Of David Blatt

So the Cavaliers fired David Blatt today. Blatt is the winningest coach in Cavaliers history, based on winning percentage. (On a side note, "winningest" does not pass the spell checker. I find it interesting that Google classifies "winningest" as a non-word, but you see it in sports stories all the time. Sportswriters are always making up new words. I think I've gone quite far enough on this tangent.)

As my good friend Jeff Brown noted in a text, "David Blatt goes 83-40 (.675) in 1.5 seasons with the Cavs, and in his only opportunity took the team to within two wins of the NBA championship, and he just got fired. Blatt has the highest winning percentage (I already covered that, so instead of typing it again, I'm going to type far more words explaining why I'm not typing it again. You know, to save time and irritation on my carpal tunnel. I'm going to purposely end this paragraph with a punctuationally incorrect drop-off. And yes, you're right, "punctuationally" is not a word, according to Google.)

Jeff continues, "What more do they want from a coach?"

Well ... Does anybody think the Cavaliers can beat the Warriors OR the Spurs the way they're currently going? They were utterly embarrassed by the Warriors just four days ago. Destroyed. Turned into quivering lumps of protoplasm. Sure, they're 30-11. Yes, they are the best team in the East. As long as LeBron stays healthy, we're pretty much going to get a bye to the Finals. ... I know, I shouldn't say that, you never know, everybody starts at 0-0 in a playoff series, but who's going to stop us? The Chicago Fools? The Atlanta Caulks? The Toronto Crappers? Well ... yeah, you never know. Those teams aren't going to just lay down for us. But we're easily the odds-on favorite. We have the most expensive team in NBA history, and just look at how much talent we've got on our roster. (You all know who we've got, so I'm not going to belabor the point.)

But, provided we make the Finals, the West is going to produce a very, very good team for us to play. Probably the Golden State Warmers or the San Antonio Spuds. (I like my names way better than the ones they're using. They should have called me.) And the way the Cavs have been playing, I really don't feel we could beat either of those teams. We've played them both tough on their home floors, but ... yeah, Monday. It was the worst home loss of LeBron's career. And he's, what, 42? Really, can you imagine those Cavaliers beating those Warriors in a seven-game series? I just don't see it. (In another side note, I find it interesting that, with Steve Kerr taking back his rightful spot on the Warriors' bench tonight, both teams from last year's Finals changed coaches on the same day. (I know I'm overusing the parentheses, and I should just do footnotes, but I'm too lazy for footnotes. And anyway, what is this, Encylopædia Brittanica?))

I do feel that David Blatt mismanaged the Finals last year. He ran his starters ragged, and left very good players rotting on the bench. You all know the story, so I'm not going to belabor that either. But it isn't particularly germane to this discussion anyway, because obviously he wasn't fired for that. He'd have been fired right after the Finals if that were the reason. I've heard that he had "lost the players," which is a very common thing to hear when a coach is fired in any sport. (Or a manager. I know.) I've never been a professional athlete, but I've had bosses who had lost the workforce, and it's not a good place to be.

Here's the thing: David Griffin put this team together. He knows the situation much better than I do, and he's probably smarter than I am too. And I don't say that about very many people. That doesn't mean he's incapable of a mistake (he's not the freaking Pope, after all), but I just don't feel I have enough information to disagree with him.

Also, one other point -- Tyronn Lue has gotten glowing reviews from a lot of different people who know him and have played with him or played for him. Griffin made it clear that he has a lot of confidence in Lue. Blatt may not have been fired if Griffin didn't feel he had a very capable replacement for him.

I don't know if this was a good move. It certainly surprised me. But I can definitely see a lot of the reasoning that went into it, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the team responds.