decision. “The Loss” means that game between Cleveland and Golden State last Monday. After the two finalists played on Christmas Day in California (with GSW winning 89-83), it was revenge time for the Ohio team.
What transpired was more than shocking. It was embarrassing. The Cavs trailed by 30 in the first half and the deficit reached 43 after halftime. At game’s end, the scoreboard read 132-98 for the Warriors. Can you imagine, all game long, the frustration and shame felt by the Cavaliers fans and their owners? Now that the Triple Threat (LeBron, Kevin and Kyrie) was complete, they get disgraced like this? At home?
Never mind if, in the next two games after that horror, the Cavs defeat the Nets and the Clippers — the decision has been made: something drastic has to be done.
David Blatt… you’re fired! So, this is both shocking and not-so-shocking. In a piece by Nate Silver entitled “LeBron’s Cavs Are The Best Team Ever To Fire Its Coach Midseason,” the author writes: “Coaches don’t usually get fired when their teams are playing well. But Blatt’s Cavs haven’t just been good; they’ve been on the verge of great. The team’s current ELO rating is 1669, far higher than that of any other team when it fired a coach mid-season.”
True. But it’s all about expectations. To many, leading the East and garnering a 73 percent winning percentage is excellent. But to LeBron James & Co., that’s not good enough. They want more. And they’ve assembled the James-Love-Irving triumvirate not merely to reach the playoffs. There’s only one goal and that’s to win the NBA season’s very last game.
Why not wait, some are asking, for the season to end before deciding on Blatt’s fate? No, no. The Cavs are impatient — as they should be. And it appears that, behind the scenes, the Cavs were not as cohesive as they need to be.
Amin Elhassan of ESPN Insider says this of the change: “Good move. There had been friction between Blatt and the locker room for most of his tenure. That makes his winning percentage sort of irrelevant because if the team isn’t fully invested, nothing else matters.”
Who’s the replacement? Tyronn Jamar Lue is the new coach. A former NBA player (who won two rings in the ‘90s with the Lakers), he was the Cavs’ assistant coach before moving up the corporate ladder. Based on my readings, Ty Lue is well-liked by the players, especially by the NBA’s four-time MVP, LBJ.
ESPN’s Elhassan’s take on the 38-year-old Lue? TBD, he says. To be determined. “In the short term, it’s a good move in that he has the ear and respect of the locker room, so buy-in will come much more easily for him, especially considering players typically want to play well for a well-liked, respected assistant coach in his first head-coaching gig.”
My take? Given the embarrassment LeBron faced against Steph Curry, this move is necessary. But the burden’s on Coach Ty. He ought to remember this: Blatt was the third coach to be fired in the last four seasons.
