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.
Stan Van Gundy on CLE firing David Blatt after 30-11 start: "That elevated all of the coach firings totally into the theater of the absurd."
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) January 23, 2016
SVG: "You can't even make a flimsy case that the guy wasn't meeting expectations…Obviously you have something else going on."
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) January 23, 2016
SVG: "Did he order the wrong type of food for post game meals? Did he not give David Griffin a nice enough Christmas present? I don't know."
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) January 23, 2016
SVG: "If David Blatt's getting fired how in the hell do the rest of us have jobs? Because our front offices aren't quite as crazy as theirs"
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) January 23, 2016
SVG: "The only thing more absurd would be…Walton did a good job, if we lose 2 in a row, we might have to dump [Kerr] & go back to Luke."
— Michael Lee (@MrMichaelLee) January 23, 2016
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.