Stein: Blatt's Job Could Be In Trouble

[Clementine9]

Whether Blatt gets fired or not I think the discussion is basically pointless after this post. Sports reporting is all just a bunch of bull.

What? Pat Riley came out and said, Spolestra is our guy, deal with it. Wade came out and said, this is on all of us, not just Spo. The rumors weren't wrong, Miami just had a very respected and organized FO. They backed their guy, regardless of the scrutiny.

It's not like that in Cleveland. The FO is inept. The players are inept. Lebron has full control. Lebron can opt out of his contract, and leave. Cleveland knows that. They don't have the same leadership that Miami had.

The Heat in 2010 didn't lose their 12th game until January 15th (30-12 at the time). That article came out after 17 games, not 30 games. People need to stop comparing the Heat big 3 to the Cavs big 3. They have nothing in common except for 3 stars forming a team together.

It's all just a bunch of nothing. I've seen FO's and players defend the coach shortly before he gets fired before, then other times where the coach doesn't get fired after lots of criticism. The controversy sells and you'll get that type of mixed reporting (players defending coach vs. players seemingly unresponsive to coach) in areas where there's bad information. That's why I say even if Blatt gets fired I don't look back on this and think, "We saw this coming." It's just as likely Blatt doesn't get fired and we forget these articles or reports even happened.

[Scarface844]

LeBron is probably angling for Mark Jackson who is represented by his agency. Probably left Heat because they wouldn't let him run the whole organization.

Blatt was destined to fail. His arrogant personality would not even work on team full of rookies yet alone on a team led by LeBron

This is what I've been saying. All the reports about Lebron mad about the personnel and financial decisions Miami made, point to that. Even the little things like not giving Lebron's friends the freedom to come into the arena whenever they felt like it.

He wanted full control, and he was never going to get that with Miami. People forget that he chose a lot of guys that played with him in his first Cleveland stint. He wants Mark Jackson as the head coach, and is putting Blatt in a position to fail.

[Scarface844]

It's all just a bunch of nothing. I've seen FO's and players defend the coach shortly before he gets fired before, then other times where the coach doesn't get fired after lots of criticism. The controversy sells and you'll get that type of mixed reporting (players defending coach vs. players seemingly unresponsive to coach) in areas where there's bad information. That's why I say even if Blatt gets fired I don't look back on this and think, "We saw this coming." It's just as likely Blatt doesn't get fired and we forget these articles or reports even happened.

Stein & Woj are 2 of the most legit insiders/reporters in the league. If Stein's reporting something, there's a good chance it's true.

[Local_NG_Idiot]

I'm not sure what coach could get a team that features Irving, Waiters, Love, Thompson, Dellavedova and a 34 year Mike Miller on half a back (that's 6 of the main 9 man rotation) to play even respectable defense let alone a top 10 level defense.

[Randle McMurphy]

No team would panic after 30 games like this....unless they had Lebron. Blatt is a proven coach, maybe not in this league but its a learning experience for him too and the Cavs should have known that. Its not his fault the team has no depth, no rim protection and a bunch of chuckers, though he should be coaching them on what shots to take and not to take.

30 games is almost 40% of the NBA season. It certainly is a good time to panic if you're still floundering at this point.

It's still just the regular season and not even January yet. When the Cavs have tried on both ends this year (an infrequent occurrence), they've beaten the Hawks, Wizards, Raptors (twice), and Grizzlies. As long as LeBron is healthy and ready to go in April for the real season, their place in the standings isn't going to matter too much.

[Forza Barca]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/mcten/status/549649921616670720[/tweet]

Strong vote of confidence. Chill mode still in effect in Cleveland.

lol - goodbye BastardFace Blatt, don't come near the Raptors neither! Go win some mickey-mouse Euro league.

LeBron also deserves some of the blame.

[daswunderboy]

Re-signing Lebron = Great.

Letting Lebron be the GM = Terrible.

Let's be honest. Lebron deserves a lot of the blame here. Bringing in his favoured veterans has hurt the teams bench and cap situation. Marion and Miller are awful NBA players. They are old, and they will not get better. I mean, for the price of Miller, they could have had James Johnson. If they had JJ, they wouldn't need to waste about a million on the corpse of Marion.

Seriously, GM'ing by "Hey, I remember playing him in the finals, he was good" or "Hey, that guy plays me in NBA 2k15 and we have fun" is a terrible way to build a team. They only have themselves to blame for any struggles.

(mind you, they are not doing that bad, and will be a tough team in the playoffs for anyone. I just think its a horribly built team).

[Kevin Willis]

Feel really sorry for Blatt. His first NBA job, thought he was getting a young core and a future superstar in Wiggins who he could groom. Instead Lebron comes home, trade Wiggins and undermines the coach at every opportunity. I hope Blatt gets another job somewhere if Cleveland lets him go.

This completely. Also when Lebron makes statements like "I was in chill mode but he brought the beast out of me". The first thing I thought was why are you in chill mode? I would understand if you were up big or down big but they were losing at that point. If your best player wants to coach the team then he can't do much. He's still an excellent coach and would be great for a young team.

This is way too early - where was Miami at this point in their first season.

[will]

Bring on Lil Lue!

[tms]

Stein & Woj are 2 of the most legit insiders/reporters in the league. If Stein's reporting something, there's a good chance it's true.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/wojyahoonba/status/348181572291268608[/tweet]

After talks failed again on Friday, the Boston Celtics' Doc Rivers will no longer pursue the Los Angeles Clippers' coaching job, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.

