Cavs interested in making David Blatt their next head coach?

[QUOTE=Fiba basketball]About what ? The practice part ?

I read that in a column of best basketball reporter in ex Yugoslavia and he got that from players that played for Baltt ( One even said he never practiced less than during his time in Maccabi )[/QUOTE]

He's an American coach. Americans only practice about 1/5 as much as Europeans do on average.

You are talking ex Yugoslavia mentality? It's almost like a boot camp. American coaches would never in their lives even imagine anything like it.

Pat Riley would be something like a tyrant by American coach standards in that regard, and the practices he would have his teams do would be less than pretty much any European coach.

Blatt didn't come up through European basketball or in Israel, he was playing in USA, so that's what he probably believes in, which means way, way, way less practicing.

[QUOTE=RedBlackAttack]Here's the Woj article released today...



[url]http://sports.yahoo.com/news/sources--david-blatt-will-interview-with-cavs-on-wednesday-200546634.html[/url]


It doesn't sound like the Cavs will have much time to weigh their options following the meeting. I'm hoping they offer him the job on the spot. If they let him walk out the door, he's probably going to end up in Golden State.

On paper, this looks like a perfect fit. Blatt's offense is all about slashing guards putting pressure on a defense and getting them in scramble mode. We have arguably the best young tandem of slashing guards in the league. I would also expect Karasev to explode in his system.

[B]Defensively, his teams are aggressive, relying on 7-footers to protect the rim if it breaks down. [/B]

Kyrie/Embiid/Waiters/Bennett/Thompson/Karasev + Blatt = :applause:[/QUOTE]

Blatt actually hates 7 footers with an extreme passion. He only likes incredibly mobile and agile centers. Other than that, he strictly uses power forwards, even undersized power forwards at the 5 position.

He also often uses shooting guards and small forwards at the power forward position.

Using NBA slow, stiff, non athletic can't play any defense NBA 7 footers will be one of the things he will have to adjust to, and it would be one of the things he would hate the most about coaching in the NBA.

Of all the coaches that absolutely HATE a 7 footer the most, he is #1. Hell, even normal 6-10 guys, by normal I mean 6-10 with average power forward starter NBA athleticism, would be a guy he would usually not want to play because they are too slow for his liking.

Euroleague > That's also why he probably has a higher chance of succeeding than the average European coach. It's not just about how good you are... if there's too big a clash of personality/culture, a coaching experiment can fail horribly even with a very intelligent and hardworking coach.

If I'm primarily interested in results, I'd much rather have a decent coach who fits than a genius who will alienate the whole team in two weeks and have players asking for his head.

[QUOTE=RedBlackAttack]

Plain Dealer:

Blatt, a Massachusetts native who played for Pete Carril at Princeton, [B]led Maccabi Tel Aviv to a 54-18 record this past season[/B][/QUOTE]

But according to ALL NBA only fans in this forum, Euroleague teams only play like 10-20 games in an entire season.

And if you ever tell them that's absurd bullshit, and just another made up NBA only fan myth and untrue legend, they attack you and call you a nutcase and a liar......

[QUOTE=1~Gibson~1]Let me just say that if the Cavs choose the less experienced coach whether it be T. Lue or Alvin Gentry.. I will be pissed.

From what ive been hearing David Blatt is a great coach, but sometimes Cleveland's front office decisions canbe questionabLe.[/QUOTE]

What you are hearing is NBA hype and bullshit gimmick marketing. The typical same bullshit as always as it relates to everything from the Euroleague.

Just all about gimmick marketing schemes and NBA bullshit.

He's not a great coach by a very long shot. But he would be a much better choice than Lue by a country mile and then some.

He would also be a better choice than Gentry, but he's going to need time to adapt to the NBA, because his style of coaching is never going to work in the NBA, where defense is negated with the rules and reffing.

So he has to start things completely over with his style, and the Cavs are a complete opposite team from any team he ever had success with.

In Europe, when he coached teams like the Cavs that are more traditional, he was an epic failure.

For example, he coached teams like Dynamo Moscow, Efes, and Aris, that were built as more traditional style teams (like the Cavs) than Maccabi or the Russian national team, and his failure was EPIC. I mean EPIC failure.

