Cavs GM Says David Blatt Will 'Remain Our Coach,' but That May Not Stop Noise

CLEVELAND — Everything changed for David Griffin, David Blatt and the Cleveland Cavaliers with an essay. That's when they ceased being a peripheral NBA curiosity—young general manager, first-time NBA head coach, underachieving collection of highly picked prospects—and became the most scrutinized team in the sport, all because LeBron James had returned.

Then the Cavaliers did the worst thing possible, as far as avoiding the brunt of the media storm: they started slow. They did so while often looking lost on defense, and getting caught looking at assistants for assistance, rather than consulting Blatt. Add James' lukewarm support of Blatt in his press briefings, and the presence of viable head coaching candidates on the Cavaliers' staff, including job search runner-up Tyronn Lue, and the result was rampant speculation about Blatt's future.

Nor did anyone in the Cavaliers organization seem be doing anything to counter that chatter. No statement from Gilbert, whose credibility is challenged after firing two coaches (one of them twice) over the past four years. No leaks that anyone, behind the scenes, had assured Blatt of his status, backing him in the way that Pat Riley had backed Erik Spoelstra when the Heat struggled at the start of the 2010-11 season, which empowered Spoelstra to put more on his stamp on the star-studded team.

That Heat team then ripped off a 21-1 run, propelling it to a No. 2 seed, and ultimately the NBA Finals.

It's hard to imagine that what David Griffin did publicly, prior to Sunday's 109-90 home loss to the Dallas Mavericks, will have quite the same effect, because some of the circumstances are different.

The timing of his impromptu press conference was odd, even though he'd received plenty of requests for interviews, simply because, with James out until mid-January with knee and back strains, Blatt was actually likely to get a brief respite from the media glare. It was also risky, since there's always a chance that the impulsive Gilbert ultimately makes a different call. If so, Griffin's words could come back to haunt, unfairly viewed as disingenuous, or perhaps correctly perceived as meaningless because he was powerless.



Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2318910-cavs-gm-on-david-blatt-hes-our-coach-hes-going-to-remain-our-coach