Blatt on the hot-seat? Sources hint divide between coach and team

[niko]

I saw the other day him running offense through Matrix and though, this guy might be in over his head. Nothing worse than a coach who is a constant tinkerer giving you terrible combinations all over.

[Rose'sACL]

I saw the other day him running offense through Matrix and though, this guy might be in over his head. Nothing worse than a coach who is a constant tinkerer giving you terrible combinations all over.

blatt is not the problem. lebron is. would knicks accept a lebron for melo trade? cavs would be lucky to get rid of him and his huge contract.

[HOoopCityJones]

I saw the other day him running offense through Matrix and though, this guy might be in over his head. Nothing worse than a coach who is a constant tinkerer giving you terrible combinations all over.

He reminds me of D'antoni in that respect.

[Milbuck]

Their defensive isn't garbage because a lack of effort, it's garbage because most of the players are inherently bad defenders. You want Kevin Love and Tristian Thompson to be rim protectors all of the sudden? Or Kyrie Irvng to channel his inner Gary Payton?

But yeah, lets just blame the coach even though they have clear holes in the roster that many people (including myself) pointed out before the season started.

Agreed, been saying this for a while..the team is just fundamentally flawed in terms of roster construction. No amount of "effort and coaching" can turn that frontline into a respectable defensive front line, and with the perimeter defense not exactly great either..and Lebron playing the dual role of Lecoast and Ledecline..they're just in no position to be good defensively. They're going to have serious trouble in series against teams like healthy Chicago, and San Antonio/Memphis if they make it there, hell if Scott Brooks gets his head out his ass, Adams and Ibaka would kill them on good nights.

I don't know what Minnesota was asking for him..but Cleveland really should've pushed for Gorgui Dieng in that Love trade.

[HurricaneKid]

LeBron the GM has been godawful. And he has all but refused to run Blatt's offense as a player within that offense.

Is that Blatt's fault? How could it be?

[FLDFSU]

For the life of me I cannot understand why anyone gives a funk about a team that for the better part of the last 1/2 decade is the worst in the NBA.

This team won 33 games last year in the worst conference of all time, and now suddenly they are supposed to be contenders? Contenders for what? Not getting swept out of the first round?

Anybody with some common sense knew this team, as currently constructed, would not be close to the best team in the NBA over the course of the regular season. Could they get hot and surprise some people in the playoffs? Maybe. But unlikely.

The fact that they are above .500 this late in the season should be considered an absolute success. Anybody who thought otherwise is clearly smoking crack.

[chocolatethunder]

Irving is the problem. Replace him with any PG who plays good D and looks to get his teammates involved and they would be winning a lot more.

Irving has two stud scorers on his team this year yet his assists have actually gone down. He takes 2.5 more shots a game than Love. Love is getting 6 shots less than last year. Love is a much better shooter than Irving and if he were getting more shots and better shots, their offense would open up a lot more. It's just really awful to watch Irving play. I'm not a Cavs fan or a Lebron or Love fan, I just like basketball and Irving is awful at it.

Love is not a good defender but Irving is just as bad and when you have no rim protectors you can't constantly be hung out to dry by your backcourt. The Cavs aren't gonna win shit this year and if I were Love I'd split immediately.

[NattyPButter]

don't need to be firing the coach. When they ran Blatt's offense with everyone touching the ball they did great. Now the last few games I've been seeing Lebron dribbling the ball for a long as time to chuck up a 3pt shot or jump shot. Also been seeing Lebron not getting back on defense and complaining almost every damn game. His body language is horrible when things are not going great. Also didn't like the fact that he didn't pass to Dion when Dion wanted to the ball to swing it to a open Mike Miller. Now Dion is getting looked at as he wanted the ball for himself.

[Mass Debator]

Their defensive isn't garbage because a lack of effort, it's garbage because most of the players are inherently bad defenders. You want Kevin Love and Tristian Thompson to be rim protectors all of the sudden? Or Kyrie Irvng to channel his inner Gary Payton?

