The Cleveland Cavaliers were the talk of the sports world last weekend when they decided to fire head coach David Blatt despite being in first place in the Eastern Conference. Cleveland had a coach in waiting that it really liked, Tyronn Lue, and felt it was time for him to take the reigns as the Cavaliers feel he gives them the best shot to win this season. Now that Lue is the head coach, the question becomes what exactly will he change, and it seems as though Kevin Love and Mo Williams might be the biggest beneficiaries of Lue being the new head coach, according to Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com.
Love started off the season playing extremely well as the Cavaliers' second option on offense while Kyrie Irving was recovering from a knee injury. Since Irving has come back, Love has fallen back to a third option, and his numbers have dipped because of it. While Lue still believes that sacrificing for the betterment of the team is still important for Love, he plans to get him more touches in the post.
Since coming to Cleveland, Love has basically been a glorified spot-up shooter. Love is making 36 percent of his threes and is capable of maintaining that number, but he is much more than just a spot-up shooter. Lue hopes to get him more involved in the offense by getting him better looks closer to the basket, and that seems to be a very good idea.
Aside from getting Love more post touches, Lue also plans to get Williams back into the rotation. Williams has fallen to third on the point guard depth chart since Irving came back, and Matthew Dellavedova passed him for the backup spot. Lue's plan is to use a 10-man rotation including Williams, which could be bad news for Dellavedova. Williams was signed this offseason to be the backup behind Irving, a spot the Cavs struggled with last season, but Williams has been frustrated with his role and not getting the minutes he thought he would. Lue seems like he is ready to change that.
Lue made these statements before he coached his first game, and he didn't exactly accomplish either of his goals in his head coaching debut, a 13- point loss to the Chicago Bulls. In Lue's debut, Williams saw just three minutes of action, compared to Dellavedova's 23, and Love took 12 shots, five of which were from three-point range. Lue clearly has a plan he wants to execute for certain players, but he wasn't able to do that in his debut. It is just one game, though, so we will have to see if Lue is able to accomplish what he said he hoped to and if Williams and Love will benefit from the change as much as it seemed they would.
