David Blatt is a former NBA coach

[Pioneer10]

The Cavs are not in an enviable position. They really only have three options, judging by the comments, and they all kind of suck right now. Which one would hurt least?

1. Keep Blatt, hope things correct themselves and we all laugh about this come May. Or it doesn't and they fire him after the season. Cue the fourth coach in three years and everything that entails.

2. Fire Blatt after the weekend and replace him with Lue. Now the season is in the hands of another rookie coach who is, by most accounts, not a great Xs and Os guy. It's his billet to run the defense. Which he has. Into the ground. If it works out, ok, if not, another coaching search. Maybe the Cavs need a personality guy like Lue rather than a another Popovich.

3. Fire Blatt, hire (preferably) George Karl or someone like Jackson. The Cavs now have the dislocation of a change in culture and trying to integrate a new system with new players in the middle of a season. Upside is they would then have all summer to prepare for the next season in a single system and with a unity of command with a coach whose previous work demands respect.

I don't really mean to demean Blatt by saying things aren't working out. Blatt was hired to coach a very different team. As a rookie coach who never even served as an assistant in the NBA. It is a lot to ask.

Karl seems to be least vomitous option. Experienced NBA coach, gets the most out of his team, players respect him, he's not Mark Jackson

 

[gratefuldead]

Karl seems to be least vomitous option. Experienced NBA coach, gets the most out of his team, players respect him, he's not Mark Jackson

i would prefer karl to jackson but my question is how would lebron react??

as much as we might hate it, this is all about lebron james and who he would play for..would he buy into karl?? would he respect karl?? i dunno

we know he loves m jax ...golden state did well under him too

 

[I-77 NORTH]

I don't know why I a sense a bit of remorse, or even guilt in most cases regarding letting Blatt go.

Hey listen, I get the whole 'he was supposed to coach a different team' argument, but that doesn't even help his case. He was coming in to coach a team that was A LOT (and I can't stress that enough) LESS talented than the team he was given. Your chances of winning a championship were supposed to increase when you got word that the best basketball player alive will be playing for your team.

Your coaching strategies weren't including Lebron or Love? Well tough fucking luck. Change your strategies. Make them include Lebron and Love. We don't have room for errors. Every day that goes by with another loss going up just further pushes our chances away of ever winning a championship.

Coaching is essential to young players, and demanded by veteran players. What we have here is a coach not commanding his players respect. None. Not since day 1. Ultimately, that leaves you with no choice but to make a change. And we all know how this goes. The scapegoat coach is the first one to get the blame. And in this case, it's rightfully so.

 

[Pioneer10]

Haralabos Voulgaris @haralabob · Jan 11
Not a fan. RT @donttw: @haralabob blatt is awful; when are you going to crush him

Haralabos Voulgaris @haralabob · Jan 11
Offense, him not being aware of 24 sec clock. RT @SimonABenedict: @haralabob what's his main weakness?

Haralabos Voulgaris @haralabob · Jan 11
Why wouldn’t Cleveland run that Love pick and roll / pick and pop over and over until someone could stop it?

Haralabos Voulgaris @haralabob · Jan 11
Cavs have the prototypical 4 out lineup right now, yet they never run that.

 

[gratefuldead]

that's the one thing i don't even fucking understand...ive been saying it since game one... why in gods name arent we running pick and pop or pick and roll w love?? seriously wtf? it seems go easy...shit we cant stop anyone else's p&r

 

[Kizzle]

Has Blatt learned yet that if Love rolls off picks instead of popping every single time it could do some good


Nvm because that would mean that Kyrie passed him the ball smh

 

[MirORich]

On one hand, I feel like we're having an elongated version of Miami first 20 games in 2011 and the ship can absolutely be righted in a way that results in wild success for everyone.

On the other, when it comes down to it, it's about the players. This is not a young losing team that gets a new coach who has full authority over them and can yield the hammer when needed.

This is one true superstar and two "should be" superstars/"think they're" superstars who more or less are going to decide whether they let a coach actually run the show.

So if LeBron(especially) and Love/Kyrie are already "over it" and "mind made up" with Blatt in a negative way, than f**K it, might as well just get the inevitable out of the way.

But if they are just frustrated and trying to figure things out in general, neither being 100% behind the coach or 100% against the coach, than I still lean towards to side of giving this full roster 10-15 games to get their sh*t together(and that include Blatt) before making a change.

