James leads Cavs past T-Wolves for Lue’s first win

Despite a 30-11 record and the top seed in the Eastern Conference roughly halfway through the regular season, the Cleveland Cavaliers announced on Friday that they had fired head coach David Blatt.

Earlier, LeBron James revealed that he had no clue regarding the firing of head coach David Blatt.

I mention this story because it was just over 30 years ago when that happened, and at the time, you would have thought the world was spinning backwards. “I know what something that’s not right looks like”. “I’d like to thank (owner) Dan Gilbert and David Griffin for giving me this opportunity and am honored to have worked with an awesome group of players from LeBron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love through our entire roster”.

The full quote from Lue, who actually stopped another reporter from moving on to a new topic in order to say what he felt needed to be said: “I don’t think we’re in good enough shape. Like it or love it or hate it, whatever, you gotta respect it”.

Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue answers questions during a news conference before an NBA basketball game between the Chicago Bulls and the Cavaliers, Saturday, Jan. 23, 2016, in Cleveland. The Cavs reached the 2015 NBA Finals but has been defeated to the hands of Golden State Warriors.

Four-time MVP LeBron James also said it concerned him, which shouldn’t be the case for a squad that advanced to the NBA Finals in June.

However, Thibodeau ended his stint in Chicago with controversies as his coaching style reportedly clashed with what the front office wants for the Bulls. Coach Lue was our defensive coach when Blatt was here, so there was no drop-off there.

Now, if a coach doesn’t listen to a player, he can be given the axe.

Blatt took Maccabi Tel Aviv to an improbable Euroleague championship in 2014 before becoming the first coach to leap from that league to an National Basketball Association head coaching position later in the year.

“I don’t think we’re in good enough shape”, Lue continued. “Coach wanted to play faster, so we need to start doing stuff on off days, doing stuff at practice, during shootarounds, getting up and down the floor, getting our heart rate going, because he wants to play faster, play with more pace than we’ve done in the past”.

“We talked a lot about Cleveland coming out and playing with a lot of energy early and we had to match it”, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said.

Thompson had 19 points with 12 rebounds and Dellavedova scored 18 points as Cleveland had six players in double figures. Lue went 10 deep in the first quarter, but it seemed to stall any rhythm the offense could generate.