Cavs Notes: Blatt, Lue, Love
Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt, who was fired earlier today, released a statement regarding his departure (h/t Priority Sports). “I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to serve as the Head Coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” Blatt wrote. “I’d like to thank [team owner] Dan Gilbert and [GM] David Griffin for giving me this opportunity and am honored to have worked with an amazing group of players from LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love through our entire roster. I’d also like to express my extreme gratitude to my coaching staff. I am indebted to them for their professionalism, hard work, loyalty and friendship. I am proud of what we have accomplished since I have been the Head Coach and wish the Cavaliers nothing but the best this season and beyond.”
Here’s more from Cleveland amid a day of big changes:
- Griffin denied that the team gave Tyronn Lue a contract extension but noted that Lue was named head coach without the interim title, Dave McMenamin of ESPN.com relays (via Twitter). Griffin made his remarks during a press conference to announce the team’s coaching change. Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports heard from league sources that Lue was given a new three-year deal worth approximately $9.5MM (Twitter link).
- The Cavs’ players were taken completely by surprise by Blatt’s firing, and when a team meeting was called to announce the move many of them thought it was because Love had been traded, Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com relays (on Twitter).
- There may be some players on the team who aren’t happy about the decision to part ways with Blatt, but Griffin said it was a move they would have to respect regardless of their feelings, Sam Amico of Amico Hoops tweets.
- The franchise was concerned that Blatt was reluctant to consistently challenge LeBron, who is a coachable player whose respect must first be earned, Sam Amick of USA Today tweets.
Cavs Fire David Blatt, Replace Him With Tyronn Lue
3:42pm: GM David Griffin was the catalyst for the change, a source tells Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter link). He didn’t consult any of the players, according to Haynes (on Twitter), and he convinced the owners that the team wasn’t performing up to expectations, Lloyd adds.
2:54pm: The Cavs have fired head coach David Blatt and reached agreement on a three-year deal with Tyronn Lue to replace him, sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (Twitter links here). Chris Haynes of the Northeast Ohio Media Group and the Cleveland Plain Dealer first reported that Lue, who had been serving as the team’s lead assistant, would take over the head coaching job (Twitter link). The timing of the move is a surprise, coming off the team’s win against the Clippers on Thursday, one that helped erase at least some of the memories of the team’s blowout loss to the Warriors on Monday. Discontent had been growing in the Cleveland locker room, tweets Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com, noting that the dissatisfaction dates back nearly to the beginning of Blatt’s tenure last season. Owner Dan Gilbert had been a fervent supporter of Blatt, Windhorst adds (Twitter link), but it appears the owner has finally seen fit for a change.
Chatter that LeBron James and others on the Cavs were done with Blatt had been building recently, according to USA Today’s Sam Amick, but the team’s brass didn’t consult James on the decision, according to Windhorst (on Twitter). Still, the organization knew that James likes Lue and has wanted to have a former NBA player as coach, Windhorst adds (Twitter link). James and agent Rich Paul have been strong advocates of Lue taking over for Blatt since last season, league sources tell Wojnarowski (Twitter link).
Windhorst suggested earlier this week, after the Warriors loss, that Blatt’s job hung in the balance of how well the team performed the rest of the season. Blatt said dire assessments of the team’s future in the wake of the blowout were overstated, but it appears the coach was in an even more tenuous situation than most realized.
The Cavs made Lue the highest-paid NBA assistant coach ever when they hired him to Blatt’s staff in 2014. He reportedly interviewed twice for the head coaching job before the team instead gave it to Blatt. Lue played 11 seasons in the NBA, the last of which was 2008/09. He joined the Celtics staff the next season and followed Doc Rivers to the Clippers where he continued as an assistant coach before heading to Cleveland. This will be his first job as a head coach.
Blatt went 83-40 in the regular season and 14-6 in the playoffs during his season and a half in charge of the Cavs, a team with the highest of expectations. James returned to Cleveland from his time with the Heat just weeks after the Cavs hired Blatt, and that drastically changed the nature of the job, which became a win-or-else proposition as the team moved away from rebuilding and positioned itself to win immediately.
The relationship between James and Blatt drew close scrutiny, but Blatt’s brusque personality rubbed many the wrong way, and James was far from the only one who had issues, notes Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal (Twitter links). Still, Blatt has seemed on much more solid footing this year than he was early last season, when the Cavs started 19-20, a sluggish beginning that reportedly prompted worry from the team’s brass about the coach’s job performance.
Is changing out Blatt for Lue the right move for the Cavs? Leave a comment to tell us.
