The Cavaliers spent the offseason being pulled in two different directions — and they had the hubris to believe they could pull both off. On the one hand was the desire to develop young stars that would be the next generation and iteration of the Cavaliers. However, Cleveland thought they could keep on winning while doing that, hence giving Kevin Love $120 million and keeping Kyle Korver, J.R. Smith, and others on the roster.
Needless to say, that didn’t work out, the Cavaliers are 0-6. Coach Tyronn Lue became the fall guy for this, he was fired Sunday morning.
The ultimate disagreement was was about playing the youth — Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and others who have potential but are not going to win a lot right now — vs. more run for the veterans on the roster. Lue, always the players’ coach, leaned veterans. That became the “disconnect” between the two sides according to multiple reports.
Our own @ShamsCharania joined us this morning with more on the #Cavaliers and their firing of Tyronn Lue. pic.twitter.com/oYBJUeZMtZ
— Stadium (@Stadium) October 29, 2018
#Cavs GM Koby Altman: “This is a different group and we feel it needs a different voice. I didn’t want to string it out any longer. I didn’t think that’d be fair to Ty, I didn’t think it’d be fair to this group. We wanted to overachieve. That hasn’t happened.”
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) October 29, 2018
“We wanted to overachieve?” Really? “We set our sights so ridiculously high the ghost of Red Auerbach couldn’t have coached this team to success, so we fired the coach” seems more accurate.
The distrust of management in Cleveland — more owner Dan Gilbert than GM Koby Altman, Gilbert never keeps GMs and coaches around long — has led to a strange situation with the interim coach for the team. The Cavaliers want Larry Drew to take it, he has former head coaching experience in Atlanta and Milwaukee (he was the guy pushed out the door so Bucks’ ownership could bring in Jason Kidd).
But Drew is too experienced to just walk into a bad situation — and make no mistake, this is a bad situation — without a lot more money and some job security. And that where things are hung up. Drew says he is not the interim coach, just the voice of the coach for a while, which may be the strangest description ever.
Re: Cleveland coaching situation (Cavaliers and not Browns): Having gone through it 5 times, the common protocol is for the lead assistant to get a nice pay raise attached with the interim tag. Rarely does the IHC get extended long term or named permanent HC.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) October 29, 2018
Certainly understand why Larry Drew would want a long term commitment. However, this Cleveland team is a rebuild and ownership/front office needs to find the right fit for the future, either with LD or opening up the search after the season.
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) October 29, 2018
Good times in Cleveland!
