Around the League: Week 13 1/18-1/24

[djy2j]

Holy Mackinaw! Do they not know how much worse it could be? Have they not watch a Phoenix Suns game?

[carey]

Holy Mackinaw! Do they not know how much worse it could be? Have they not watch a Phoenix Suns game?

Blatt is not the reason they are getting destroyed by GS. They don't match up well with them. Could Pop make a difference? Sure. But there is only one Pop & he is currently employed.

Tyron Lue was promoted to head coach on a multi year deal. This has Klutch Sports written all over it.

[djy2j]

Just so I have this clear, the Cavs fired Blatt before the Suns fire Hornacek? And Markieff is still here while Blatt is not a current NBA coach? This is happening currently?

[Gladiator]

Looks like a panic move by Cleveland. Hopefully they make some sort of panic trade we can take advantage of

[Mori Chu]

Wow. I really don't get that move by the Cavs. Blatt seemed like he was figuring things out for the most part. I don't think he was to blame for their problems. Seemed like an itchy trigger finger by Cavs management. As others said, it feels like the Lebron-and-friends power block probably pushed him out.

[Wally_West]

Holy Mackinaw! Do they not know how much worse it could be? Have they not watch a Phoenix Suns game?

Blatt is not the reason they are getting destroyed by GS. They don't match up well with them. Could Pop make a difference? Sure. But there is only one Pop & he is currently employed.

Tyron Lue was promoted to head coach on a multi year deal. This has Klutch Sports written all over it.

Ty Lue, Blatt's top assistant, has agreed to a three-year deal to become the team's new head coach, sources told Yahoo. LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, had been strong advocates of Lue becoming head coach since last season, sources said.

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/news/sourc ... 52429.html

[Superbone]

Ty Lue, Blatt's top assistant, has agreed to a three-year deal to become the team's new head coach, sources told Yahoo. LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, had been strong advocates of Lue becoming head coach since last season, sources said.

Just wow.

[Gladiator]

NBA has had conferences since 1970. David Blatt is the first coach to be fired with the best record in his conference. (via @EliasSports)
(ESPN tweet)

[carey]

NBA has had conferences since 1970. David Blatt is the first coach to be fired with the best record in his conference. (via @EliasSports)
(ESPN tweet)

Well, that answers that. Kind of crazy.

[carey]

Watching the press conference. They are doing their best to insulate James from this. Griffin does not look comfortable up there.

[carey]

https://twitter.com/WindhorstESPN/status/690668130868195328

[JCSunsfan]

Maybe one of our old heads can answer this but has a conference leading team ever fired their coach mid-season after a bad regular season loss before?

That blowout loss to the Warriors really rattled them. Must be more going on.

[JCSunsfan]

Looks like a panic move by Cleveland. Hopefully they make some sort of panic trade we can take advantage of

Chandler, Kieff, Tucker and the Cavs pick for Love and Mozgov

Cavs need complementary players to LeBron. Defense, rebounding, players that can be effective without the ball in their hands. That is Chandler and Tucker. They also need a player that will get in LeBron's face if he has to. Chandler is one of the few players in the league that will do that.

Kieff provides a backup for Thompson.

I am not sure if Love is a star player as in a "big three" type of player. But I would be willing to gamble on him.

Could also do Knight, Chandler, and Tucker and a pick for Love, Mozgov, and Mo Williams.

[The Bobster]

The only firing I can recall that compares to this was Philadelphia's firing of Gene Shue in 1977-78. Philadelphia had reached the Finals in 1977 and lost to Portland in six games, but Shue was fired six games into the season after the team started 2-4 (their four losses came by a combined 9 points).

That team was kind of a mess. It had great talent (Julius Erving, George McGinnis, Doug Collins, Lloyd Free, Darryl Dawkins, Caldwell Jones, etc), but it never fit together until they traded McGinnis and Free away.

[Gladiator]

Watching the press conference. They are doing their best to insulate James from this. Griffin does not look comfortable up there.

They really are trying to distance Lebron from it all. There's been lot's of talk that he was informed about the decision, not consulted.
I'm calling absolute BS on that. As if you'd fire the coach without talking to Lebron about it. Absurd

[The Bobster]

Also, Jack McKinney started the 1979-80 season as Lakers coach, leading them to a 10-4 start before he was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. His assistant Paul Westhead took over, leading the Lakers to the NBA title and McKinney was fired in the offseason.

So although ESPN included him on their list of coaches fired after a great start it wasn't quite so simple. It would be more like Golden State letting Steve Kerr go so they could keep Luke Walton as coach.

[Gladiator]

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-news/46 ... id-griffin

"LeBron doesn't run this organization; LeBron is about this organization and of this organization," Griffin said at the news conference, while reports that James was not behind the firing surfaced. "This narrative that we’re somehow taking direction from him isn’t fair."

Interesting choice of words from Griffin. The narrative "isn't fair"...not the narrative isn't correct.

[Gladiator]

To be clear, sacking Blatt may be the right move (albeit I'm not convinced giving Lue a multi-year deal is the right follow-up). But I don't think you can pretend it had nothing to do with Lebron

[Cap]

The only firing I can recall that compares to this was Philadelphia's firing of Gene Shue in 1977-78.

What about Westhead and the Lakers?

[JCSunsfan]

Also, Jack McKinney started the 1979-80 season as Lakers coach, leading them to a 10-4 start before he was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. His assistant Paul Westhead took over, leading the Lakers to the NBA title and McKinney was fired in the offseason.

So although ESPN included him on their list of coaches fired after a great start it wasn't quite so simple. It would be more like Golden State letting Steve Kerr go so they could keep Luke Walton as coach.

Actually, the Lakers wanted Jerry West as coach at the time, and went so far as to announce him as coach. West balked and Riley took hesitatingly took it.