# Is the David Blatt era over?



## Basel

Simple question. Yes or no?


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## BlakeJesus

I really, really don't think it should be. Who knows, though.


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## 29380

Probably


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## Pelicans808

I'll say no. He deserves another shot with this group. Expectations will be much higher next year though, I don't see him lasting a third season if they can't win the title in 2016.


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## BlakeJesus

What, did the Cavs underachieve or something? This rhetoric of Blatt being fired is odd to me.

Unless LeBron James demands it, I don't see why they would fire him.


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## seifer0406

Hardly an era


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## Basel

seifer0406 said:


> Hardly an era



Question still stands.


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## Basel

I don't think he should be fired. I know this is LeBron's team but you can't fire a coach after his first season and him going to the finals. Plus he didn't have much to work with. He should get another shot.


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## ATLien

Yes send him back to Europe


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## TheAnswer

0% chance, nor should he be fired.


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## RollWithEm

UNPOPULAR OPINION: I think he just outcoached Steve Kerr in that series. He just didn't have the horses. 

I was pretty impressed with his ability to adjust his gameplan on the fly throughout these playoffs. I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of him right now. That being said, what they should do and what they will do might just be two different things.


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## Bogg

I don't see any basis for firing him. Cleveland was _severely_ outgunned once both Love and Irving went down. Winning two games was actually a good showing, IMO.


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## Ron

It's an odd question. He took that team as far as it would go with the injuries it sustained. They probably win the series with a healthy Irving, much less a healthy Love.

Plus James looked to be connecting with Blatt during the series, big time. No way James demands a new coach, and no way he gets fired.

This team, healthy, probably wins it all next season. Would love to see a rematch between same two teams, and hopefully healthy.


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## JT

Not an era in any sense of the word, but Blatt is a good coach, one of the best I've seen. Only questionable thing was no Mozgov game5, but he got what he could from these players.


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## RollWithEm

Ron said:


> This team, healthy, probably wins it all next season. Would love to see a rematch between same two teams, and hopefully healthy.


If we're talking about everyone coming in fully healthy, I would love to see these Cavs against the Thunder.


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## e-monk

I think he did about as well as could be expected given the injuries they sustained plus who would you bring in to replace him? Is there someone out there who is an obvious candidate?


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## XxIrvingxX

Basel said:


> Simple question. Yes or no?


Is this a serious question? No.



Basel said:


> I don't think he should be fired. I know this is LeBron's team but you can't fire a coach after his first season and him going to the finals. Plus he didn't have much to work with. He should get another shot.


Seriously, Basel, I'm confused. Where is this all coming from? Why would they fired their head coach because he couldn't lead a team that lost two of their star players to injury to a title in one season?


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## R-Star

RollWithEm said:


> UNPOPULAR OPINION: I think he just outcoached Steve Kerr in that series. He just didn't have the horses.
> 
> I was pretty impressed with his ability to adjust his gameplan on the fly throughout these playoffs. I think it would be a bad idea to get rid of him right now. That being said, what they should do and what they will do might just be two different things.


You think he out coached Kerr?

I watched the whole series and I'm not seeing these adjustments you're saying he made. He put Delly on Curry and that was about it. Once the Warriors went small ball he had no answer for it. I think the finals showed he's a pretty bad coach in general.


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## XxIrvingxX

R-Star said:


> You think he out coached Kerr?
> 
> I watched the whole series and I'm not seeing these adjustments you're saying he made. He put Delly on Curry and that was about it. Once the Warriors went small ball he had no answer for it. I think the finals showed he's a pretty bad coach in general.


He put LeBron at center at one point while having Delly, Shumpert, Smith and Jones out there as well and it actually worked out pretty well as a response unit to Kerr's small ball line up. I don't know why he didn't continue with it through out the series.


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## RollWithEm

R-Star said:


> You think he out coached Kerr?
> 
> I watched the whole series and I'm not seeing these adjustments you're saying he made. He put Delly on Curry and that was about it. Once the Warriors went small ball he had no answer for it. I think the finals showed he's a pretty bad coach in general.


Look at the style that team was playing with Love and Irving healthy and compare that to how they played in the incredibly competitive finals. Their offense completely changed. He went completely away from the ball movement, spread/read, cutting and replacing, back-screening style that had been very successful for them over the second half of the season. He knew that style would lead to way too many turnovers - especially after Kyrie went down - so he steadfastly stuck with iso ball. That gave them the best chance to utilize their offensive rebounding advantage to its fullest potential while limiting the Warriors' fastbreak chances. Some people might say that's really easy to do when you have Lebron James on your team... but that's also exactly what got Mike Brown fired in Cleveland.