So he would need huge adjustments with the Cavs, and he could not just change the team to his system, because that won't work in the NBA, as I have already explained. All of that takes time, and he will need time to get used to all the issues of the NBA.

The reffing is much different and the travel, the scheduling, all of it.

So even though he is a better coach than Gentry, it's not like he's going to be a more logical choice than Gentry. It's obviously more of an experiment if they hire him.

Guys like Messina and Quinn Snyder being hired by NBA teams...that makes more sense. Because while they coached in Europe, they also coached in NBA.

I mean Scott Skiles coached in Europe too, but he had NBA experience before he coached in NBA obviously as a player.

I don't think this stuff would matter that much if Blatt really was "a great coach" like they are claiming, but he's not at THAT level. If he had a year or two as an assistant in the NBA, then it would make a lot more sense to hire him over Gentry.

Depends on what the Cavs' long term plan is, but the more I think about it, the more I think their priorities would be to select someone who:
- is Embiid-friendly, giving him opportunities to blossom
- is defensive minded
- stresses a team game
- has enough authority to be able to limit shotjacking by Kyrie and Dion and force them to play at least a bit harder on defense without causing a war

Not sure who would tick all the boxes.

[QUOTE=BoutPractice]Euroleague > That's also why he probably has a higher chance of succeeding than the average European coach. It's not just about how good you are... if there's too big a clash of personality/culture, a coaching experiment can fail horribly even with a very intelligent and hardworking coach.

If I'm primarily interested in results, I'd much rather have a decent coach who fits than a genius who will alienate the whole team in two weeks and have players asking for his head.[/QUOTE]

Dominique said he could not stand the practice of coach Malkovich at Panathinaikos. It was so extreme that he needed an oxygen tank to keep from passing out.

Finally he had to go to the doctor and get a not that he could not do the practices anymore because it was a health hazard.

In USA, he was like no practice was even difficult. The coach got angry about it and said NBA stars were weak minded and lazy or something like that.

So yeah, obviously some European coaches would never work in the NBA, because that kind of mentality just isn't seen in the same way in US sports culture.

NBA players are not used to training and practicing twice a day for hours on end, day after day after, every day, non stop, in a navy seal boot camp environment.

Which is what some of the European coaches demand.

Just the other day there was a story about Panathinaikos' new coach Ivanovic, where one of his old players said that he made Scola beg him to stop the training he was so tired and exhausted, and he showed no mercy and made him do an entire whole training more by HIMSELF after the team went home.

Same Scola that all his NBA coaches say is the hardest worker, most tireless worker, hardest worker in practice....they weer saying how he couldn't even handle the practice of that European coach.

So yeah, naturally this is an issue that some of the coaches in Europe can't come to the NBA, since they are too demanding on the players.

[QUOTE=BoutPractice]Depends on what the Cavs' long term plan is, but the more I think about it, the more I think their priorities would be to select someone who:
- is Embiid-friendly, giving him opportunities to blossom
- is defensive minded
- stresses a team game
- has enough authority to be able to limit shotjacking by Kyrie and Dion and force them to play at least a bit harder on defense without causing a war

Not sure who would tick all the boxes.[/QUOTE]

Blatt could in theory, but I really think he prefers a much more athletic and versatile team.

Russian national team and Maccabi were super, super athletic and super, super versatile teams. That's how they had success with what he is looking to do in his coaching philosophy.

I just think how he coached teams like Dynamo Moscow, Efes, and Aris that all had large budgets, and very good players in Europe, but were based with traditional rosters (teams he inherited and did not build) and he was a complete disaster with all of those teams.

Before he was coaching Maccabi, he coached in the Greek League with Aris, and they had a big budget then, with a lot of very good players and the team was a complete disaster.

[B]He was running from Aris, and took a big pay cut to get to Maccabi, just because he was doing so bad in Aris[/B]. And after he did that - after the team bombed and then he quit on it, the ownership jumped from the team and it almost bankrupted the whole club. And that was after he bombed in Efes.

I can't remember him having any real success at all with any teams other than the ones he was allowed to build himself.

