For me, it boils down to two things:
1. His refusal to stand up to LeBron and BE the head coach
2. His inability to make things work with Kevin Love
This is from Brendan Haywood when Blatt was fired:
Look, I don't care that LeBron is LeBron and you've never coached in the NBA before. You're hired to coach, be the goddamn coach. That doesn't mean treating everyone equally, because we all know stars are treated differently than end of bench guys. But you HAVE to hold everyone accountable. David Blatt, for reasons only he knows, refused to do that.
On the second point, I can go on and on about how Blatt refused to run anything through Love, or how Love's elbow touches skyrocketed post-firing. But this point is actually pretty simple. Blatt's first move when things weren't going well was to flat out bench Love. He more or less said, "I don't need this guy," when he told the media he wasn't sure Kevin was a max player.
What happened when Lue took over? Kevin Love not only played fourth quarters, he was on the floor, and a key part, of the Cavs winning game 7 against a team that was a "bad matchup" for him. Does Blatt get that out of Kevin Love? The better question is, does Blatt even give Kevin the chance to show that?
Chris, your skills as a reporter are truly unparalleled. This is a really explanatory analysis. Thanks!Couple quick points of order. Brendan Hayward was no fan of Blatt's, let's state from the start. Really wanted some court time and never saw it, so he had a reasonably large ax on that.
Second pt. tho' Love's elbow touches went up FOR A WHILE they went right back down and wound up at lower rate than under Blatt.
He obviously didn't say we don't need this guy, and that's overstated to the point of clownishness. He stated he wasn't sure KLove is a max player, and he isn't being pd max now, tho' $20M is some cool change.
W/R/T "the whole clubhouse was lost" let's be clear; I've talked to most of the players and can say with some confidence JR, Andy, Delly, Timo, Sasha, and Kyrie were sad to see him go. RJ didn't have a horse, but didn't have any complaints about minutes when I spoke to him. Never queried TT about it, but doubt he raised a fuss ever about anything. You can draw your own determinations on who that left. Love had nothing to say about Blatt, and I doubt there was any "love" lost.
IMO Griffin made the determination to make it work with Love instead of Blatt. Lue couldn't get much out of Love either until he challenged him to play like a Top 10 player and got on Ky & LBJ to keep passing him the ball even when he was missing. That was a big accomplishment, to get Ky and LBJ to put KLove on equal footing as far as getting the ball beyond the first quarter. So no shade on Lue for that, major accomplishment.
You're foolish if you don't think Lue earned that trophy. Remaining calm in those situations -esp. for a rookie coach- is big. He also stuck with his gameplan even when it didn't seem to work, and that confidence fed over to the team. Blatt's a good coach and could've won a championship here, but he probably made a few misteps that hurt.
Also, it's been pointed out that the "pointing out mistakes" thing might've been overstated since it is Ty Lue's responsibility to point out mistakes on defense not David Blatt's. Also, there was a rash of attempts to dump on him after he left, but it seems strange that a coach for 20+ years at a high (Olympic) level would be guilty of as many "rookie" coach mistakes as he was credited. I believe there was overstatement for the hot take but that's just an opinion...
Couple quick points of order. Brendan Hayward was no fan of Blatt's, let's state from the start. Really wanted some court time and never saw it, so he had a reasonably large ax on that.
Second pt. tho' Love's elbow touches went up FOR A WHILE they went right back down and wound up at lower rate than under Blatt.
He obviously didn't say we don't need this guy, and that's overstated to the point of clownishness. He stated he wasn't sure KLove is a max player, and he isn't being pd max now, tho' $20M is some cool change.
W/R/T "the whole clubhouse was lost" let's be clear; I've talked to most of the players and can say with some confidence JR, Andy, Delly, Timo, Sasha, and Kyrie were sad to see him go. RJ didn't have a horse, but didn't have any complaints about minutes when I spoke to him. Never queried TT about it, but doubt he raised a fuss ever about anything. You can draw your own determinations on who that left. Love had nothing to say about Blatt, and I doubt there was any "love" lost.
IMO Griffin made the determination to make it work with Love instead of Blatt. Lue couldn't get much out of Love either until he challenged him to play like a Top 10 player and got on Ky & LBJ to keep passing him the ball even when he was missing. That was a big accomplishment, to get Ky and LBJ to put KLove on equal footing as far as getting the ball beyond the first quarter. So no shade on Lue for that, major accomplishment.
You're foolish if you don't think Lue earned that trophy. Remaining calm in those situations -esp. for a rookie coach- is big. He also stuck with his gameplan even when it didn't seem to work, and that confidence fed over to the team. Blatt's a good coach and could've won a championship here, but he probably made a few misteps that hurt.
Also, it's been pointed out that the "pointing out mistakes" thing might've been overstated since it is Ty Lue's responsibility to point out mistakes on defense not David Blatt's. Also, there was a rash of attempts to dump on him after he left, but it seems strange that a coach for 20+ years at a high (Olympic) level would be guilty of as many "rookie" coach mistakes as he was credited. I believe there was overstatement for the hot take but that's just an opinion...
I don't think it was a coincidence that these Blatt critical newsbombs came out at times he ws being interviewed for head coaching jobs. information that these guys should of been reporting at the time of the firing yet there it was 3 months laterInteresting I always thought that would make him prone to rookie mistakes: he coached in Europe where there are numerous differences (yes I know he played college here but that was decades ago). The pace of the game is far different at the end of games (less TO's), the wider lane, and the fact GS style of screens would be thought as not illegal enough Europe really do make for a different game.
Let alone the cultural differences in players: guys in Europe particularly Americans show a certain determination that isn't going to be present in a lot of more talented NBA players just as one. There is also no equivalent of a James like talent.
Overall, nothing I've read has made me change my mind Blatt: he was an ok coach. The internet tends to inflame opinion to go one way or the other but he didn't stick out like coaching superstar like Carlisle nor someone who I thought was awful despite winning (Brown). Going back to my first point, I do wonder how he'd have done with a few more years, it took even star players like Ginobili a year or two to really acclimate t the league and the talent level and that maybe the same for coaches. I would not have gone back to Europe if I was him: would have angled for the GS assistant job vacated by Walton if I was his agent
, team strategy (having LeBron inbound the ball with no time left on the clock?)
Even if lebron is not the best at game winning shots, he's an excellent decoy on the floor in those situations. Having him in bound the ball is the worst possible choice because he's not a decoy and he's only drawing one defender. Maybe Lebron taking the shot is not ideal, but Lebron in bounding the ball was a bad play and the team knew it.
The media has decided this was a bad decision and it's hard for people to go against conventional stupidity.
Um, aren't you like a member of the media or something? If so, then when does that even mean?
Blatt 100% got a raw deal. To be fired at 30-11 is pretty ridiculous all things considered. In terms of X's and O's and basketball coaching ability, I still believe he's more skilled than Lue.