Lue has had some weak moments this year. But I'm going from give him the benefit of the doubt that a lot of this is experimental, and when it comes time to cut the rotation down to your best 8-9, and lock in for the postseason, that Lue will have this team ready for the playoffs. He's 1 for 1 in that regard.
I love Ty Lue because he was the coach of our 1st title team (knowing just how much he meant to that title, we will never know), but I have to admit that I've always felt Blatt was a better coach
See above.
He just didn't have the players respect, so he never had a chance.
That's a huge part of being an NBA coach, and you have to earn that respect. Blatt let his ego get the best of him, and was never able to earn the respect. As soon as LBJ informed us of his decision, David Blatt should have made that his #1 priority. But he fought against that notion. He felt his years overseas should speak for themselves, but that's not how it works. The NBA is different.
On top of Blatt having an ego, then he would go do remarkably stupid things...Like almost cost us a playoff game in Chicago (3-1 we would have went down) because he was trying to call a timeout we didn't have. He's lucky the ref swallowed his whistle and didn't call the T.
Lue has never seemed to not understand the NBA rules within the game. Blatt had many different issues with timeouts, substitutions, etc. Again, because he couldn't humble himself enough to spend the off season learning all the rules. If he didn't have Ty handling a lot of that behind the scenes, there would have been multiple disasters. And then he would just go say some dumb shit to the media about it.
Blatt is a smart X's and O's coach, but so is Lue. I do that think Blatt is statistically better at out of bounds plays. Lues numbers are actually good. He can usually get us a good look,and the players will actually run his plays.
I feel like as soon as Lue stepped in for Blatt that our defense went to shit, even last season. I don't know if the defensive gameplan changed since Blatt left or what the reasoning is, but I am pretty confident in saying that Blatt was at the very least a better defensive coach than Lue.
I disagree. Lue was in charge of the defense under Blatt. Blatt also had a roster/played a unit that was far more defensive oriented.
Lue became HC and gave the defense to Longbardi (who I am not a fan of at all). Then in the playoffs, I think Lue stepped back in because Obv. There is a lot more time to game-plan for specific teams, and I think the guys responded well. Also, simplifying the scheme helped immensely.
Lue has also done about as bad of a job as possible at managing LeBrons minutes per game this season, which was talked about by him and the team as being crucial before the season even started. I have to admit I am disappointed in him this season overall.
I definitely don't disagree that resting is important, but he has gotten Bron games off, and will give him more.And I do buy into the games off matter more than minutes theory, I know not everyone does, that's a diff argument for another time.
We do know that:Lue coached the team for half the regular season last year and LBJ had a ton left in the tank in June. Better than he's felt in years he said.
And I may be crazy, but I feel like Bron has looked super athletic recently. Been dunking in traffic a lot. I swear he gets stronger as the season goes alone. He's a beast. I try to give his freakish athleticism and stamina the benefit of the doubt.