Cavs Notes: Gilbert, Irving, J.R. Smith, Lue
Cavs owner Dan Gilbert is a nine on a scale of one to 10 in terms of an owner’s involvement in his team, with the ubiquitous Mark Cuban a 10, a prominent agent tells Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com. Gilbert was the only Cavs representative in his pitch meeting to LeBron James when the four-time MVP was a free agent last summer, and the owner was alone with GM David Griffin when they helped convince Kevin Love to accept a trade later this past summer, according to Windhorst. Gilbert insists he’s not so hands-on, but his ballooning net worth and willingness to spend it on the Cavs has played a major role in the team’s rise to prominence, as Windhorst details. Here’s more from around Cleveland:
- Kyrie Irving hasn’t had nearly the trouble meshing with James as Love has, Fred Kerber of the New York Post examines. That’s surely a relief for the Cavs, who committed a five-year extension to Irving this past summer that won’t kick in until next season.
- The Knicks’ division championship of two years ago is but a memory to J.R. Smith, who isn’t high on the return the Knicks got when they traded him to the Cavs in January, as Kerber notes in the same piece. “It seems extremely distant, like one of the first years I was in the league, that’s how far back it seems,” Smith said. “Honestly, I don’t really think about it. If anything, it’s their fault for making a bad business move, I guess.”
- Assistant coach Tyronn Lue has been instrumental in keeping the Cavs’ locker room together, as Kevin Arnovitz of ESPN.com writes in an Insider-only piece that tabs Lue as one of the league’s top head coaching prospects. Cleveland made Lue the highest-paid assistant of all-time this past summer. “He respects the work that’s required to do the job and he has the gift of being able to verbalize things to players in a straightforward way without being offensive,” said Clippers coach/executive Doc Rivers, Lue’s former boss. “He sees things in games a lot of people can’t see. He’d see opportunities for us — in games, watching film, observing — and would bring them to me. He has a chance to be very special.“
Amico On Nets, Lawson, Williams, Kings
With the NBA trade deadline just over two weeks away, many GMs from around the league are certain to be burning up their phone plan minutes while trying to improve their teams for a playoff run, or for others, trying to clear as much cap space as possible for the summer’s free agent signing period. Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio ran down a number of rumors from around the league. Here are some of the highlights:
- The Nets have been seeking trade partners for Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson, and Deron Williams, but they are looking to receive assets in return, and not to just dump salary in the deal, Amico notes. “I’ve talked to Brook about it, I’ve talked to Joe, I’ve talked to Deron,” Brooklyn GM Billy King said. “The players all know it’s part of the business, but we’re not looking just to get rid of these guys just because they’re saying they’re gonna do that. We’re exploring things that make sense as people call, but we’re not going to be making a trade to make a trade. That’s foolish.“
- Brooklyn had originally spoken with the Kings regarding a possible deal for Williams over a month ago, but those discussions have since died out, Amico adds. The Nets had also discussed a trade with the Hornets involving Johnson and Lance Stephenson.
- The Nuggets appear to be willing to trade point guard Ty Lawson, but Denver’s asking price is currently high enough that it is scaring away inquiring teams, the FOX Sports scribe notes.
- The Timberwolves are willing to deal Mo Williams, and the Kings are interested, Amico hears. Other teams reportedly interested in the veteran guard are the Pistons, Heat, Cavs, and Clippers.
- Barring a sudden turnaround in Sacramento, the odds are against Tyrone Corbin being retained as coach for next season, Amico notes. In addition to Kings executive Chris Mullin being a potential replacement, both Tyronn Lue and Larry Drew will be considered candidates as well, Amico adds.
Western Notes: Cuban, Pleiss, Sterling
In the wake of Paul George‘s terrible injury Friday night, Mavericks owner Mark Cuban blasted the IOC, writes Eddie Sefko of the Dallas Morning News. Cuban hopes the injury will spur the NBA into creating its own international tournament where the league has more control as well as receives the benefits of holding such competitions. Cuban also said, “I think it’s a bigger issue than star players. We are being taken advantage of by the IOC (International Olympic Committee) and to a lesser extent FIBA (International Federal Basketball Association). We take on an inordinate amount of financial risk for little, if any, quantifiable gain. It’s like our guiding principle is to lose money on every game and make it up in volume. There is no logic to our position. (We) just hope we get value somewhere in the future.”
Here’s more from out west:
- Thunder 2010 draft-and-stash pick Tibor Pleiss is expected to sign a two-year deal with Barcelona, reports Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Oklahoma City had made an attempt to bring the German big man to the NBA this season but his buyout amount became an issue, but the team was still hoping to work out a deal for the 2015/16 campaign. Details of Pleiss’ potential deal with Barcelona and buyout amount haven’t yet been announced.