But its really all on the players in terms of how they feel about the coach and while we all see the games and play amateur psychologist with effort, expressions, etc. do we truly know how they feel?

 

[Kizzle]

Kyrie running pick and roll might as well be renamed to Kyrie iso play number 2

Occasionally a TT lob is thrown but 95% of the time hes shooting


Just realized our teams very easy to defend because the players believe in their ability more than their teammates

How many times have we seen a big 3 member give a ball up and then become invisible like they are mad they couldn't shoot? Iv seen it most with Kyrie. Soon as he passes it in his mind the job is done. Fuck hustle, fuck cutting, fuck staying alert. Why do you think Kyrie is never the recipient of a slick backdoor cut? Homie quits with 20 seconds on the shotclock if he knows the play isn't for him

 

[Otsego Mar]

I love the smirk he had on his face when he said "I can't wait" in response to Fred's pregame question about getting guys back and in rhythm.

 

[Snarly]

Remember LeBron warned us of this? He knew this season would be one big stumble and everyone would be up in arms that is why he said it will take a while and to me that means a year. It is one thing to miss the play offs but it is another to freak out as of now. Basically two players have to get it together and that is Kyrie and Love and buy in. They are young guys and this should not be a shock as Bron had Bosh and Wade all near the same age and level. Blatt does some things right and wrong but this is more on Kyrie and Love than Blatt at this point IMO.

 

[Sebastian]

And Blatt is trending on Facebook and Twitter. For the wrong reasons. Again.

Deadspin:

"LeBron James is pushing him (likely to help prevent Blatt from picking up a tech) out of the way like his father as they both argue a foul call. What fresh hell awaits Blatt tomorrow: is Kyrie Irving going to force him to get dunked on in the next Uncle Drew commercial?"

http://deadspin.com/lebron-moves-co...ource=deadspin_facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Talk about a bad week.

 

[Walter White]

"Like his father"? That is a low blow.

 

[Sebastian]

I think he may have been trying to get tossed. It may have been helpful in getting a rise out of the guys.

Foiled by LeBron again!

 

[thunder_down_under]

The Cavs are not in an enviable position. They really only have three options, judging by the comments, and they all kind of suck right now. Which one would hurt least?

1. Keep Blatt, hope things correct themselves and we all laugh about this come May. Or it doesn't and they fire him after the season. Cue the fourth coach in three years and everything that entails.

2. Fire Blatt after the weekend and replace him with Lue. Now the season is in the hands of another rookie coach who is, by most accounts, not a great Xs and Os guy. It's his billet to run the defense. Which he has. Into the ground. If it works out, ok, if not, another coaching search. Maybe the Cavs need a personality guy like Lue rather than a another Popovich.

3. Fire Blatt, hire (preferably) George Karl or someone like Jackson. The Cavs now have the dislocation of a change in culture and trying to integrate a new system with new players in the middle of a season. Upside is they would then have all summer to prepare for the next season in a single system and with a unity of command with a coach whose previous work demands respect.

I don't really mean to demean Blatt by saying things aren't working out. Blatt was hired to coach a very different team. As a rookie coach who never even served as an assistant in the NBA. It is a lot to ask.

I can't see how you can fire Blatt before the end of the season. Lue is the defensive coach, and clearly that is not working. To bring in someone from the outside means you re-start with playing style/philosophies and take time to get right...meanwhile who knows whether we can win or not in the scenario.

I think this is a case of you stick by your convictions. He was picked to do a job and let him get on with it. Has had God-awful injuries. Has to work with two "superstars" that refuse to work hard enough (I doubt Blatt would have selected Love for his team), has little bench depth of quality because of the massive Big 3 salaries; have two new players that have played less than a handful of games and 1 joined the team on the road...and the team is still .500.

For once in Cleveland can we look slightly longer than next week and actually try to build a team for the long term. Let Blatt find out what he has, let them make personnel changes in the off season (maybe trade Kyrie for a real PG) and work towards next year...i never believed that this year was going to be much more than experimentation...never was thinking Conference or Championship

 

[KilgoreTrout]

It's like he's gone kamikaze on us. Or had a stroke. Those rotations last night were the stuff of self-immolation.