Maybe James’ Best Leadership Would Be Backing Blatt

The way basketball fans in this area talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers, you would think their record is below .500 or something like that.

In reality, the Cavs are 18-11 with a little over one-third of the season being played, in firm grasp of a playoff spot (they are seven games ahead of the current ninth seed), and no doubt will get better as the season plays on.

Once again, if you look at the teams who have the best record in each conference currently, Toronto and Atlanta in the Eastern Conference, and Golden State and Portland in the West, you find teams that basically are the same as last season.

Certainly, none of those teams made the changes the wine and gold did over the off-season.

And for those fans who have been critical of coach David Blatt, his area of expertise coming into the season was offense, and the Cavs have the fourth most efficient offense in the NBA right now, behind just the Raptors, Mavericks, and Clippers.

Clearly, the offense isn’t the problem, despite reports from the national media (read: ESPN).

On the defensive end, that’s another story. They rank 21st in the league in efficiency on that end of the floor (just ahead of Dallas, by the way), although they are right in the middle of the pack in points allowed (14th).

Because the Cavs have LeBron James back and brought in Kevin Love as well, there is no doubt extra media attention on everything the team does.

That includes last night when Love didn’t play in the fourth quarter in the win over Orlando, because the five who were out there were playing well. Blatt did the same thing less than a week ago, when Dion Waiters sat out the entire second half because Mike Miller and Matthew Dellavedova were playing well.

The next game, Waiters received his normal minutes.

One thing that hurts Blatt is that James hasn’t made many supportive comments about the head coach, and really, has never made any comments backing any of his coaches over the years, outside of phrases like “he’s the coach”.

Over the years, superstar players have been linked to their coaches. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant with Phil Jackson, Tim Duncan with Gregg Popovich, Magic Johnson with Pat Riley, and even Bill Russell with Red Auerbach.

James never has had that relationship, that the coach has the best things in mind for both LeBron and the franchise in total.

It might be time for that now.

When the Cavs struggle this season, it’s because they seem to drift off into bad habits. In the Christmas Day loss to Miami, the wine and gold tied up the game and then spent the last ten minutes playing a lot of one-on-one style, and at one point missed nine shots in a row.

This is the opportunity for the team’s best player to say the Cavs need to do what Blatt wants them to do: share the ball and make an effort on the defensive end.

If LeBron says that publicly, and develops a partnership with Blatt, that will unify a team that still seems to fragment at times.

After all, Blatt is a pretty renowned coach around the globe. He’s not Mike Brown and Eric Spoelstra, guys who were around the league for a while but never had success before they had James on the roster.

He’s had success coaching the sport for a long time, maybe not at the highest professional level, but he’s got more of a track record that the others we’ve mentioned.

Developing that relationship would show the rest of the roster just who is in charge, and just may be the catalyst for a very successful season.

That might be the biggest statement LeBron James can make as the leader of this squad.

On Surface, Choice of Blatt is Outstanding.

The Cleveland Cavaliers made a bold choice yesterday and we love it.

They hired David Blatt as their new head coach despite the fact that he’s never been a head coach on American soil. He has however, been very successful in the European circuit and on the international level.

Now, no one can be totally evaluated until he starts coaching games in the regular season, but there is no question that he is able to handle professional players and he has coached men, not college kids.

And as for the argument that he will have a lot to learn because he’s never coached in the NBA, not many people made that argument when the Celtics hired former Butler University coach Brad Stevens last season, and let’s face it, there isn’t a lot of imagination in the NBA game anyway.

Most teams run isolation and pick-and-roll based offenses in the association, and defending that is something that every basketball coach learns early in their career. It’s more about getting players to want to play on the other end of the floor.

But what has us excited is Blatt’s reputation as a superior offensive mind. The new coach’s system is predicated on ball movement, much like the Spurs, and that is the way the game is supposed to be played.

Many have speculated that his approach will not mesh well with Kyrie Irving, but we disagree. Irving has grown frustrated in the past two years because in his second season, the whole burden was put on him, and last year, there basically was no offense.

It has to be frustrating when there is no movement away from the ball to free players up for good shots. In Blatt’s system there will be constant movement of the ball and players who don’t have it won’t be standing in one place, making it easy to be defended.

If Irving doesn’t love playing in that system, then we know what kind of player he is, and he can be moved on while he still has a tremendous amount of value.

The other reason hiring Blatt is the correct move is that it has everything to do with moving with the future. GM David Griffin hired a coach who is an actual coach, meaning he will try to make everyone better and will develop young talent.

They didn’t try to do anything else with the hire, and by that we mean trying to kiss up to LeBron James, which we think the Mike Brown hire was partially about, and the pursuit of John Calipari was all about.

If James wants to return here, great. But the Cavaliers needed to start moving forward and needed to stop making moves designed to lure the four-time MVP to come back.

We still believe that Blatt’s hire is just the first step in trying to get the wine and gold back to the playoffs. Griffin needs to restructure the roster and get away from the point guard/power forward heavy group assembled by former GM Chris Grant.

That means we will likely see a busy couple of weeks on the basketball front in Cleveland, as we think about one-third of the current 15 man roster will be turned over before training camp opens in October.

That’s because the way Griffin envisions his team and the way Blatt coaches is a match. That’s another thing to like about this hire.

Finally, there is a direction at Quicken Loans Arena.