- Sam Cassell is leaving the Wizards to join Doc Rivers‘ coaching staff with the Clippers, reports Michael Lee of The Washington Post. Los Angeles’ bench had recently lost Tyronn Lue to the Cavs and Alvin Gentry to the Warriors.
- Donald Sterling built an empire but words were his undoing, write Nathan Fenno, Kim Christensen, and James Rainey of The Los Angeles Times. The trio profile the seemingly soon-to-be former Clippers owner’s rise and fall.
Cavs Make Lue Highest-Paid Assistant Ever
The agreement that the Cavs struck with one-time head coaching candidate Tyronn Lue to convince him to join the team as an assistant coach is the most lucrative ever given to an assistant in NBA history, reports Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports. It’s a four-year, $6.5MM deal that includes a $2MM team option for the fourth season, according to Wojnarowski.
Lue is leaving his job as a Clippers assistant to join the staff of David Blatt, who beat out Lue for the head coaching job in Cleveland. Clippers coach and president of basketball operations Doc Rivers was reluctant to let Lue go, but Cleveland’s money proved overwhelming, Wojnarowski writes.
The 37-year-old spent the past five seasons as an assistant coach under Rivers with the Celtics and Clippers following an 11-year playing career. He’ll be the lead assistant, with the title of associate head coach, under Blatt in Cleveland.
And-Ones: Frye, Thomas, Love, Lue
There’s mutual respect between Channing Frye and Warriors coach Steve Kerr, as TNT’s David Aldridge notes in his latest Morning Tip column for NBA.com. The Warriors are reportedly eyeing the sharpshooting big man who’ll almost certainly opt out of his deal with the Suns.
- It would “mean a lot” to Kings restricted free agent Isaiah Thomas to receive an offer sheet from the Lakers, writes Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders. The guard grew up as a diehard Lakers fan and has idolized Kobe Bryant since he was a child, but he still spoke highly of the Kings and would like to return.
- There have been mixed reports on this aspect of the Kevin Love talks, but Sam Amick of USA Today hears that the Warriors are very wary about taking on Kevin Martin‘s contract as a part of a deal. Meanwhile, despite the hangups in talks and the buzz that a deal with the Warriors is dead, Amick believes that things could pick up again between Golden State and the Wolves.
- Sources tell Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports that Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue has agreed to become the associate head coach of the Cavaliers. Lue was considered a head coaching candidate for Cleveland but the Cavs opted to hire David Blatt instead.
- Marquette forward Jamil Wilson worked out for the Mavericks today, according to Gery Woelfel of the Journal Times (on Twitter). Wilson has auditioned for about a dozen teams in total.
- The Cavs will bring in Oregon’s Mike Moser and Iowa State’s Melvin Ejim for a workout on Tuesday, tweets Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops.
- The Suns worked out center Walter Tavares earlier today, Scotto tweets. The 7’3″ center is rising up draft boards around the league. DraftExpress currently has Tavares going to the Bucks with the No. 31 pick in their mock draft.
- The Pistons will bring in DeAndre Daniels and Mike Moser for a workout on Wednesday, tweets Scotto.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.
Cavs Offer Head Coaching Job To Blatt
10:56pm: The Cavs want to add Tyronn Lue as an assistant to Blatt’s coaching staff, but there’s a slim chance of Lue leaving Doc Rivers’ staff in Los Angeles at this point, tweets Wojnarowski.
10:19pm: According to ESPN’s Chris Broussard and the Boston Globe’s Gary Washburn, the Cavaliers will virtually eliminate any chance of bringing LeBron James back to Cleveland if they finalize a deal with Blatt (Twitter links).
10:11pm: A source tells Sam Amico of FOX Sports Ohio that an announcement of a deal could come as early as tomorrow morning.
8:39pm: The two sides have “a long way to go” in these contract talks, according to Sam Amick of USA Today (Twitter link).
8:06pm: An NBA source tells Jodie Valade of The Plain Dealer that the Cavs and Blatt are currently in negotiations.
6:52pm: A Cavs source insists that the team has not yet offered the job to Blatt, tweets Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal.
6:38pm: Per league sources, the Cavaliers have offered Blatt their head coaching job, reports Wojnarowski. The two sides are reportedly in the process of negotiating terms of a deal, but no agreement has been reached.
6:10pm: Eurobasket.com’s David Pick hears from Blatt himself that “a decision is coming soon” (Twitter link).
3:54pm: The Cavs have not made a formal offer to Blatt, but resolution could come as early as tonight, tweets Ken Berger of CBSSports.com.