Then, look at their defense. They played different styles within quarters based on personnel groupings. Look at the times that in the same possession they would blitz one ball-screen with Curry up top and then zone up another screen for Klay on the weakside. They took advantage of Mozgov/Thompson's strengths while minimizing JR/James Jones' weaknesses (with some obvious exceptions that you could point to in the 3rd quarter of Game 6 and the 4th quarter of Game 5). Blatt identified many issues his team was having (like Curry destroying Tristan on switches) and adjusted (by having Tristan shadow towards the middle of the floor with a second defender shading baseline) accordingly. I was very impressed by decisions he was making both in-game and between games. This guy can really coach.


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## RollWithEm

I honestly think that given the injury problems the Cavs had, half the coaches in the league would have gotten swept out of that series with an average margin of victory for the Warriors of over 15 PPG. Blatt is a smart guy with some serious potential to be a good coach in this league.

But then again... I acknowledge that this is probably an unpopular opinion.


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## XxIrvingxX

RollWithEm said:


> I honestly think that given the injury problems the Cavs had, half the coaches in the league would have gotten swept out of that series with an average margin of victory for the Warriors of over 15 PPG. Blatt is a smart guy with some serious potential to be a good coach in this league.
> 
> But then again... I acknowledge that this is probably an unpopular opinion.


I don't necessarily think Blatt out coached Kerr, but I do think Blatt's coaching has been horribly underrated for the most part by people on this site and in general.


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## Basel

XxIrvingxX said:


> Is this a serious question? No.
> 
> 
> 
> Seriously, Basel, I'm confused. Where is this all coming from? Why would they fired their head coach because he couldn't lead a team that lost two of their star players to injury to a title in one season?


What? I'm saying he shouldn't be fired.


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## XxIrvingxX

Basel said:


> What? I'm saying he shouldn't be fired.


Who said he was going to be fired?


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## Ballscientist

No.

Blatt is the best head coach in the nba. I feel that he is better than Coach of the Year.


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## Basel

XxIrvingxX said:


> Who said he was going to be fired?


There's been a ton of speculation about it. Get out of the rock you're living under.


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## 29380

*LeBron's handling of Blatt unbecoming*



> I saw it from close range in my role as sideline reporter through the Finals for ESPN Radio. LeBron essentially calling timeouts and making substitutions. LeBron openly barking at Blatt after decisions he didn't like. LeBron huddling frequently with Lue and so often looking at anyone other than Blatt.
> 
> There was LeBron, in one instance I witnessed from right behind the bench, shaking his head vociferously in protest after one play Blatt drew up in the third quarter of Game 5, amounting to the loudest nonverbal scolding you could imagine.
> 
> Which forced Blatt, in front of his whole team, to wipe the board clean and draw up something else.





> My ESPN.com colleague Brian Windhorst, who ranks as the most credentialed LeBron-ologist there is after shadowing James since his teens, went on SVP & Russillo on Wednesday and posited that No. 23 actually wouldn't mind if the Euroleague import keeps coaching the Cavs because he "likes having Blatt to kick around."
> 
> I wouldn’t expect to hear anyone in Cleveland dispute it, either.
> 
> Because they can't.


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## XxIrvingxX

Basel said:


> There's been a ton of speculation about it. Get out of the rock you're living under.


I haven't heard anything about it. I assumed it's mostly because Blatt not being fired should go without saying. He had a good year as the Cavs head coach. There's no reason to fire him from a logic standpoint.


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## TheAnswer

I think that article is bullshit about Bron having around Blatt cause he likes to "kick him around" but if it isn't then LeBron is such a punk diva bitch still and I can't believe Cleveland is getting bent by him and his squad for another go around.


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## GNG

TheAnswer said:


> I think that article is bullshit about Bron having around Blatt cause he likes to "kick him around" but if it isn't then LeBron is such a punk diva bitch still and I can't believe Cleveland is getting bent by him and his squad for another go around.


These national writers just write things for no reason, right? They just like to stir things up to get clicks, right? There's no way no one has told them anything, is there?


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## XxIrvingxX

GNG said:


> These national writers just write things for no reason, right? They just like to stir things up to get clicks, right? There's no way no one has told them anything, is there?


Wouldn't be the first time.


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## GNG

XxIrvingxX said:


> Wouldn't be the first time.


LeBron and David Blatt are actually best friends and LeBron thinks he's a great coach.


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## XxIrvingxX

GNG said:


> LeBron and David Blatt are actually best friends and LeBron thinks he's a great coach.


GNG trying to be funny?










