By Anthony Caruso III | Publisher
The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired head coach David Blatt. With getting the pink slip on Friday afternoon, the team has promoted associate head coach Tyronn Lue to be the head coach.
This will be Lue’s first head coaching job, and he was reportedly coveted by LeBron James to be the head coach. There are reports that Bron Bron did not have a good relationship with Blatt.
While GM David Griffin said he was the one, who made the firing, one has to believe that James had something to do with it. There are reports that James — the Cavaliers and NBA’s biggest star — zoned him out by sitting in his seat during timeouts and in meetings.
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“I’m focusing on a bigger picture and I’m trying to decide — are we working toward a championship, are we building a championship culture,” Griffin said at a press conference at Cleveland’s training facility. “Sometimes you can win games in this league in the regular season and get worse, We were regressing over some time.
“I’m in our locker room a lot and I knew that there’s just a disconnect there right now. There’s a lack of spirit and connectedness that I just couldn’t accept. I know that sounds crazy when we’re sitting with a 30-11 record. I understand that.”
Plus, it’s been proven that James was calling his plays even when Blatt tried to call them. Blatt — a former Euroleague Championship head coach — was behind the eight ball almost from the get-go as there were rumors that he would get fired early last season.
He was named the team’s head coach when they were rebuilding before James decided to come back home to Northeast Ohio in the summer of 2014. Then, once James signed, they immediately went to being a championship contender.
Blatt’s firing is historic, as he had the best win percentage at the time of his firing. The Cavaliers are 30-11 — and had the best record in the Eastern Conference when the move was made.
The 30-11 record is the third-best in the NBA. Only the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs have better records.
Speaking of the Warriors, they dismantled the Cavaliers on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, losing 132-98. It was the worst loss in a game that James did not get injured in.
Blatt’s final win with the team was TNT Sports’ Thursday Night’s win over the Los Angeles Clippers. They won 115-102 over the Clip Show.
The Cavaliers were without Iman Shumpert and Kyrie Irving for the first two months of the season. Even without them, it’s being reported that the team wasn’t celebrating wins — like in the past — and there was a disconnect with Kevin Love, as well.
Love — who criticized the team after the Warriors loss and said it begins “with our leader” while looking over to LeBron’s direction — didn’t fit into Blatt’s system. The entire NBA will see if he’ll fit into Lue’s system when the Cavaliers take on the Chicago Bulls on ABC’s new Saturday Night Primetime at 8:30 pm from the Quicken Loans Arena.
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There was even speculation that Love would be traded before all this went down. According to NBA Insiders, LeBron wanted the Cavaliers to acquire Sacramento Kings power forward DeMarcus Cousins — who the team could have only acquired in a trade with Love.
Blatt — who guided the team to The Finals last summer before losing to the Warriors in six games — has become the seventh head coach in the past 40 years to reach the championship series. Then, to be fired the next season.
“I am proud of what we have accomplished since I have been the head coach and wish the Cavaliers nothing but the best this season and beyond,” Blatt said on Twitter.
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