The Cleveland Cavaliers made a big move on Friday afternoon as they canned head coach David Blatt. The move in and of itself was not all that surprising as things haven't been smooth since he got to Cleveland but the timing was a bit curious. After the firing many people immediately pointed to LeBron James as the reason Blatt was fired but he was not even consulted on the decision, according to Brian Windhorst of ESPN.
Many fans view LeBron as not only the star player of the Cavaliers but also the head coach and the general manager but that is just not true. The actual GM is David Griffin and he was the one who made the decision to fire Blatt as he convinved owenership that the team was underachieving, according to Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon-Journal. LeBron certainly had his issues with Blatt over the course of his year plus tenure with the Cavaliers but the problems reportedly ran much deeper than just him.
The feeling around the league is that if LeBron were the one making this decision it would have been made last season. Let's not forget that Blatt was hired before LeBron decided to return to Cleveland so the Cavaliers were expecting Blatt to coach a young team that included players like Andrew Wiggins but instead he got a team that was expected to compete for a championship immediately.
Many of the players felt Blatt was in over his head and that his message wasn't getting through to the team at all. Blatt continuously would freeze up while drawing up plays and would regularly run plays for guys that weren't even in the game, according to Ananth Pandian of CBS Sports. In the locker room the players reportedly were able to tolerate Blatt while they were winning but when they were losing they placed all of the blame on the head coach.
Now the job is Tyronn Lue's, Blatt's associate head coach, and it seems as though this was always the future plan. Lue is not an interim head coach as he got a three year deal to be the head coach and he has the trust of all of the players. LeBron has been adament about having a former player be the team's head coach and the rest of the players feel he is a better fit for the team because he can relate to them better.
Blatt was in a no win situation when LeBron decided to return to Cleveland as Lue was always going to be the head coach of the future. Blatt led the Cavaliers to the finals last season and his team had the best record in the Eastern Conference at the time of his firing but that wasn't enough. Some people may believe that LeBron was the reason for Blatt's ouster but it seems pretty clear that if he had his way Blatt wouldn't have coached a single game this season.
