David Blatt guided the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in his first season. He oversaw a 30-11 start this season.
And Cleveland still fired him.
It’d hardly be surprising if Blatt – who has succeeded coaching in Europe and Israel and with Russia’s national team – returned overseas.
But that doesn’t appear to be his plan.
ESPN:
Remember, Blatt left Maccabi Tel Aviv without having an NBA head-coaching job locked up. The Massachusetts native clearly wanted to be here, and it seems his experience with the Cavs hasn’t changed that.
Will another team offer him a head-coaching job? Perhaps, he’d fit better with a young team more open to his methods. The Timberwolves – who have Andrew Wiggins, a player Blatt was originally hired to coach – make sense on paper.
Blatt could also find work as an assistant. If he didn’t land the Cleveland job in 2014, his backup choice seemed to be working on Steve Kerr’s Warriors staff. With Luke Walton likely to get head-coaching offers, Golden State could have another vacancy this offseason.
There are reasons to believe in Blatt – the adjustments he made during last year’s playoffs as Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving went down with injury, the offense he ran overseas that he still hasn’t fully unleashed in the NBA, his willingness to delegate to assistant coaches. He must improve his communication skills, especially with veterans not predisposed to respecting him, and handle of NBA rotations. That could happen with a little more experience, whether it comes as a head or assistant coach.