Tyronn Lue named coach of East All-Stars
Just a few days into his new gig, and Tyronn Lue has been tabbed to coach the Eastern Conference NBA All-Star team next month in Toronto.
Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue yells to players in the first half of an NBA basketball game against the Chicago Bulls, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Cleveland. “It’s going to take a little bit of time but just getting back into that sort of rhythm and being able to find guys is going to be fun”.
“I think it’s putting me in a place where I’m definitely comfortable”, Love said. “I took blame for that, so now we got to get back to being a team that we were in the past, and that was hanging our hat on our defense”.
Last weekend, upon his annoinment as head coach, Lue suggested Blatt should still take the reigns of the East. If not, many felt that Dwane Casey of the Toronto Raptors should have been named instead, considering Lue has barely proven anything as far as the Cavs win-loss record is concerned (aside from the 2-1 he now has).
Before the game with the Suns, Lue had written the shooting percentages of Cavs players after a certain amount of passes. If the Cavs play well over the next two weeks, when we get to the All-Star break, Lue might have more wins than Sixers’ coach Brett Brown. “Anyone who has anything to do with this organization, anytime we get some notoriety like that, we are grateful for it, and we are all excited about it”.
It seems unlikely that, even if he were eligible, Blatt would have accepted the offer, especially since his squad would have been led by LeBron James, who is widely thought to have been behind the dismissal.
Love is averaging 15.7 points and 10.8 rebounds, and has started all 44 games for the 32-12 Cavs.
“And I’m not the owner of a team, I’m not the GM of a team”.
Lue has about a dozen sets to run using Love at the elbow, but the Cavs need practice time to learn them.
Longabardi spent the last two-plus seasons as an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns.
A lot of this is due to Lue’s desire to quicken Cleveland’s pace offensively, a strategy the team hasn’t utilized up to this point in the season. Eight of the team’s top 11 lineups in offensive rating (points per 100 possessions, at least 35 minutes played on the floor) included James, Irving and Love.