A positive NEOMG article about Blatt? can it be?
David Blatt isn't afraid to sit players, a sign his true self is resurfacing
Chris Haynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group By Chris Haynes, Northeast Ohio Media Group
CHICAGO - This isn't the same David Blatt who began the season. Slowly but surely, he is returning to his former self.
In his decades of coaching successfully overseas, he developed a reputation as a no-nonsense coach who said whatever was on his mind and didn't care who objected.
And he would often tinker with lineups and rotations based on the matchup. If players had a problem with it, they frequently kept it to themselves. He garnered that much clout.
NBA players don't like tinkering. They are creatures of habit.
Blatt, who is growing ever so confidently and securely in his Cavalier coaching role with each win, is starting to exercise some rediscovered dominion.
In a 98-89 win over the Orlando Magic on Dec. 26, Blatt sat his All-Star power forward Kevin Love the entire fourth quarter because of his defensive deficiencies.
Love took it like a true professional, and LeBron James complimented his teammate on how well he handled the situation. That was a gutsy call by Blatt, benching a perennial All-Star the final 12 minutes of a tight game.
That doesn't happen to players of Love's caliber in the NBA. It's usually not worth the headache. Blatt pulled it off smoothly.
But he dare not do it again, right?
Well, he did, and Love was once more the victim in a 107-100 loss to the Phoenix Suns on Jan. 13. Phoenix's Markieff Morris had a career game of 35 points, and most of his buckets came while Love was guarding him.
Blatt had seen enough. Love did not play in the fourth. It was a bit more difficult for Love to come to terms with that benching considering his team lost this time around. Nonetheless, Love's professionalism remained.
The very next day in Los Angeles, Blatt tricked the team into going bowling. The Cavs were under the belief that they were headed for practice. After all, they had just dropped nine of their last 10 games. Players spoke about how much they needed a break away from it all.
A 12-game winning streak followed, and during that time Blatt's true personality and temperament began to reveal itself. He started to get snappier and feistier with the media. He has taken some abuse this season, so he has a right to stick it to the media to a certain extent.
But sticking it to the media and benching Love is one thing. Messing with The King is on a completely different stratosphere.
James was careless with the ball on Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls, to say the least. He turned the ball over five times in the game's first 15 minutes. Possessions are extra precious when playing against a Tom Thibodeau defense.
"I thought like everybody else, he had good moments and less good moments," Blatt said of James. "I didn't think any of us played with particular consistency or with a consistent high level. He's no different than anyone else on the team."
What Blatt would ultimately do was downright shocking. With 5:22 to go in the first half and his team down 12, Blatt called on Iman Shumpert to sub in for the best player in the world, as Blatt habitually calls him.
The minutes and the seconds ticked away. A small lineup of Kyrie Irving, J.R. Smith, Shumpert, James Jones and Tristan Thompson chipped away. Before you knew it, intermission had arrived.
The Cavaliers were now down seven and James watched it all transpire from the bench. He supported his teammates, but it was a bizarre sighting as he sat those final five minutes.
He went on to score a game-high 31 points in a losing effort, yet Blatt's decision was a bold, split-second one that most coaches wouldn't have had the courage to make.
"That's unusual, obviously," Blatt said after the game. "That's not normally something we would do. We were down and we just wanted to just try to mix it up a little bit, and we did and for that period of time it worked. But that's not something we're going to be going to on a consistent basis."
Over the last few weeks, James has stressed the importance of players sacrificing for the greater good of the team. He even said he would come off the bench if it benefited the squad.
James backed up what he has been preaching.
"They played well," James said of that group he watched while on the bench. "They had a good rhythm offensively. They were getting stops. We went into the half feeling pretty good, only down seven as bad as we played. For me, it doesn't matter. You know me; I'm all about the team. Whatever helps the team is the best."
Cleveland has won 14 of its last 16 games and is firmly planted in the discussion when it comes to who are the top teams in the league. The Cavaliers are strutting their stuff, and so is Blatt.
He has come a long way since training camp. What he has experienced in these 55 games, most coaches won't experience throughout their careers.
The real David Blatt is approaching, and he doesn't care if anyone objects to it.
"Well, I mean he's growing for sure," James said of Blatt. "He's a rookie coach. Just like a rookie player, every month you kind of get better and better and better and I think that's what he's been doing. For our team, he's been great.
"Communication [is] great, he pays attention to details and as players we just try to go out and whatever he wants us to do, we try to implement it at a higher level. Every day is a learning experience for himself, as well. It being his first year in the NBA and I think he's handled it well."
source:
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2015/02/the_real_david_blatt_is_resurf.html
