Two memories I have of Blatt:
1. Around 89-91 I had season tickets for my home town Maccabi Rishon Lezion. Blatt as the PG for Hapoel Galil Elyon hit a game winner buzzer beater in one painful regular season loss (I was 15-16 at the time and took the Israeli 1st basketball league seriously lol)
2. More important - somewhere around 94-95 , at the very beginning of his coaching career, again with Galil Elyon, they were playing a terrific game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, in Tel Aviv. I don't remember if it was the Israeli cup, but it was a big game. Galil Elyon was kicking some behind but eventually Maccabi's superiority and some typical refs favouritism kicked in and Galil Elyon lost. There was one particular terrible call at the very end. To this day I remember how the young Blatt in the last huddle told his players: " We got f#@ked but I am proud of you"
I think it is an excellent hire. He will not accept dysfunction, bs, locker room turmoil. He is a very nice guy (check this clip at the Aroma Coffe adjacent to Maccabi's arena - taking photos with some Russians visiting Tel Aviv -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vF2f2tg8VkA ), but he is used to playing organized brand of basketball. Heck even Galil Elyon was known for running some variant of the Princeton offence, though no one in Israel back in the day even knew what exactly it is.
I don't think it matters his entire experience is non-NBA.
I don't see this dude just rolling along.."ok so we win 30-35 games and lose 60% of the games we play..."
I just don't really know if front office will let him turn this program around. Because there are too many young players lacking discipline on this team.