The Cleveland Cavaliers have finally pinned down a new head coach. David Blatt agreed to terms with the team and officially becomes the first European League coach to make the leap to the NBA as a head coach.
Blatt, 55, got the job over Los Angeles Clippers assistant Tyronn Lue. Blatt was also coveted by the Golden State Warriors who wanted to make him an assistant on first-year coach Steve Kerr‘s staff.
Blatt was one of the most successful European coaches. Most recently, he led Macabbi Tel Aviv to an upset over Real Madrid in the Euroleague championship. He sports more than two decades of coaching experience overseas, with wins in the 2007 Eurobasket championship with Russia and a bronze medal in the 2012 Olympics.
Here are four takeaways from the hiring of Blatt.
1. No LeBron
Cavaliers fans hoping for a LeBron James homecoming, please turn the (figurative) page.
While it’s likely James remain with Miami, if he was considering a new squad, the Blatt hire may deter him from Cleveland. Mark Jackson would have been enticing for James, according to ProBasketballDraft, but the same can’t be said for Blatt.
One more LeBron-Cavs thing. Coaching hire matters here. Hiring Blatt ends pursuit of LeBron. Mark Jackson would be home run in that regard.
— Probasketballdraft (@Probballdraft) June 19, 2014
2. Get used to the Princeton style offense
Blatt played for legendary Princeton coach Peter Carril, where the Princeton offense was created and perfected. Expect Kyrie Irving to be piloting that style of offense in 2014.
3. With the first pick in the NBA Draft …
Now that the Cavaliers have decided upon a head coach, it’s time to get into the war room. It seems unlikely Kansas big man Joel Embiid goes first overall due to his recent foot injury, so who will Blatt decide he needs?
It’s presumably between Jabari Parker and Andrew Wiggins. On Friday, the team brought Parker in for a workout.
4. All about the D
NBA.com wrote a piece about how Blatt’s Russia teams were highly regarded for their defensive prowess.
Blatt’s teams played slow and shared the ball at a high rate in both Russia and with Maccabi Tel Aviv. With the latter, however, there was less passing the ball.
