The Cleveland Cavaliers are the best team in the Eastern Conference as All-Star weekend approaches. The former “best basketball player in the world," Lebron James, is having a stellar season accompanied by a supporting cast that has stayed in good health thus far. Everything has been going along dandily for the defending eastern conference champions.
Except for the fact that they fired their head coach, David Blatt, halfway through a great season on Jan. 22, 2016.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have instead chose to replace Blatt with their assistant coach and former NBA player, Tyronn Lue. Tyronn has an extensive coaching experience, as he has been an assistant coach since 2009. But aside from that, I have to ask the question which most NBA fans want an answer too.
Why?
David Blatt took a Lebron-led Cavaliers to the NBA Finals last season and gave the Golden State Warriors a run for their money. He coached his team to a winning 53-29 record last year. So there is no contesting that he's a good coach, because of his time coaching the Cavaliers and overseas has proven that he is fully capable and can tally up wins.
Personally, I do truly believe that Blatt was outed from his position because he butted heads with Lebron James. There’s an underlying and unshakable feeling within the Cavalier organization that the true leader of the team is Lebron, because he is heralded as one of the greatest players ever to play the game. We saw the same thing down in South Beach when James for the Miami Heat as he would frequently and publicly argue with Erik Spolestra during his tenure there. Yet the Miami Heat organization anticipated this and went along with it, for the most part, because they recognized that Lebron could help their organization acquire accolades and revenues that they never thought they could reach.
So in this sense, the Cavaliers have caused more of a mess rather than fixed a problem.
It doesn’t matter who is coaching Lebron James, because he is a presence all by his lonesome. By firing Blatt and installing Lue, who is a good coach as well, they have just caused unnecessary turmoil within the organization and another distraction that the team doesn't need. So truly, this mid-season switch is pointless. So long as the Big Three (Lebron, Irving, and Love) all stay together and they keep the core of the rest of the team together, this team is pretty much a lock for the Eastern Conference Finals every year.
With that being said, who knows, Tyronn Lue could improve the Cleveland Cavaliers exponentially and surprise us all. But honestly, I don’t see much change in the play style, strategy, or system for the Cavs for the rest of the season.
Best of luck Tyronn; the torch has passed on to you now.
