Well, as an "average poster," from where I'm standing, I'm having a hard time understanding how you can deny Blatt any credit the way that you (and most of the media) have been denying it. I don't think you personally hate the guy or anything, but most of your posts after Cavs have a big win are something along the lines of "Blatt did an ok job, but you can't really attribute any of the good things that happened to him."
I've followed Blatt's career for over a decade now, and I can see his fingerprints in a lot of the things the Cavs do, because I've seen him doing it many times before. I've seen him, almost every season, pull a role player or two out of the hat that end up getting him big wins. I've seen him struggle early in seasons while he learns his players' strengths and weaknesses, only to adapt to their style later and significantly overachieve. I've seen turn teams with average talent into suffocatingly defensive teams that just frustrate the life out of their vastly-more-talented opponents and cause them to make silly frustration mistakes.
If you look at the entire year leading up to this series - Coach Bud's (reigning coach of the year) team was amazing in the first two thirds of the season, but peaked too early and it's easy to see that he showed all his cards during the RS (including against the Cavs, who he knew would be his likely ECF rival), and had no more rabbits to pull out of the hat. Blatt, OTOH, is getting a team who has essentially lost two of its big three (and the third is playing arguably the worst basketball of his career) and was not deep enough to be expected to endure these losses, to play maybe the best defense in the NBA and beat teams that many people were picking over them prior to the playoffs when they were fully healthy. He is doing it by getting everyone to play together, play tough defense, and allowing the role players to thrive by emphasizing the strengths of each of these players (TT's rebounding, Shump's defense, JR's shooting, etc.). And I know he has a big part in their success because that's how he has won his entire career.
This is why the media's constant digs on him as a "rookie coach" are extremely unprofessional and lazy. Blatt has a track record, and he has fingerprints as a coach. If you want to really know what he is doing all you have to do is compare what he is doing now with what he has done in the past. But the media and many fans are too lazy to do that and are content with the "rookie coach" label, because actually learning something about the guy they are scrutinizing would be too much work. It's much easier to spew the same "LeBron is the coach of the Cavs" BS.
I agree with everything you just wrote. So many times I see something and it feels so familiar... I guess many others here, knowing Blatt's teams from the past, feel like me.
* The backup point guard who got a chance because of his character and defense, and eventually showed it was a good investment in the critical moments, with good offense as a bonus. (Delly/Ohayon)
* The energetic "big guy" who becomes a defense threat and is there to rebound every ball in the last minutes. (TT/Tyus)
* The shooter that under Blatt got the credit to take whatever shots he wanted, as long as he puts more effort in his defense, and eventually kills teams in his own hands (J.R./Blu)
* The player who kill other teams with his defense (Shump/Perkins)
* The frustration of the other team when suddenly (in the 3rd quarter usually) they cannot shot anything from anywhere.
* The big crisis in the middle of the season.
* The loses in the games that don't matter, and the big wins to come after them.
* The criticism from the media.
* The quantity of games which are won by luck, which let you think "Is it really luck??"
So people like me, who are believers, know what is the last thing on this list:
* The championship.
And then, by the way, the reporters usually split into 2 groups:
1. Those who admit their mistake.
2. Those who suddenly stop to write for a few months.
