Cavaliers fire coach David Blatt in second season; Lue to take over

Blatt isn’t a flawless head coach, but in so many ways his firing (fair or unfair) felt like destiny.

The dismissal is stunning because the team has generally exceeded expectations this season, compiling a 30-11 record despite injuries to Kyrie Irving and Iman Shumpert.

The Cavaliers lost to “the two elite teams”, the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs, and “they have to feel that Blatt can not match up with those coaches”.

“So, today, we are elevating Tyronn Lue, from his role as Associate Head Coach to Head Coach”.

He was sacked Friday, according to published reports, and former Laker Tyronn Lue was promoted to coach the Cavaliers.

The 38-year-old Lue played for the Huskers from 1995-1998, averaging 15.9 points and 4.4 assists.

To become the preferred candidate of the most powerful player in the National Basketball Association – and de facto Cavaliers general manager – Jackson understood what he needed to do: Bring on James’ and Paul’s Klutch Sports agency as his representation, and prepare to deliver those commission fees into the King’s coffers.

Blatt led the Russian national team to the 2007 Eurobasket championship, 2011 Eurobasket bronze medal and 2012 London Olympics bronze medal, and also led Israeli club Maccabi Tel-Aviv to six Israeli Cup championships and five league titles. 675 winning percentage is the best in franchise history.

Despite all that, there were rumblings Blatt didn’t have the full respect of his players, including LeBron James. “But from a coaching stand point, the coaching profession, I’ve known David for a long time”, he said.

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

And now, the day before the Cavs are set to host the Bulls in a primetime affair that will be a ratings bonanza for ABC/ESPN, Blatt is officially unemployed. This means that the scenario I’ve just presented, where Lue is expected to explain the team’s short comings, is more or less guaranteed to happen. That might be true, but let’s be real here: The only relationship that truly mattered was the one between Blatt and LeBron James.

Blatt was in his second season with the Cavaliers and will depart with an 83-40 record.

Not only that, Elias tells us that he is the first head coach since conferences began in 1970-71 to be fired when his team has the best record in its conference. We are far from flawless and we are still not at our best, but its not for lack of effort and its not for lack of good group of guys that want to do their job as best as they possibly can and I think have done pretty well so far, ” he said.Blatt said his team was doing well at 30-11 and in first place in the east.“Nobody gave us that, ” he said.

Then, last night, David Blatt turned a marquee Cavaliers-Clippers matchup into a foul-off.