In all seriousness, we've seen reports and journalism being done based off of absolutely no merits what so ever the entire season. The entire Kevin Love leaving fiasco has been all speculation with no actual evidence/reasoning.


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## BlakeJesus

XxIrvingxX said:


> I haven't heard anything about it. I assumed it's mostly because Blatt not being fired should go without saying. He had a good year as the Cavs head coach. There's no reason to fire him from a logic standpoint.


I have heard this conversation had by many ESPN analysts, this is certainly not a Basel creation or anything. Jalen Rose straight up said he does not think Blatt will be back. Michael Wilbon said if he had to choose, he would say he does not expect him back. Etc. etc.

It seems like a bad decision, and I agree, but it is a legitimate question being asked.


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## XxIrvingxX

BlakeJesus said:


> I have heard this conversation had by many ESPN analysts, this is certainly not a Basel creation or anything. Jalen Rose straight up said he does not think Blatt will be back. Michael Wilbon said if he had to choose, he would say he does not expect him back. Etc. etc.
> 
> It seems like a bad decision, and I agree, but it is a legitimate question being asked.


Again, based off of what? I don't deny that this is being asked, but really? It's actually this big of a topic? It should go without saying that Blatt is staying. There's actual analysts who think it won't happen?


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## BlakeJesus

XxIrvingxX said:


> Again, based off of what? I don't deny that this is being asked, but really? It's actually this big of a topic? It should go without saying that Blatt is staying. There's actual analysts who think it won't happen?


LeBron James appears to not like him. The Cavs do not have anybody to check LeBron, it's his ship. If LeBron gives him the thumbs down, he's gone. It's really that simple.

I mean there are people who think he's an idiot, @R-Star for example, but there are also others like @RollWithEm who thinks he out coached Kerr in the Finals. Blatt is somewhat polarizing right now, and he's had some public slaps in the face already. LeBron saying he ignored the play call and did what he wanted at the end of the game, Blatt had the timeout snafu that wasn't because of a save from Tyronn Lue (who is the most likely successor if a change were made), not playing Mozgov for an entirely game randomly, etc. I believe Blatt is a good coach and to assume he wouldn't have some bumps along the way as a rookie coach to the NBA seems unreasonable. 

With that being said, reason is not dictating this decision. LeBron James is.


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## GNG

XxIrvingxX said:


> GNG trying to be funny?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> In all seriousness, we've seen reports and journalism being done based off of absolutely no merits what so ever the entire season. The entire Kevin Love leaving fiasco has been all speculation with no actual evidence/reasoning.


Time to pay the piper, @XxIrvingxX. Answer for your years of homer stupidity.


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## XxIrvingxX

GNG said:


> Time to pay the piper, @XxIrvingxX. Answer for your years of homer stupidity.


The hell are you talking about? I said he was going to be back and he was. I said Kevin was going to be back and he was. You're actually sitting here and acting like you knew this was going to happen, as if it was what you were talking about before when you clearly weren't?

If you truly want to think that, then by all means please do. It's almost as laughable as your Bray Wyatt arguments. You know, the ones about how heels shouldn't lose clean to the top faces in the company?


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## GNG

XxIrvingxX said:


> The hell are you talking about? I said he was going to be back and he was. I said Kevin was going to be back and he was. You're actually sitting here and acting like you knew this was going to happen, as if it was what you were talking about before when you clearly weren't?
> 
> If you truly want to think that, then by all means please do. It's almost as laughable as your Bray Wyatt arguments. You know, the ones about how heels shouldn't lose clean to the top faces in the company?


You have no credibility and everyone on this site thinks you're an idiot. I've said since last season that LeBron wanted Blatt gone, and now it's happened and all but been confirmed.

Keep burying your head in the sand, Irwin.


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## XxIrvingxX

GNG said:


> You have no credibility and everyone on this site thinks you're an idiot. I've said since last season that LeBron wanted Blatt gone, and now it's happened and all but been confirmed.
> 
> Keep burying your head in the sand, Irwin.


The only thing I was wrong about was the Cavs not firing Blatt, because there was no reason to do it, and I still feel their reasoning wasn't justifiable. I never said LeBron didn't want him gone, mostly because I had no clue if that was the case and I didn't give a shit. You're sitting here trying to brag about being right about something I was never disputing, and you bring up a quote before that was about something different, which I was right about btw.

Doesn't matter what everyone else thinks of me, doesn't change how desperate you're showing yourself to be. Maybe it's because you lost a bet to the guy you claim has no credibility, but I just hope you understand that your pathetic little campaign against me has only made it harder for me to take you seriously.


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## JT

too bad for Blatt. I kind of liked the guy, in an understated sort of way.


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