WEDNESDAY, 12:37pm: Blatt’s deal, which is now official, is for two years and doesn’t include any NBA outs, a source tells Pick (Twitter link). So we won’t be seeing the former Cavs coach back on an NBA bench until at least 2018
TUESDAY, 8:46am: Former Cavaliers coach David Blatt is heading back overseas after agreeing to a deal to become the head coach of the Turkish club Darussafaka, international journalist David Pick reports (Twitter links). The exact parameters of the deal are unknown, but Pick notes that it will be a long-term contract that will pay Blatt in the range of $1.7MM-$2MM per season.
Blatt’s tenure in Cleveland was a difficult one, with the team apparently not buying in to what the former coach was selling. He notched a solid record of 83-40 in the regular season and 14-6 in the playoffs during his season and a half in charge of the Cavs, a team possessing the highest of expectations. LeBron James returned to Cleveland from his time with the Heat just weeks after the Cavs hired Blatt, and that drastically changed the nature of the job, which became a win-or-else proposition as the team moved away from rebuilding and positioned itself to win immediately. The team’s seeming lack of chemistry under Blatt was one of the major contributing factors that led to his dismissal in January.
The 57-year-old was mentioned as a candidate for the vacant head coaching posts of the Knicks, Rocket, Kings and Lakers prior to those posts being filled, plus he was also rumored to be a target of Spanish power FC Barcelona.
Just as he said, Blatt would rather be a head coach overseas than an assistant in the NBA. It will be interesting to see if he ever comes back to the league after all that happened his brief experience.
Blatt never should’ve came over here in the first place.
Good for him. Sorry to see him leave but now maybe he’ll get the respect he surely deserves. He sure as hell didn’t get any with the Cav’s as a coach, a winning coach as he was. James has a pull string and he pulled it.
It’s funny all the flak Lebron gets because people always think he is making the coaching decisions even though it’s always denied. However both Melo and Harden were publicly confirmed to be asked for their opinion about new coaches but no one cares about that.
Lebron as long as he’s been the in NBA except for his rookie year, always has his say in just about all decisions about who would be or not be good for the team. Take notice. Sometimes he’ll step in front of the coach while he’s talking, putts right in cutting him off and starts talking to the players. That’s no respect.