Back home in Israel, David Blatt told The Jerusalem Post he fully intends to return as the Cavaliers‘ coach next season. “Of course I will continue in Cleveland, there is no question,” he told an interviewer. There have been rumors of a rift between Blatt and LeBron James, espcially after ESPN’s Marc Stein wrote that James disrespected his coach during the NBA Finals. Blatt insists his relationship with James is nothing out of the ordinary for a new coach and a star player. “I have a good relationship with him,” Blatt said. “We went through a process. It took us time to get to know each other. We learned how to work together the best way possible. When you work with a star of that magnitude the relationship is slightly different. It isn’t like with any other player. I learned from this process. We both want the same thing, but don’t always agree about everything.” Blatt, who was hired last offseason, has two years remaining on his $10MM contract, along with a team option for a third.
Here’s more from the Central Division:
- In addition to re-signing their own guys, the Cavs‘ priority will be landing a veteran point guard, Sam Amico of Fox Sports Ohio tweets. Amico adds that the team is on the lookout for a wing player.
- Cleveland hopes to execute a Brendan Haywood trade quickly after July 1st, Amico relays (Twitter link). Haywood has an unusually valuable contract that contains a non-guaranteed salary worth more than $10.5MM next season.
- President of Basketball Operations Stan Van Gundy will be targeting two small forwards who are unrestricted free agents this offseason, according to Keith Langlois of Pistons.com (Twitter link). Langlois adds that if the Pistons can’t land either of those players, Van Gundy has two restricted free agent small forwards in mind that he would like to add.
Arthur Hill contributed to this post.