The Cleveland Cavaliers fired head coach David Blatt on Friday.
According to Yahoo Sports, Blatt’s top assistant Ty Lue will be the Cavaliers new head coach. Lue has agreed to a three-year deal with the team. LeBron James, who wasn’t involved in getting Blatt fired, had been an advocate for Lue becoming the teams head coach since last year. Sources told ESPN’s Chris Broussard that many Cavaliers players thought that Blatt was in over his head as a coach.
Blatt’s firing comes one day after he got defensive about the team’s win against the Los Angeles Clippers. Blatt was bothered by criticism that he and the team got after they lost to the Golden State Warriors earlier this week, the Associated Press notes.
"I hear a lot of far-reaching conclusions, and personally, I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do about it because I'm not the one that's saying or doing those things,"Blatt said. "I think this team has done pretty well dealing with the adversity that we've had. I think this team is in pretty good position, although people choose to overlook that, which I don't think is fair."
Blatt, who was hired by the Cavaliers in June 2014, was in his second year as the coach. The Cavaliers job was his first NBA coaching job. He led the Cavaliers to the NBA Finals in his first year, but they lost to the Golden State Warriors. Blatt was 83-40 with the team and his .675 winning percentage was the best of any coach in Cavaliers history, according to ESPN.
The Cavs are 30-11 and have a three and a half game lead in the Eastern Conference.