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David Blatt is a former NBA coach

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Hydroponic3385 said:
Wait...what? He grew up in Cleveland and went to Ignatius? I feel like this can't be correct.
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No, but interestingly, he was born in Beirut in '65 (9/27) and his father was an academic all-american who lived in the middle east and before going to a LA Palisades H.S. attended school in Lebanon. So both he and Blatt have this birthplace of civilization background amusingly enough

wonder if they bonded over that during the interview, I might ask
 
Next year the hottest trend in the NBA will be hiring a rookie coach
If anyone is interested, I'm available.
 
Well I for one would need to see the team play respectable when lebron is one the bench. I would also need to see consistent defensive rotations that adapt to lineup changes.

I would also need to see productive counter adjustments when opposing teams find some sort of mismatch or advantage.

I would also need to see him not intervene with the team leader when that leader recognizez opportunity.

I would also want to see in depth film breakdowns betweens games that would be evidences by veteran players impressed with the film sessions.

I would also need to see him own up for his mistakes and be willing to goad the media where they respond by taking shots at the coach instead of the players.

If BLatt would only show these things then perhaps people would be more comfortable with his coaching
 
We're winning that's all that matters. The record speaks for itself. With a few lucky breaks maybe we can be champions. When K Love went down, I wasn't even all that optimistic that we'd get past the Bulls...
 
The Oi said:
@Douglar and others who are not so high on Blatt,

Serious question...what would you need to see a Blatt team do to credit him with significant responsibility for a win?
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While I'm sure many will outright reject my premise, they are more than welcome to do it. My premise is that Blatt doesn't get credit for much of the victories because there's not a lot for him to do right now. Looks to me like after the first half of Game 1 of the Chi series, someone else on the staff started doing most of the defense planning. Lebron has been motivating the players and dictating much of the offense for quite a while. Blatt is still picking who goes into the games, but with Kyrie & Love out, Blatt is kind of in a spot where there's not much for him to do. There's only a handful lineups that make sense.

So Blatt is limited to doing 4 things right now:
  • Call in-bounds plays. He usually does a good job but screwed up 3 in a row at the end of Game 4 of the Chi series and almost screwed up the last one before Lebron & JR encouraged alternative suggestions.
  • Talk to the media. "[My job] is only paralleled by a fighter pilot"
  • Call time outs. I can't think of any notable mistakes he made here.
  • Lineup decisions have been simplified down to the the complexity of a free iphone game. Tap the right side to replace Mozgov with Jones. Swipe the left side to cycle through Shump, Delly, and Smith. He's generally done a pretty good job with this in the Atlanta series. Last night got a little odd once Atlanta started throwing out mini lineups. I'll give him a break for last night that because the Refs were calling a lot of stuff for ATL after dirty little wHorford got ejected. It's hard to make things work when your guys get in foul trouble for no reason.
Blatt deserves some gets some credit right now because he has not screwed up in a while, but that's not the same thing as significant responsibility.

What can he do to earn significant responsibility? Based on my premise, not much right now because there's not much he can do right now. He's kind of a lame duck coach in this series, and yes, I think that if the season ended in the ECF, there's a very good chance that Blatt would have been fired. When Lebron can be free agent this summer and calls out the coach during full playoff lock-down bunker mentality mode, there is an issue, and Gilbert tweets don't really make it untrue, they are just a necessary move to help the team get back to playing basketball.

Fortunately for Blatt, the season is not over yet. Assuming that the Cavs make it to the finals and Kyrie comes back, Blatt will get a chance to redeem himself. He'll have more flexibility in the rotations and finding the right rotations against Goldenstate will take some genius, because there is a lot of talent on the other team. It will be very clear if the Cavs are playing great rotations or "what's usually good enough" rotations. If the Cavs win 3 games in the finals, I'll say that Blatt played a big part in the winning. It will also go a long way towards him staying in Cleveland next year.
 
Tornicade said:
Well I for one would need to see the team play respectable when lebron is one the bench.
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View: https://twitter.com/bballbreakdown/status/602875990767964160


Tornicade said:
I would also need to see consistent defensive rotations that adapt to lineup changes.

I would also need to see productive counter adjustments when opposing teams find some sort of mismatch or advantage.
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I'm not going to pretend to be a strong X's and O's guy, but the Cavs are on a 6 game winning streak so he must be doing something right. If you don't buy that, here's a small bit of evidence of what you're suggesting:
View: https://twitter.com/hpbasketball/status/602951207242596352


View: https://twitter.com/hpbasketball/status/602951278281523201
 
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Tornicade said:
Well I for one would need to see the team play respectable when lebron is one the bench. I would also need to see consistent defensive rotations that adapt to lineup changes.
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Throughout these past 6 games, we have seldom seen the units without LeBron five up major ground. In many cases, they've held the score or outscored the opponent in those stretches

Tornicade said:
I would also need to see productive counter adjustments when opposing teams find some sort of mismatch or advantage.
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You honestly don't think that you've witnessed any of that over the past two series?

Tornicade said:
I would also need to see him not intervene with the team leader when that leader recognizez opportunity.
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Not even sure what you mean by this.

Tornicade said:
I would also want to see in depth film breakdowns betweens games that would be evidences by veteran players impressed with the film sessions.
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LOL. You think this isn't going on? Do you require a special Torn pass t get access to their film sessions to make sure they meet your approval?

Tornicade said:
I would also need to see him own up for his mistakes and be willing to goad the media where they respond by taking shots at the coach instead of the players.
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He responded firmly to the question about Delly. The team has adapted a no excuses mentality and has only lost 2 games in the postseason, so I'm not sure what type of mea culpas you want or expect from him. I'm not sure how many other NBA coaches provide that same level of "owning up to mistakes in press conferences" that you see from Blatt.
 
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