It was a week ago that the Cleveland Cavaliers decided to fire head coach Tyronn Lue, and the reaction nationally wasn’t favorable, particularly in regards to owner Dan Gilbert.
Gilbert is viewed by the media as the NBA’s version of Dallas Cowboys’ owner Jerry Jones, a man who makes moves like he knows the sport, but if really just a bit more than a fan. And a fan who acts impetuously, someone who is looking for a change after a couple of losses.
The movement away from Lue wasn’t a problem for us, but the lack of a plan from the top of the organization down to GM Koby Altman is.
Firing a coach six games into a season shows a lack of communication throughout the organization.
It is pretty apparent that the Cavs wanted to get younger after LeBron James announced he was signing with the Lakers.
Didn’t Lue and Altman (and we guess, Gilbert) sit down at that point and talk about the direction for the future? Maybe they did, and then Lue decided that winning games immediately was the way to go, so that’s when the wheels were put into motion to make a change on the bench.
If Lue wasn’t going to make a commitment to playing guys like David Nwaba, Ante Zizic, and Sam Dekker, then couldn’t a joint decision have been made at that time for Lue to walk away?
Put out a statement thanking the coach for guiding a championship team, taking the franchise to two other Finals, and saying there is a change in direction for the squad.
That’s how it should have been handled.
Then, you have the whole Larry Drew as the new head coach, or interim head coach, or “new voice”, or whatever the heck he is right now.
When Altman and Gilbert decided Lue was out, didn’t they reach out to Drew to see if he wanted the full time gig, and negotiate a contract at that time?
It seems like there was no communication at all. It seems like they fired Lue, and called Drew and said, by the way, you are the new head coach.
And Drew said not so fast.
Look, we get why Drew wants security. He is 60 years old and was basically screwed out of his last two jobs because a new management team came in.
And we get why the Cavaliers wouldn’t want to be tied in with Drew through the 2019-20 season. They want the opportunity to go out and find their version of Brad Stevens in the off-season.
To fans and media alike, the whole thing looks like it was not very well thought out. A well run organization would have thought these things out ahead of time and saved themselves the embarrassment.
A new coach could’ve came in during the summer, put together their plan, especially from a defensive standpoint, and started the season developing rookie Collin Sexton, and getting the most out of the younger players on the roster.
Instead, we have one of the worst teams in the NBA playing a style to which it is poorly suited.
All because it doesn’t look like the front office (including the owner) and the head coach didn’t communicate very well over the summer.
JK
Cleveland Sports Perspective 