The Cleveland Cavaliers decided to fire David Blatt on Friday and the decision itself didn't shock anyone but the timing of it did. Blatt was heavily scrutinized for his entire year and a half tenure as the head coach in Cleveland and didn't seem to get along with a lot of his players but he did do a lot of winning while he was there. Evaluating Blatt's tenure in Cleveland is a strange thing to try and do because on the surface it seems as though he was extremely successful but when you dig deeper there are a lot of stories about how he was inept as a coach. So was Blatt's time in Cleveland a failure or a success? The answer likely lies somewhere in the middle.
When attempting to evaluate Blatt the first thing that must be considered is the fact that he was not hired to coach a team that was expected to be a championship contender right away. The Cavaliers hired Blatt in the summer of 2014 before they knew that LeBron James was coming back home and before they made the Kevin Love trade. The plan for Cleveland was for Blatt to take his lumps coaching a young team that consisted of players like Andrew Wiggins, Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson. Blatt had never coached in the NBA before so clearly there was going to be some sort of learning curve for him. The fact that the Cavaliers hired a coach before LeBron made his final decision was completely on them.
When you look at on the court there are reports that Blatt regularly would freeze up while drawing up a play, or he would draw up a play for a player that wasn't even in the game. These kinds of things are certainly not a good look for Blatt if true and serve as a big mark against him. Blatt also didn't really have the trust of the players as it regularly looked at times like LeBron was coaching the team and drawing up the plays. Some Cavaliers players reportedly felt as though Blatt was in way over his head with this job and they typically blamed him for losses and were able to fathom him when they won.
Despite all of these negative reports against Blatt it is hard to argue with the results he got while he was at the helm. In his first season the Cavaliers won 53 games, which was the most in the Eastern Conference, and made it all the way to the NBA Finals before losing to a great Golden State Warriors team in six games. Let's not forget that when LeBron was in Miami he Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh did not win a title in their first year and this Cavaliers team likely faced a tougher matchup in the finals. Blatt was able to lead this team to a game six of the NBA Finals without Love, who injured his shoulder in the first round, and without Irving, who injured his knee in game one of the finals.
This season the Cavaliers were even better to start than they were a year ago. Blatt lasted 41 games and in those 41 games the Cavaliers went 30-11 which was first in the East by a longshot. Blatt was the first coach ever to be fired by a team that was first in their conference and since Tyronn Lue has taken over for him the Cavs have gone 1-1 with a blowout loss to the Chicago Bulls and an unimpressive win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Blatt may have had his issues while coaching the Cavaliers based on the reports of his play calling and how the team felt about him but he had no trouble getting results. Yes the team is loaded with talent but they were also a new team last year without any chemistry and they have dealt with plenty of injuries this year. Lue is only two games into his head coaching career so it is unfair to judge him yet, but it seems pretty obvious that the coaching isn't the issue with the Cavs, if they have one at all. Blatt has been buried in the media plenty since getting fired but that is unfair to him. He was put in a no-win situation and still was able to win plenty of games with the Cavaliers. Nobody will confuse Blatt for an all-time great coach but he was able to make the best of the situation he was in while with the Cavaliers and the fact that he is viewed as the scapegoat is the wrong way to look at it.