"The deal is completely dead," a source directly involved in the talks said Friday.

Doc Rivers won't be heading west. Rivers will make a choice between returning to the Celtics for his 10th season as coach or leaving for television, sources told Yahoo! Sports.

The ramifications for the Clippers could be significant, because free agent All-Star guard Chris Paul had badly wanted Rivers as his coach and had pushed management to complete a deal with Boston, sources said.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/doc-rivers ... 51874.html

[tweet]https://twitter.com/WojYahooNBA/status/349608288318521345[/tweet]

happens all the time. these guys are mouthpieces as often as they're journalists .

[LLJ]

No team would panic after 30 games like this....unless they had Lebron. Blatt is a proven coach, maybe not in this league but its a learning experience for him too and the Cavs should have known that. Its not his fault the team has no depth, no rim protection and a bunch of chuckers, though he should be coaching them on what shots to take and not to take.

30 games is almost 40% of the NBA season. It certainly is a good time to panic if you're still floundering at this point.

It's still just the regular season and not even January yet. When the Cavs have tried on both ends this year (an infrequent occurrence), they've beaten the Hawks, Wizards, Raptors (twice), and Grizzlies. As long as LeBron is healthy and ready to go in April for the real season, their place in the standings isn't going to matter too much.

Defence was an issue for them early on and defence is an issue for them again now. Yes, they had a good defensive stretch a few weeks back--every team, even the worst defensive teams are able to play hard for a 10-15 game stretch. But if you can only play good defence for short stretches of the season followed by long bouts of defensive ineptitude, it's a talent issue. Not every player can be a good defender. Love and Irving simply have fundamental deficiencies on the defensive end that even "trying" can only mask for so long.

That said, trying for 8-10 games is good enough to win them a few rounds, obviously. LeBron is good enough to win them a few rounds. But Irving and Love may not be the powerhouse teammates that he was hoping for. They are not even close to being on Wade and Bosh's level. I'm not even sure either Irving or Love right now is better than a gimpy Wade with a deformed leg.

[Randle McMurphy]

30 games is almost 40% of the NBA season. It certainly is a good time to panic if you're still floundering at this point.

It's still just the regular season and not even January yet. When the Cavs have tried on both ends this year (an infrequent occurrence), they've beaten the Hawks, Wizards, Raptors (twice), and Grizzlies. As long as LeBron is healthy and ready to go in April for the real season, their place in the standings isn't going to matter too much.

Defence was an issue for them early on and defence is an issue for them again now. Yes, they had a good defensive stretch a few weeks back--every team, even the worst defensive teams are able to play hard for a 10-15 game stretch. But if you can only play good defence for short stretches of the season followed by long bouts of defensive ineptitude, it's a talent issue. Not every player can be a good defender. Love and Irving simply have fundamental deficiencies on the defensive end that even "trying" can only mask for so long.

That said, trying for 8-10 games is good enough to win them a few rounds, obviously. LeBron is good enough to win them a few rounds. But Irving and Love may not be the powerhouse teammates that he was hoping for. They are not even close to being on Wade and Bosh's level. I'm not even sure either Irving or Love right now is better than a gimpy Wade with a deformed leg.

It's hard to see them ever being a strong defensive team with guys like Irving and Love, yes. Wade is/was definitely a better player than both of them and Bosh understood his role very well for most of the four years (although it took him some time to adapt as well). The rest of the role players themselves are also weaker (Waiters doesn't have a clue out there and Thompson is just not a good defender). This clearly isn't like the dynamic Heat team of past years at all and you can easily see them losing in the EC playoffs.

But still, all the Cavs have to do is make the playoffs and play hard defensively when it begins and they'll do some damage. They've already shown they are capable of that in short stretches against top teams and they'll likely have other stretches like it before April. Judging by how easy he is taking it this season, LeBron isn't obviously too concerned where they are seeded before that happens. If they're still struggling like this heading into the playoffs, sure, that might be time for panic. But not yet, at least for me. I still see them as the biggest threat outside of the Bulls to Toronto.

[6GGOD]

I'm not sure what coach could get a team that features Irving, Waiters, Love, Thompson, Dellavedova and a 34 year Mike Miller on half a back (that's 6 of the main 9 man rotation) to play even respectable defense let alone a top 10 level defense.

Lmao couldn't of said it any better myself. Not any of the those players are even decent defenders.

[Saciid11]

When you are getting Lebron, Love and contending for nba title, you don't hire a unproven coach... You hire a experienced coach or coach who knows how to coach at the defensive end ...

[PrinceV]

The problem with James is that the Cavs need him to go at 110% to lead the team to a championship. However, he plays at an intensity where he is only putting up 70%. When your leader plays at that rate, so does the team. Blatt was hired to not intervene with Lebron's decisions. Cleveland was so dumb to give Wiggins for Love, for the sake of winning now. Five yrs from now they will regret it.

Part of me believes that the reason James moved back to Cleveland was that he didn't want Wiggins to replace him as the next prodigal son for Ohio, nor have Wiggins bring home a championship before he does. If LJ was smart, I would keep Wiggins and put him under my wings in order for the franchise to succeed for the long haul.

[youngtea]

I've seen the Cave game and there is no defensive strategy. I don't know why you fire someone when you have no replacment especially when you have a high chance of a title.