David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[mhi]

Great article regarding the team going forward w/out K.Love. Calls out Blatt for the injury excuses, much like I did earlier in the year, among other good points.

Certainly, the Cavaliers preferred not to need to repeat the Heat's resourcefulness; James, in particular, doesn't like to play the 4-spot and made that plainly known during his time with Miami, even as the Heat's numbers were devastatingly dominant with him in that role. It was one of the few lingering points of contention, in what otherwise grew into a relatively healthy relationship between coach and star.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/...vs-to-change-and-test-worthiness-to-be-champs

Same solution I put in the TT thread: Lebron embraces playing at the 4 until Love gets back.

This injury is just the "adversity" we needed for our inexperienced guys to grow mentally. Most especially Blatt who will have his work cut out for him.

 

[Green Lantern]

Some people are clamoring for Blatt to play our remaining starters/key rotation guys absurd minutes, others are wanting Blatt to dust off guys like Marion or Miller to play key minutes (and perhaps even start). So there's absolutely no way Blatt will please everyone.

Even if the Cavs beat the Bulls incredibly short-handed, players will get the praise. If the Cavs lose while incredibly short-handed, Blatt (and to a much lesser degree Olynyk, J.R. and the Boston series refs) will get all the blame. Thank god I'm not a coach.

With JR being out the first game I mentioned starting Shump because he's the first bench player at the 2.
You can't play him for 48 minutes so you have get someone else in at the 2 . That doesn't leave a whole lot off the bench.
Putting Lebron at the four minimizes the loss to Love ,than putting Jones there.
I've seen him down low trying to defend PF's and he gets manhandled..
For me it's a matter of getting the most effective rotation ,not who's getting the credit and blame.
Any lineup with that first game is going to be suspect.

 

[Damien O'Connel]

I'll just leave this here.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV3O94yv4vc

 

[Willard513]

With JR being out the first game I mentioned starting Shump because he's the first bench player at the 2.
You can't play him for 48 minutes so you have get someone else in at the 2 . That doesn't leave a whole lot off the bench.
Putting Lebron at the four minimizes the loss to Love ,than putting Jones there.
I've seen him down low trying to defend PF's and he gets manhandled..
For me it's a matter of getting the most effective rotation ,not who's getting the credit and blame.
Any lineup with that first game is going to be suspect.

I kno this is gonna get rejected pretty heavily, but I wouldn't mine giving joe Harris about 5 mins a game to get some playoff burn against their bench scrubs. If we think he is in our future plans, it wouldn't be a bad idea to give him a little playoff burn. But if that's a negative for people, then I think the only logical option is having KI play some 2 with delly at the 1 for a decent amount of minutes.

 

[Green Lantern]

I kno this is gonna get rejected pretty heavily, but I wouldn't mine giving joe Harris about 5 mins a game to get some playoff burn against their bench scrubs. If we think he is in our future plans, it wouldn't be a bad idea to give him a little playoff burn. But if that's a negative for people, then I think the only logical option is having KI play some 2 with delly at the 1 for a decent amount of minutes.

Some have mentioned that..especially the first game.
The major thing is continuing to get floor spacing from someone who can prevent the Bulls from clogging the paint.
Which means there has to be someone to hit long shots .
Second thing is to get the rotation down so even the bench players aren't getting too much minutes at a position they're not supposed to be on.
I checkwed and Blatt had to use 10 players yesterday.
Thats going to increase as the next series comes.

 

[Willard513]

Some have mentioned that..especially the first game.
The major thing is continuing to get floor spacing from someone who can prevent the Bulls from clogging the paint.
Which means there has to be someone to hit long shots .
Second thing is to get the rotation down so even the bench players aren't getting too much minutes at a position they're not supposed to be on.

Ya I agree, I just think that joe needs a little time in the PLayoffs to get his feet under him if he really is in their plans, and I definitely think he could guard someone like Kirk hinrich for 5 mins a game, no?

 

[getBUCKED]

It would be nice to see some sets run now instead of isolation island every time down the court. Need to put Lebron in better positions on the court, especially with an elite defender like Butler looming who has given Lebron trouble in the past.

 

[thoughtful]

Sorry, but Blatt should have done more. When Olynyk checked in on a free throw in the second half, Blatt should have inserted Haywood to block (knock) him out. Haywood earns his money and eternal respect in Cleveland, and Blatt earns his stripes.

 

[Hydroponic3385]

^Christ, we're already likely losing Smith for multiple games, and possibly even Perkins could be out a game. Was Blatt supposed to send a 1/3 of our roster out for intentional fouls and possible suspensions?

 

[dirtywax]

Blatt's gonna earn his pay this next series. Let's see what he's got.

 

[David.]

^Christ, we're already likely losing Smith for multiple games, and possibly even Perkins could be out a game. Was Blatt supposed to send a 1/3 of our roster out for intentional fouls and possible suspensions?

who gives a flying fuck about perkins production.

 

[Benedict_Boozer]

Blatt is being thrown into the fire here big time, he is having a crazy year if you think about it from a first year coach in terms of the number of issues he has had to navigate.

We'll need to be patient here because there is no great solution for losing 2 of your top 7 right before the semis like this.

 

[czvo]

Its not about the fine. Its about the refs. If you come out and criticise them publicly all that does is risk losing whatever gratis you have built through the season with then. Evidence would suggest they are easily swayed and incredibly important to the fate of a game so you have to do everything possible to make them work for you no matter how much you despise them. Essentially they are that douche doorman at your favorite club

Phil Jackson consistently spoke out about the refs the second he felt it wasn't going away. Almost without fail, the next game was far more even/in Chicago's or LA's favor.

 

[Paul]

We won a lot of games this year with K Love basically just camping on the perimeter shooting 3s and then doing his defensive rebounding. I think if we play James Jones in his absence and move LeBron to the 4, then basically LeBron can approximate his rebounding while James Jones hopefully hits at least 33% of his 3 pointers to give us some production and threat from that position. That would keep the driving lanes open. I think if we try and go with a more defense-oriented lineup, there will be too much pressure on LeBron and Kyrie to score 30 to 40 points each and they will also be mugged in the lanes. Delly will prob need to up his minutes to about 20, picking up some of JRs minutes. I think Blatt will go to Delly more, partly out of necessity but also I think Blatt just might feel that Delly can create plays and hustle and Delly does also shoot the 3 well, although, similar to JJ, they aren't falling lately. If Delly, JJ, and Mike Miller can shoot 3s around 33 to 40%, I things could go well.

Marion would be an improvement on defense, but I think his lack of a 3 ball really hurts and he I don't think has any feel at this point for his floaters and such. He hasn't been used much and I think it would be hard to expect him to suddenly get in rhythm in time. I think we just have to try and achieve floor spacing for LeBron and Kyrie and hope that is enough.

 

[CosmoKramer]

^@Paul why'd you quote Czvosec there? I don't think your post had a single thing to do with what he said.

The only real criticism I have of Blatt is he doesn't pull the trigger fast enough on timeouts when the other team starts making a run. We let a lot of big leads shrink against the Celts by letting them score unanswered points, I'd like to see Blatt ice those faster against the better teams we'll face coming up.