For all my talk about how the job security of the head coach of a 27-15 team that’s in the top 11 on both ends of the floor shouldn’t even be a conversation, there’s a bit of egg on my face today. That, or the Cleveland Cavaliers are just an insane mess.
The Cavaliers, who sit atop the East with a 30-11 record, who have played Golden State and San Antonio a combined three times, who have flayed five more road games than home, and who have been without Kyrie Irving, Timofey Mozgov, and Iman Shumpert for stretches, fired their head coach on Friday. David Blatt is out, stepped over by Tyronn Lue, news that was first reported by Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports (obviously).
For those who dislike the job Casey’s doing, this is ammunition that no team should ever be complacent. And that’s true, to an extent, but the Cavs have a few other things going on that the Raptors don’t. For one, they have an assistant in waiting who has long been considered a LeBron James-approved heir. Further, it sounds as if this wasn’t a performance issue so much as a locker room one, with Sam Amick reporting that James and “other players” were “done with Blatt,” a disconnect having grown too large. Brian Windhorst reports that the unrest had been growing “since almost day one,” which many will surely remember from the early stages of last season when the pre-James siesta Cavs struggled. If James, the franchise superstar with a shrinking window to compete for a title, wanted a change, then what choice did the Cavs really have?
In other words, I don’t think parallels can be drawn between the two situations. Casey’s done a fine job for the most part. There are some rotation, adjustment, and late-game issues that require attention, and there has to be a hope Casey will grow more flexible in a playoff series, but the reality is that if Boston Celtics fans are complaining about Brad Stevens and the top team in the conference is firing their coach, nobody is ever going to be pleased with a non_Gregg Popovich bench boss. With Nick Nurse or Rex Kalamian the unproven likely heirs if Casey was ousted midseason, and with the locker room fully tuned in and in support of him, any “yeah but the Cavs” argument for an in-season coaching change for this 27-15 team is going to fall on deaf ears, at least with me.
And yeah, the Raptors are 27-15, second in the East. You know what that means? Well, possibly nothing. But possibly that Casey could find himself coaching the Eastern Conference in the All-Star Game.
By the letter, the All-Star coaching nods go to “coaches whose teams have the best record in the conference following play on Jan. 31.” By that definition, Lue will coach the East. But it’s possible the league could step in or that Lue could step aside – there’s never been a case, to my knowledge, of the top team in a conference firing their coach right before the All-Star break, so we have no idea what’s going to happen, really.
Told NBA will review the situation in both East and West before determining who coaches in the All-Star Game
— Josh Lewenberg (@JLew1050) January 22, 2016
In the West, Steve Kerr won’t coach because of the Riley Rule, passing it off to second-place Gregg Popovich. If the NBA deems Lue ineligible, the job would probably fall on the coach of the No. 2 team, which is the Raptors. There are still 10 days of play before the cut-off date and the Raptors are only two games up on the second-place Hawks, but Mike Budenholzer of the Hawks would fall under the Riley Rule, too, and the Raptors have a 2.5-game lead on the Bulls.
In other words, if Lue doesn’t coach the East, it would probably be Casey, doing so in Toronto with his own point guard starting. That would be pretty cool.
UPDATE: After reviewing the situation, the NBA has deemed that Lue will coach the game if the Cavs remain in first place, per Marc Stein of ESPN.
Cavs play only five games between now and Jan. 31, but if they're still leading East at month's end, Tyronn Lue gets to coach East All-Stars
— Marc Stein (@ESPNSteinLine) January 23, 2016