But yeah, lets just blame the coach even though they have clear holes in the roster that many people (including myself) pointed out before the season started.

Shouldn't their offense annihilate teams?

[Uncle Drew]

This is bullshit, Blatt isn't the problem. He needs time, and we should give him his time. No coach would do big things with this team. Not Pop, not Phil. We lack depth, we lack rim protection.

But if LeBron wants to play GM and get his friend Mark Jackson in, I'm pretty much done.

[Mass Debator]

Irving is the problem. Replace him with any PG who plays good D and looks to get his teammates involved and they would be winning a lot more.

Irving has two stud scorers on his team this year yet his assists have actually gone down. He takes 2.5 more shots a game than Love. Love is getting 6 shots less than last year. Love is a much better shooter than Irving and if he were getting more shots and better shots, their offense would open up a lot more. It's just really awful to watch Irving play. I'm not a Cavs fan or a Lebron or Love fan, I just like basketball and Irving is awful at it.

Love is not a good defender but Irving is just as bad and when you have no rim protectors you can't constantly be hung out to dry by your backcourt. The Cavs aren't gonna win shit this year and if I were Love I'd split immediately.

I guess you really don't understand Lebron ball. It's rare to have two players with over 6 assists. Kyrie is playing shooting guard on offense and Lebron is playing point. Kyrie is doing his job of scoring and distributing when allowed. Of course he should improve his D and effort but so does Lebron. Love is not getting enough touches because Lebron never throws it into the post because that usually results in a no assist possession for him. Plus he'd have to play off ball uncomfortably. Love's role on offense is a sharp shooter. Love's offensive rebounding and assists has dropped since he doesn't get to play down low much anymore.

Their main problem is a lack of rim protection. If Lebron is going to be doing his usual thing though, the other big problem is investing tons of money to a jump shooting power forward who plays little D. It's like paying Ryan Anderson 16 million...double his current worth. Wouldn't it be nice to spend $8 million on some other pieces?

[chocolatethunder]

I guess you really don't understand Lebron ball. It's rare to have two players with over 6 assists. Kyrie is playing shooting guard on offense and Lebron is playing point. Kyrie is doing his job of scoring and distributing when allowed. Of course he should improve his D and effort but so does Lebron. Love is not getting enough touches because Lebron never throws it into the post because that usually results in a no assist possession for him. Plus he'd have to play off ball uncomfortably. Love's role on offense is a sharp shooter. Love's offensive rebounding and assists has dropped since he doesn't get to play down low much anymore.

Their main problem is a lack of rim protection. If Lebron is going to be doing his usual thing though, the other big problem is investing tons of money to a jump shooting power forward who plays little D. It's like paying Ryan Anderson 16 million...double his current worth. Wouldn't it be nice to spend $8 million on some other pieces?

Lebron has nothing to do with Irving bringing the ball up and taking a shot 4 seconds into the clock. Nor does he have anything to do with Irving bringing the ball up and dribbling for 18 seconds and looking off Love and Lebron and then shooting some awful shot.

Irving's assists are down because he doesn't give up the rock. And yes they need a rim protector.

[comerb]

Lebron has nothing to do with Irving bringing the ball up and taking a shot 4 seconds into the clock. Nor does he have anything to do with Irving bringing the ball up and dribbling for 18 seconds and looking off Love and Lebron and then shooting some awful shot.

Irving's assists are down because he doesn't give up the rock. And yes they need a rim protector.

If there offense was a problem you might have a point, but since they are one of the best offensive teams in the league...

They were already pretty awful defensively, but with Varejao out for the season they are absolutely hopeless.

[NZStreetBaller]

They are in the playoff picture and above .500. Why are so many people trying to pin point faults?? They are winning.

[navy]

Blatt wont get fired so early. It's not his fault Varejao went down and now they only have one center. The front office needs to get creative and bring in a rim protector. Which was obious that they needed at the very beginning. Andy V was never a reliable piece. What coach is gonna fix a personnel issue?

Also, Lebron said he had no problem with Blatt. So at least he has that endorsement.