3:35pm: The Cavs have identified Blatt as their choice and are expected to begin discussions about a deal soon, Wojnarowski reports. Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio hears that approval from owner Dan Gilbert is the final remaining obstacle (Twitter link).
2:59pm: Blatt is the strong favorite for the Cavs job, and an offer is imminent, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter links).
1:37pm: The Cavs are believed to be deciding between Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue and former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach David Blatt for their head coaching vacancy, reports Brian Windhorst of ESPN.com (Twitter link). That means that fellow Clippers assistant Alvin Gentry, who like Lue received a second interview, is apparently out of the running.
Blatt received his first face-to-face interview with the Cavs this week after having earlier spoken with GM David Griffin via telephone about the job. He’s also a candidate for an assistant coaching gig in Golden State, and people close to him have advised him to take the Warriors gig rather than go straight into head coaching for his first-ever NBA job, tweets David Pick of Eurobasket.com. Cleveland is still trying to gather information about the Massachusetts native who played under Pete Carril at Princeton, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo! Sports (Twitter link).
The Cavs apparently are high on Lue because of his ability to connect with young players, Windhorst notes in his full story, and that would be a commodity on an already youthful roster that’s poised to add the No. 1 overall pick in this month’s draft. A report earlier this week indicated the team was quietly continuing to pursue marquee college coaches, and Nate McMillan‘s name surfaced last week as a latecomer to the race, but it sounds at this point like the team’s focus is narrowing.
And-Ones: Cavs, Draft, Pelicans, Wolves
The Cavs coaching search may be down to just three candidates, writes Bob Finnan of The Morning Journal. While some names are still being mentioned, Finnan (hat tip to Steve Kyler of Basketball Insiders) believes the finalists are Clippers assistant coaches Alvin Gentry and Tyronn Lue and former Maccabi Tel Aviv coach David Blatt.
Here’s more from around the association:
- The Nuggets are planning to bring in Tyler Ennis, Zach LaVine, James Young, Clint Capela, Casey Prather and Tarik Black for workouts on Saturday, reports Michael Scotto of Sheridan Hoops (Twitter link).
- The Timberwolves tweeted that Adreian Payne, Justin Cobbs, Kyle Anderson, Cory Jefferson, Markel Starks and Jamil Wilson all have workouts scheduled with the team.
- Darren Wolfson of 1500 ESPN Twin Cities reports (Twitter link) Russ Smith, Jahii Carson, and Jordan Morgan worked out for the Wolves on Wednesday.
- Adi Joseph of USA Today looks at the draft needs of the Pelicans. The team currently doesn’t have any picks, but they are reportedly trying to acquire one. According to the article, the team’s biggest needs are at small forward, center, and point guard.
- In a separate article, Joseph looks at the draft needs of the Timberwolves. According to Joseph, the team’s priorities should be at point guard, and both forward spots.
- The crew over at Basketball Insiders (video link) analyze the 2014 free agent class and where each player may end up.
- In a separate article, the latest mock draft from Basketball Insiders has them split over who will be the first-overall pick–Andrew Wiggins or Joel Embiid.
Eastern Notes: Knicks, Randle, Machado, Lue
Derek Fisher believes that Carmelo Anthony can thrive in the triangle offense, reports Ian Begley of ESPNNewYork.com. According to the article, Fisher also believes the team can build a contender around Anthony. Fisher said, “I believe Carmelo can and will thrive in the triangle system. He’s actually the prototypical triangle player because of his versatility we can use him in all five positions on the floor. That’s the beauty of the system — being able to put players around on different spots on the floor. I believe [Anthony] can be great and that’s why I believe we can be great right away. Because we have that guy that we can anchor that system around to make the game easier for him but also allow for all of our team to be impactful and to give us something every single night.”
More from the east:
- Scott Machado will play for the Raptors Summer League team, reports Keith Schlosser of SB Nation. Machado averaged 10.2 PPG, 6.0 APG, and 1.4 steals in fourteen games with the Idaho Stampede of the NBA D-League this past season.
- It was reported earlier that Julius Randle may need surgery to repair his right foot and his recovery time could be as long as two months. Andrew Unterberger of The 700 Level examines how this could result in Randle potentially slipping to the Sixers at pick number ten in the draft.
- The Cavs are giving Tyronn Lue a second interview this weekend, but they’re concerned about the 37-year-old’s inexperience, reports Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio. Amico also hears that owner Dan Gilbert isn’t mandating that GM David Griffin hire a marquee name.
- John Zitzler of Basketball Insiders looks at what the Bucks can do to with the surplus of big men on their roster.
Chuck Myron contributed to this post.