Lost Season With Brown Hurting Cavs Now

New Cavaliers’ GM David Griffin has a very difficult job. We aren’t talking about how his boss seems to want to be involved in the basketball operations, including trying to hire a coach behind his back.

His real problem is evaluating the talent on this team after last season.

We really believe that you have to throw away the seasons that some of the players who have been on the roster for more than two years, particularly Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson.

You also have to discard any evaluation of last year’s first round draft pick, Anthony Bennett.

Irving and Thompson weren’t helped by Mike Brown’s coaching and it was obvious to everyone that the point guard didn’t trust his coach, and it affected his attitude.

That’s why talking about moving Irving is premature, unless he doesn’t sign a contract extension with the wine and gold.

We feel that Irving’s attitude will be much better with a new coaching staff this season. Thompson also leveled out under Brown’s tutelage.

What happens when a coach puts together sets and plays that don’t work, the players lose confidence in him. We all saw the difficulty the Cavs had last season with in bounds plays and plays at the end of games.

It’s easy to see why players like the two third-year players tuned out the head coach, and because of that, it is difficult for Griffin to evaluate both players going forward.

As for Bennett, yes he came to training camp out of shape due to off-season shoulder surgery, but since Brown found little time for Bennett to play, and when he did, he was put into schemes that didn’t put him into situations where he could succeed.

So, that’s three players that the new GM really can’t get a good read on. And he also doesn’t have a good gage on whether or not Dion Waiters can play with Irving because of last year’s coaching staff.

Tyler Zeller? Who knows? Brown hardly played him last season.

Outside of Waiters, what player who was here in 2012-13 made any progress in their game? You can’t name any. That’s why it is a difficult job for Griffin.

He does have to hire a coach soon, if only to get the new headman’s opinion on possible moves in free agency and in the draft. Whatever personnel moves they are considering, isn’t it better to find out what the guy who will be dealing with the players on a day in, day out basis is thinking?

We would support the hiring of either David Blatt or Lionel Hollins, who hasn’t received a second interview as of yet.

Blatt appears to be a true coach, a teacher, someone who will put players in a system that will take advantage of their abilities. That’s what this group needs. If his stuff works, the players will have confidence in him and play for him. That’s how it works.

As for Hollins, he would bring an attitude of winning. He would make it clear that losing is no longer tolerated. That change in culture is also needed. In the past few years, winning hasn’t been the first priority for the Cavs.

To be sure, Griffin didn’t take the gig because he thought it would be easy, he obviously loves a challenge.

However, what happened last year probably set the franchise back a year in the rebuilding effort. That’s something he has to overcome.

Hold Off on Evaluating Pettine Until Games Start

The search is finally over.

On Thursday, the Browns sent the white smoke out of the chimney and named Bills defensive coordinator Mike Pettine as their new head coach.

Was Pettine a “hot” coordinator? No.

Was Pettine the first name on their wish list? No.

Should the front office be criticized for how they conducted the search process? Yes.

With all of those questions answered, those fans blasting the new hire because he wasn’t the Browns’ top choice and he wasn’t the coordinator for a playoff team are way off base.

We really don’t know what kind of head coach Pettine will be until the games start for real in September. That’s not a cop-out, it’s just he has to be judged by how prepared his team is to play, his adjustments within games, and whether or not he wins or loses. Any thoughts about how those issues will play out are strictly opinion.

And most of those ideas will be based on the critics’ thoughts about Jimmy Haslam, Joe Banner, and Michael Lombardi. And that’s simply not fair.

It has been written before how both Mike Tomlin and John Harbaugh, two head coaches on rival teams in the AFC North, were in the same boat as Pettine when he was hired.

Tomlin was the defensive coordinator for one season in Minnesota (2006) when he got the gig in Pittsburgh, and the Vikings finished 6-10 that season. Harbaugh was the secondary coach for one season in Philadelphia after being the special teams coach when Ozzie Newsome hired him in Baltimore.

We all can agree they’ve been successful NFL head coaches.

This isn’t to say Pettine will win because he has a similar background to these men, but it is meant to emphasize no one know what kind of coach Pettine will be until games start.

The thing we will watch is how the new coach of the Browns bases his style of play on the personnel the team has. He talked about how important the quarterback position is in the NFL, which Banner and Lombardi have drummed into our consciousness since they arrived. And we all know those two want to draft a QB with the fourth pick in the draft.

But what if that player isn’t ready?

The Browns can’t afford to punt another season away. So, if Pettine were to coach like he doesn’t have an elite passer and decides the best way to put wins on the board is strong defense and a solid running game, that’s the kind of guy we want to see.

No more trying to put square pegs in a round hole. After all, that is the essence of coaching.

What Pettine and the front office should be thinking is that the name of the game is wins and losses, not style points or a certain way to play the game. Every Browns fans will tell you the team can be the most boring team in the league as long as they win on Sundays.

Pettine’s background with the Ravens and the Jets has him with teams who like to run the football. This is something the Browns didn’t emphasize all season, particularly after the front office traded Trent Richardson.

And with Rob Chudzinski’s firing after one year, Pettine has a little leverage. Here’s hoping he insists on getting quality replacements for injured players and to end the constant turning over of the bottom of the roster, which caused special teams’ gaffes.

Mike Pettine seems like a leader, at least in his press conference. Still, no one knows what kind of coach he is or he will be until the games start being played for real.

Fans cannot and should not judge him until then.