Cavs fire coach Blatt; promote top assistant Tyronn Lue

Brendan Haywood spent what was likely his final National Basketball Association season with the Cleveland Cavaliers last year, and based on his assessment of the locker-room dynamics, the 13-year center wasn’t surprised the team fired head coach David Blatt on Friday. During his one and half seasons as head coach, Blatt compiled a regular season record of 83-40 and a 14-6 mark in last year’s playoffs.

And Griffin was forced to assure the decision was completely his.

However, Griffin said that while Lue has been given the head coach’s title – without an “interim” tag – such a contract is “absolutely not in place”.

Blatt’s firing comes one day after he became defensive before a win over the Clippers. “And it’s not to say that Ty Lue is a better basketball coach”. It’s the life of a coach in it and the guy on the sideline like I am. I remember we had James Jones [talk] to Coach about how, ‘Hey, you can’t just skip over when LeBron James makes a mistake in the film room.’ Because we all see it. Rivers hadn’t spoken to Lue yet, but he said when he did, he would have some advice. He had been sensing issues – including offensive problems – in recent weeks, even as the Cavs won. “It’s just weird. It just leaves you with a bit of an empty feeling because Blatt’s a great guy and he did a great job there”.

“I’ve watched them interact with each other for a very long period of time under a lot of different circumstances”.

“I think it was pretty evident”, the source said. We do, and I’ve talked to many players when we make decisions of magnitude that will change the locker room.

David Blatt (R) is out as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, just a season after leading LeBron James (L) and the rest of the Cavs to the NBA Finals.

James was not asked for his opinion nor was he involved in the decision to replace Blatt with Lue, a person familiar with situation told USA TODAY Sports.

“Over the course of my business career I have learned that sometimes the hardest thing to do is also the right thing to do”, said Dan Gilbert, Majority Owner of the Cavaliers.

In a statement released on Friday, Blatt, who joined the Cavs in June 2014, expressed the pride with what he had achieved with the franchise.

This was LeBron’s team.

Lue has a chance.

The players were allowed to operate more as individuals than as a team under Blatt.

From the outside, it appears James had a hand in this move. Turns out he wasn’t the right coach for that team.

Hoiberg did recognize the extenuating circumstances revolving Blatt’s job. This was always James’ team. That gets back to players.

Coach Blatt was very hesitant to challenge LeBron James. Maybe he can have fun again.

“Our most glaring need is to understand and communicate role delineation and team sacrifice”, Griffin said at a news conference at the team’s practice facility in Independence.