Adrian Wojnarowski‏@WojYahooNBA
David Blatt has emerged as strong frontrunner to become coach of Cleveland Cavaliers, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.

Adrian Wojnarowski @WojYahooNBA
Cavaliers had narrowed list to Blatt and Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue, sources said. Offer to Blatt is imminent, league sources tell Yahoo.

Please choose Blatt :bowdown:

No idea if this is reliable:

Sports Update @MySportsUpdate

[QUOTE=BoutPractice]Depends on what the Cavs' long term plan is, but the more I think about it, the more I think their priorities would be to select someone who:
- is Embiid-friendly, giving him opportunities to blossom
- is defensive minded
- stresses a team game
- has enough authority to be able to limit shotjacking by Kyrie and Dion and force them to play at least a bit harder on defense without causing a war

Not sure who would tick all the boxes.[/QUOTE]

id think hollins ticks the first two, considering how post up orientated, and defensive minded the grizzles were. and gentry ticks the last two. either of them would be good.

i like all the names linked with the job (aside from VDN obviously), although id be a bit wary that kyrie and dion wouldnt really respect blatt, since he has no nba experience.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]You have to remember though that Blatt's whole coaching is on defense and stopping penetration and having guards that defend.

None of that happens in the NBA, where with the rules and refs, and just style of the game there is almost zero defense. Even these days in the NBA finals there is basically zero defense for the most part.

So basically every single thing Blatt does or knows as a coach is complete useless and gone from his style and system in the NBA. Which is totally defense based, despite what clowns at ESPN are claiming in saying he's an offensive guru.

So none of anything that teams like Russia or Maccabi did is going to work in an NBA team. It's simply impossible to do that in the NBA.

The closest thing to it would be the Bulls with Thibodeau, which would be his most similar coaching comparison, but the Cavs do not have the players like that for such a style, and someone like Irving is a horrific defender, even by NBA point guard standards.

And even then, what the Bulls do, only works to a certain point because of the NBA rules. Every year they eventually can't go past a certain point because playing as a defense first team isn't going to work in the NBA, which is fully an offense based league.

So the style he has is not what works in the NBA, and the players he has won't even work for his style, if he does coach the Cavs.

So you could not make any correlation to Maccabi, nor anything like that, which is what everyone is trying to do.[/QUOTE]

You forget one thing, PGs in NBA are mostly scorers and aren't good at running the offense and Blatt being a great defensive coach will find a way to make them to be even worse at it.

When it comes to offense I think his style is better for NBA rules because he likes to play with athletic, undersized players.

[QUOTE=Euroleague]Blatt actually hates 7 footers with an extreme passion. He only likes incredibly mobile and agile centers. Other than that, he strictly uses power forwards, even undersized power forwards at the 5 position.

He also often uses shooting guards and small forwards at the power forward position.

Using NBA slow, stiff, non athletic can't play any defense NBA 7 footers will be one of the things he will have to adjust to, and it would be one of the things he would hate the most about coaching in the NBA.

Of all the coaches that absolutely HATE a 7 footer the most, he is #1. Hell, even normal 6-10 guys, by normal I mean 6-10 with average power forward starter NBA athleticism, would be a guy he would usually not want to play because they are too slow for his liking.[/QUOTE]

He can always trade players or sign some players from Europe like Hines so to play C.

[QUOTE=Fiba basketball]You forget one thing, PGs in NBA are mostly scorers and aren't good at running the offense and Blatt being a great defensive coach will find a way to make them to be even worse at it.

When it comes to offense I think his style is better for NBA rules because he likes to play with athletic, undersized players.



He can always trade players or sign some players from Europe like Hines so to play C.[/QUOTE]

No, because NBA rules prevent that. NBA rules prevent changing the way any NBA point guard plays. Blatt will have no effect on that. Which is my point.

He won't be able to bring in a a bunch of 6-8 and 6-9 centers, because he wont be allowed to also be the GM of the Cavs. NBA teams don't let coaches do that, like they do in European teams. Which is my point about how he never did well in any of the teams that he did not build himself.

But he has a long contract so maybe the Cavs already expecting to be terrible for a long time and they are prepared for it.