(PHOTO CREDIT: USA Today.)
According to the immortal Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports:
The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired coach David Blatt, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Ty Lue, Blatt’s top assistant, has agreed to a three-year deal to become the team’s new head coach, sources told Yahoo. LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, had been strong advocates of Lue becoming head coach since last season, sources said.
The timing is really, really bizarre. The Cavs are 30-11 and winners of 11 out of 13 games. Those two losses, though, did come against San Antonio and Golden State, the two teams that are decidedly better than the Cavs. Plus, Blatt took the injury-riddled Cavs to the NBA Finals last season.
Blatt was hired to rebuild the Cavaliers. But that all changed when LeBron rejoined the Cavaliers a few weeks later. The goal went from rebuilding to championship and, even with all the injuries, the Cavs fell two wins short of winning it all.
LeBron, as mentioned, had been a big proponent of Tyronn Lue as head coach. That might have factored into this move but the timing is still very strange. Especially since the Cavs are STILL paying Mike Brown (who was the coach before Blatt). Dan Gilbert must be swimming in money because the team just gave Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson MASSIVE extensions. Let’s not forget that Kyrie Irving is on a max deal himself. And LeBron James still has to get his extension.
The funny thing is that Blatt was ready to take an assistant job with the Warriors before the Cavs got him. And the Cavs were choosing between Blatt and Lue before ultimately choosing Blatt.
Blatt leaves the Cavs with a 83-40 (.675) record. Meanwhile, Byron Scott is still coaching the Lakers.
Follow Rey-Rey on Twitter at @TheNoLookPass for all tweets about the NBA and terrible pop music. Also, check out his podcast, Rey-Rey Is Fundamental.
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