The Cavaliers have one overarching goal: Win any many championships as possible while LeBron James remains an elite player.
A 34-point home loss to the Warriors on Monday showed how far Cleveland has to go.
So, the Cavs are making a major change.
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports:
Cleveland has fired coach David Blatt, sources tell Yahoo.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 22, 2016
Assistant Ty Lue has agreed to a multi-year deal as new Cavaliers head coach, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) January 22, 2016
The timing is a little surprising, because Cleveland stomped the Nets and Clippers after the Golden State loss. But that setback obviously still lingered.
Surely, Kevin Love’s apparent unhappiness factored, too. The Cavs will get better as Kyrie Irving returns to form after major injury. But they won’t reach their potential unless they become cohesive with Love, and that had been Blatt’s biggest shortcoming. The coach too often let Love remain uninvolved in the offense and asked the wrong things of him defensively.
LeBron’s public support seemed likely to get Blatt another crack at the playoffs, especially because Blatt coached so well last postseason with Love and Irving hurt.
But now the job – one of the NBA’s best and highest-pressure – will fall to respected assistant coach Tyronn Lue. It’s a lot to ask of a first-time head coach and mid-season replacement, but the Cavaliers will.
Their primary goal has not changed.