• Changing RCF's index page, please click on "Forums" to access the forums.

David Blatt is a former NBA coach

Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Status
Not open for further replies.
Well if he is willing to run through a brick wall for Blatt then i guess it isn't too much to ask for consistent defensive engagement then!
 
There are some reports across Europe that Andrei Kirilenko who is now the current president of the Russian basketball federation is about to offer David Blatt the role of "Special advisor" to Russian basketball and especially the National team. Blatt and kirilenko share history together as they were both part of the "golden age" of the Russian national team spanning from 2006 to 2012 and Climaxed with the Bronze medal in London 2012 and of course the historic victory over Spain in Spain to win the 2007 Eurobasket.
After Blatt finished his contract the results of the Russian national team were extremely poor: not qualifying through the first stage of Eurobasket 2013 and as a result not qualifying to the 2014 mundobasket, and effectivley finishing last month Eurobasket after 3 games with a 0-3 record (1-4 overall) and again not qualyfing through the first round.
 
I think the biggest challenge for Blatt this year is going to be integrating a new scheme and making it work with everyone. Getting Love more involved was always going to be tough, but I think if LBJ is on board (seems like it so far), it will get done. The real difficulty now is getting the team to play it, and then have to adjust to Kyrie coming back. And after that getting Iman back (not as hard, since Iman isn't really a huge piece of the offense).

My guess is that internally the team is OK with a few early season struggles. They all remember from last year that how we finish is more important, so I think Blatt will be able to operate without having to worry about winning at all costs to start the season, which is key. That being said, I expect this team to play a lot better to start the year this season, because:

1) we have JR and Moz from the start
2) there's no contract issues with any of the Big 3
3) the players and staff just know each other better and have some preexisting chemistry
 
http://www.ohio.com/sports/cavs/rel...lse&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Lloyd takes a lot of shots at Blatt in this piece, and he has a tendency again to not really back up much of what he's saying with quotes or anything substantial. Not really sure this is fair. It seems more like Lloyd seeing Blatt is more comfortable and mellow, for now (I mean the season hasn't even started yet), and is attributing that to Blatt feeling he needed to behave better to the almighty media. My feeling is that the media smelled blood in the water last season...they felt Blatt was probably gone and they didn't show Blatt much respect during interviews or within their writing. I think Blatt generally treated media individuals as he was treated by them. He was a lot more cordial with Chris Parker or Dave McMenamin because they weren't up his ass all the time the way Haynes, Vardon, Windhorst etc were.

Here's an except from Lloyd's article:

"PR image

Blatt’s combative style frustrated the organization throughout last season. They often tried getting him to tone down his approach, but typically with little success. Head coaches across the league were irritated with Blatt’s style, and those within the organization believe if he had shown more humility early, his acceptance across the league might have been smoother.

Coaches have egos, and none seemed to like how Blatt walked into his first job his first year in the NBA — coaching a super team, no less — believing he had all the answers.

It got to the point during summer league the Cavs did not let Blatt address reporters. It might go down as the first and only time a head coach (the head coach of a conference champion, no less) was rendered off limits to the media.

Instead, General Manager David Griffin — a terrific communicator with a PR background — handled all of the summer questions despite repeated requests for Blatt."


The way I remember it, and maybe I'm wrong, is that Blatt started the year very cordial and polite with the media, and then once the losses started to pile up and media started criticizing him and calling for his head, he got a bit more defensive and curt (neither of which seem to be out of the usual realm for an NBA coach who is on the hot seat).


That said, I'm glad that more players have spoken out favorably for Blatt. The more they do it, the less Blatt probably feels like it's him against the world. Last year it seems like maybe only Mozgov and Delly were firmly in his camp. Now I think we could at least add Kaun and James Jones and JR to that.
 
Last edited:
Paul said:
http://www.ohio.com/sports/cavs/rel...lse&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed

Lloyd takes a lot of shots at Blatt in this piece, and he has a tendency again to not really back up much of what he's saying with quotes or anything substantial. Not really sure this is fair. It seems more like Lloyd seeing Blatt is more comfortable and mellow, for now (I mean the season hasn't even started yet), and is attributing that to Blatt feeling he needed to behave better to the almighty media. My feeling is that the media smelled blood in the water last season...they felt Blatt was probably gone and they didn't show Blatt much respect during interviews or within their writing. I'm not saying it was true for all media, but many of them. Here's an except from Lloyd's article:

"PR image

Blatt’s combative style frustrated the organization throughout last season. They often tried getting him to tone down his approach, but typically with little success. Head coaches across the league were irritated with Blatt’s style, and those within the organization believe if he had shown more humility early, his acceptance across the league might have been smoother.

Coaches have egos, and none seemed to like how Blatt walked into his first job his first year in the NBA — coaching a super team, no less — believing he had all the answers.

It got to the point during summer league the Cavs did not let Blatt address reporters. It might go down as the first and only time a head coach (the head coach of a conference champion, no less) was rendered off limits to the media.

Instead, General Manager David Griffin — a terrific communicator with a PR background — handled all of the summer questions despite repeated requests for Blatt."


The way I remember it, and maybe I'm wrong, is that Blatt started the year very cordial and polite with the media, and then once the losses started to pile up and media started criticizing him and calling for his head, he got a bit more defensive and curt (neither of which seem to be out of the usual realm for an NBA coach who is on the hot seat).


That said, I'm glad that more players have spoken out favorably for Blatt. The more they do it, the less Blatt probably feels like it's him against the world. Last year it seems like maybe only Mozgov and Delly were firmly in his camp. Now I think we could at least add Kaun and James Jones and JR to that.
Click to expand...

Lloyd is such an ass. Blatt hurt his feelings last year and he's been whiny about it ever since.
 
Paul said:
That said, I'm glad that more players have spoken out favorably for Blatt. The more they do it, the less Blatt probably feels like it's him against the world. Last year it seems like maybe only Mozgov and Delly were firmly in his camp. Now I think we could at least add Kaun and James Jones and JR to that.
Click to expand...
I think Kyrie was also pretty firmly in Blatt's camp.
 
Kbiz8288 said:
Well if he is willing to run through a brick wall for Blatt then i guess it isn't too much to ask for consistent defensive engagement then!
Click to expand...

Just my take, but JR Smith proved last year that he's a pretty decent on ball defender. I won't lie, I was surprised how well he kept guys in front of him who were clearly faster/quicker.

His problem doesn't seem imo to be engagement on-ball, so much as off-the-ball, where he has a tendency to lose attentiveness. Not really will, so much as distraction. Not sure he can do much about that short of ritalin. If anyone on the team is ADHD it's JR.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Video

Episode 3-14: "Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey"

Rubber Rim Job Podcast Spotify

Episode 3:14: " Time for Playoff Vengeance on Mickey."
Top