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Stan Van Gundy rips into Cavaliers for firing David Blatt

Given that the Cleveland Cavaliers are presently the number one seed in the Eastern Conference with a 30-11 record, their decision to fire head coach David Blatt could definitely be classified as surprising.  Mavericks coach Rick Carslisle said the firing made him “embarrassed for our league,” which was fairly mild commentary compared to what Detroit Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy said.

Okay, that’s a pretty solid rant from Stan Van Gundy.

While it’s expected that coaches will look out for each other, Van Gundy’s words are pretty hard to argue with. While Cleveland has certainly had some disappointing games against the league’s best teams (namely the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors), their record is fine. The Cavs made the NBA Finals in 2015 and are certainly on track to do so again in 2016.

Firing David Blatt at the end of the season would be one thing, but midseason is pretty hard to understand, and it’s easy to get where Van Gundy is coming from here.

For as much as Van Gundy said, there’s actually one point that he missed. David Blatt was the coach of the Eastern Conference champs last year and until he was fired, was the coach of the east’s best team. Realistically, the only way that this move could be considered successful would be for Tyronn Lue to come in and win the championship.

Incidentally, the last time a team won an NBA title after changing coaches in the season was in 2006 when Pat Riley led the Miami Heat to the championship, replacing Stan Van Gundy after the season was underway.

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