LeBron was drafted by the Cavs, and they failed to put great players around him. Didn't LeBron recognize that and get other great players to take short deals like him so they could control their own fate at a team of their choice? And later on other players, like Ray Allen, took less $$ to come too. Looks like he's doing just fine as a GM. Love may not be the best fit but he surely is a "good" player. The Cavs have talent. Good coaching, I'm not so sure.
Except a lot of those players the Cavs got the first time around were the players Lebron wanted too. He's never been good at figuring out what talent he needs around him. The one period he was truly successful was when the GM did his own thing and didn't fire coaches or pick players to make Lebron happy.
How is it different, he still says twice he will do things better...that's a stab in the back of Blatt, plain and simple.
Lue didn't fall from the sky. He was the lead assistant coach. WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PLAYERS too and regarding their shape much more in charge on that aspect than the head coach who is more in charge of the strategy. He should have been very aware of the state of the shape of his players. So the coach knowing the shape of his players chose a style against one of their bigger competitiors in teh east that he knew his players were unable to play. Joke. It's not just using his clout. A lot of players before Lebron have gotten their coach fired. It's using his clout for own FINANCIAL GAIN. That's what is the difference here and you fail to even aknowledge. Lebron is an AGENT. He pockets money from commisions of others. He wanted to get Jackson as a coach because he would get his commision. As for which player would make the difference from lotto to contender team...well most superstars would in the east. Put Durant, Harden, Paul George, Curry, CP3, Leonard in my Bucks team and we would go from 13th seed straight to no.2 seed and contender east status. That was before Lebron was an AGENT. Now what's he's doing is either getting hsi washed up friends like Jones money or severely overpaying in ridiculous rich deals his clients like Thompson.
hummmm.... not so sure about this one. Cav has a .73 winning % (and the top East Team) when Blatt got fired. Rockets has a .36 winning % (and on a 4 game losing streak) when McHale got fired.
This is a perfect example for why I don't want Thibs coaching the Rockets. He is a very good coach but like Blatt he's a dead end coach who can't win a ring as HC due to his inability to understand the psychology of players. Rudy T was the reverse. He couldn't build a team or be master strategist, but he knew how to motivate a veteran team to win. Who can win it all? I think the guys who we KNOW can win it all, they have jobs which they want to keep. We need to find the next Popovich, rather than the next JVG.
I think he was talking about the success the Rockets had the previous season. Seems odd to fire someone on the results of an eleven game stretch of games. But whatever. The owners of the Cavs and Rockets were unhappy, and firing the coach is the easiest way to make a change. I don't think coaching was the major problem for either team. The Cavs are probably the third or fourth best team in the league. Sometimes the truth is hard to accept.
So because he only made the finals and took one of the best teams in the last decade to 6 games without two of his best players, Blatt is a dead end coach who can't win a ring?
Rudy was able to maximize the talent on the court. His problem was giving matt maloney, moochie norris, mo taylor, kelvin cato tec. terrible contracts. He took steve francis and cat to 45 wins. That team did not have much talent. He also took a bunch of scrubs to bronze meddle in world championships. I think he was really the one who really brought in the back it in with three point shooter approach. And steve and cat days was the reason they made all those rules changes since they were isoing so much and it was spreading through the league.
If you are going to knock LeBron for the input on Cavs players then you have to give him props for getting guys to take short deals so they could all play together at a team of their choice. That led to two titles.
AND WHAT'S WRONG WITH THAT?? In every other type of business (and the NBA is a business), it's ok for an owner or employee to use his clout to benefit. Why do you have an issue with an athlete doing it when his presence doubles the value of the franchise? And for the record, LeBron is not an agent. There is no support for that. It does appear that he is using his presence to hook his friends up, but again, that's quite normal. Agents try to get key players locked up so they can leverage them. The Rockets hope to leverage Harden's relationship with Durant this summer. But let a player do it himself and it's an issue. Why do we get upset when an athlete is smart enough to do more than just play, and instead chooses to maximize his $$ like the owners do? I could see if LeBron wasn't trying to win, but the teams clearly go from bad to amongst the best in the league. We can agree to disagree on the players that would go to the East and transform a lotto team to a title contender. However, it's clear that none of those players would double the value of the franchise. My question was which players can satisfy both conditions.
If Stephen A Smith wants to constantly credit Mark Jackson for Golden States success, then he should have no problem if the Cavs win and giving credit to Blatt. But people like Blatt maybe not SAS's type of people to give credit too.
Lebron is the owner of the Klutch agency. If you don't get why it's wrong for an agent/player to get bad players like Thompson to get max contracts which hurts their own team then I give up. Only a Lebrontard couldn't find anything wrong with that.
Rich Paul is the owner of Klutch agency. He likely wouldn't have it if it weren't for his relationship with LeBron, but I don't see how that's different than what goes on in the industry in general. Thompson is not a bad player. He doesn't hurt the Cavs. He's not a great player but he's good enough to get a max deal from someone. Parsons got a max deal for example.
Lebron is the one who gets the commision out of Klutch it's not Rich Paul on his own and neither Rich paul is the one who pockets the money. Thompson hurts the team because he is too overpaid and negates their flexibillity since they will be unable to ever trade him. He's one of the top 10 worst contracts in the league. A offensively inept player who isn't elite at defence who isn't elite at defensive rebounding who has no post moves, or hooks who isn't incredibly versatile who is paid that much. So basically you ask" what's wrong with Lebron to have Thompson get paid, for his own financial gain, even though such a big contract for a backup pf, a deficient role player, hurts the team?" And the answer to that question should be self evident to anyone who doesnt' wear Lebron colored glasses. Is it wrong that Lebron got his coach fired? Yes. But he's not the only who has done it, it's pretty common. It's no big deal. What's not common is a player to play the agent to pocket additional money. It's a travesty when a player pushes for one coach because he is HIS AGENT. Because he will get money out of Jackson. No matter if Jackson is a joke of a coach, no matter if Thompson is the most overpaid player in the league...which directly HURT HIS OWN TEAM.
