Lebron, The Cavs and David Blatt

[Dave Gray]

This news broke kinda late on a Friday, so we never discussed it.

I am very surprised by this.  I think that there's something strong about being willing to fire a guy who is doing well, because you think he's ultimately wrong for the franchise.  But I don't think the Cavs are a strong organization and are doing this for the wrong reasons, and because they've given too much organizational control to their locker room.

Thoughts?

[Spider-Dan]

David Blatt was fortunate to have a job after the Bulls playoff series (when he tried to call a timeout that CLE didn't have, which would have lost the game).  He's also lucky LeBron won two games in the Finals; if they would have gotten swept by the Dubs, Blatt would have been fired on the spot.

[Phishfan]

Every team in the NBA has a powerful locker room. That said, I think Cleveland was winning despite Blatt and not because of him. It isn't just Lebron that was under the impression Blatt was over his head in the NBA. It sure seems crazy to fire a coach with that resume but I don't think the guy was going to carry the Cavs anywhere.

[Rich]

David Blatt was a coach the Cavs hired to run a crappy team with a bunch of young players.

Then the Cavs got Lebron back.

[Spider-Dan]

Here's an example of why Blatt was replaced by Tyronn Lue:

"During the first portion of the 2014-15 season, film sessions were a topic of discussion among the players. Blatt was reluctant to criticize star players even when they clearly messed up a play. This became routine. It got so bad that I'm told that Lue finally intervened, stood up and demanded that somebody rewind the footage so that he could get on members of The Big 3.

During team scrimmages, players competed aggressively but bit their tongues as Blatt frequently blew his whistle to call ticky-tack or phantom fouls for his go-to players. One player said sometimes Blatt didn't even have a whistle and would yell at the top of his lungs to stop play and call a foul if one of his stars acted as if he was hit.

It was viewed as a blatant attempt to get in the good graces of his top talent. Blatt's leadership was in question. Players grew tired of this treatment. The locker room started resenting Blatt's handling, or lack thereof, when it came to dealing with his stars.

Word circulated to cleveland.com that Blatt had trouble drawing up plays out of timeouts. He would freeze up and waste precious seconds, one player said. He would even draw up plays for players who weren't in the game, another player said.

In the closeout game of the Eastern Conference Finals, a game the Cavaliers trounced the Atlanta Hawks by 30 to sweep the series; Blatt had signaled for Tristan Thompson to reenter in the closing minutes with the game already wrapped up. This was when Thompson was the team's most valuable big man with Kevin Love out of commission with a dislocated shoulder.

The bench couldn't believe it. They were shocked, as was Thompson, who never questions authority. LeBron James told Blatt to put somebody else in the game, out of concern a key cog might get hurt before The Finals, a league source said. Kendrick Perkins got the nod, and a few minutes later, Brendan Haywood's number was called to finish it out."