Despite Dan Gilbert’s denials, Cleveland Cavaliers’ rookie head coach David Blatt is on the hot seat. The Euroleague import was initially brought over to help the Cavs’ rebuilding efforts. Things changed drastically when LeBron “King” James aka “Two Ringz” came strolling back to town with Kevin Love on his side. Title expectations immediately ballooned from non-existent to unrepentant for the boys in burgundy. After a mediocre start, the public calls for Blatt’s job began.
More than once this season, the passive-aggressive James has publically hung his coach out to dry. After his heroics in the Game 4 victory of the Chicago Bulls, James made sure that everyone knew that he overruled Blatt’s silly play call to have him inbound the ball with the game on the line. Recent forecasts out of Cleveland suggest that Baxter Blatt could be punted out of town even if the Cavs win the NBA title. Marinate on that thought for just a second. Blatt could win a NBA title in his first season and still get canned.
This shouldn’t come as a surprise. The absurdity has been building for years. Year-after-year we have seen coaches with winning records get dumped left and right. The reason for these firings is almost always due to friction between coaches and players or front offices pandering to potential big-name free agents. George Karl was axed in Denver the same season he won Coach of the Year. Avery Johnson was out in Dallas in 2008 despite a 51-31 record and a Coach of the Year award in 2007. Mark Jackson was handed a pink slip by the Golden State Warriors after posting an identical record to Avery. Of course, that move could pay dividends as rookie coach Steve Kerr, has the Warriors looking like title favorites.
Nowadays coaches cannot get by just by being brilliant at X’s and O’s, they must skillfully pander to the real bosses of the team – the star players. If Deron Williams can get a Hall of Fame coach like Jerry Sloan ousted in Utah, you know Avery and Jason Kidd didn’t stand a chance in Brooklyn. Kidd was smart enough to see the writing on the wall and bailed for Milwaukee before Williams could ruin his coaching career before it really got started. Now all the hype about Williams has subsided and the team has tired of his antics. The man who signed a five year, $98.7 contract 2012 is more like a midlevel exception player now. His new coach Lionel Hollins was non-renewed in Memphis in 2013 after a 56-26 season because Zach Randoph was not his biggest fan. Hollins benched Williams for a few months and stated boldly that “he is not a franchise player anymore.” Expect Williams to be dealt this offseason.
Gregg Popovich, the best active coach in the game, doesn’t baby his players. Pop is known to be blunt and direct about his team’s shortcomings and has aired out his team and his star players on many occasions. He gets the most out of his players because he’s not afraid of them and he has the titles to prove that it works. Larry Brown was the last coach to win a NBA Championship during his first season with a team when he led the Detroit Pistons to a title in 2004. Brown was another coach who refused to bite his tongue and carried respect with him wherever he went. Otherwise, it has generally taken NBA coaches at least three-to-four years of stability to build franchises into contenders.
More teams should be like San Antonio (and Brooklyn?) who hire a coach and let him run the show, his way. I’m not anti-player. They are the stars of the show and deserve the big bucks due to the massive amount of dollars they generate. They deserve to have their voices heard and even be solicited for their opinions during coaches searches and front office moves. It should stop there though. Let opinions be opinions and not mandates. Otherwise, let’s see the return of the player-coach.
If the Cavaliers fire Blatt, instead of quietly asking James who to hire, they should just give James the job. There would be some rules to navigate (player-coaches can only earn a player salary, not both). However, we all know that James is really running the show in Cleveland so let’s see if he can be like the great Bill Russell and win a few rings as the star and the czar. Tom Thibideau is likely on the way out in Chicago, make Derrick Rose the coach. He has enough suits and experience sitting on the sidelines anyway (low blow, I know). The Oklahoma City Thunder just hired Billy Donovan away from Florida, but they should’ve just handed Kevin Durant the clipboard. Derek Fisher had a rough start in New York, maybe Phil Jackson should concede and introduce Coach Carmelo Antony to the basketball world.
If I were a GM and one of my players came to me to complain about the coach, I’d ask him if he wanted the job. If not, I’d tell him to stay in his lane and be a player. Friction between players and coaches is good. It helps both parties grow, develop and evolve. Sadly, star players have so much power these days that they often pull the strings behind the scenes, so the coaching carousel isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
Follow Ishmael and In the Clutch on Twitter @IshmaelSistrunk
