Disconnect Overrides Wins For David Blatt

Cleveland Cavaliers GM David Griffin has stated a lack of connectedness ultimately led to the firing of now former head coach David Blatt.

It was a standard Friday Night for me down here in Australia.

Watching the replay of the Cavs impressive win over the Los Angeles Clippers for the second time, I was so proud of how the team had responded to their 34-point loss to the Golden State Warriors just days earlier. First it was the manhandling of the Brooklyn Nets and then a more impressive win over the Clippers.

As I watched and listened to Blatt’s press conference, I couldn’t agree more with him on the topic of how the Cavaliers had been covered in the media after that Warriors lost. I was marvelling at how much Blatt had progressed in his second season as a NBA head coach, in fact, I wrote about it just a week ago.

Here is a transcript of Blatt’s comments, via Chris Fedor of cleveland.com.

"“My guys are out there fighting for the Cavaliers and doing the best job they can in a tough NBA, very tough, especially because this is a team that night after night has a target on it’s back,” Blatt said following Thursday’s win. “They go out there and they fight and they play and they deal with adversity like we’ve had to deal with all year. We are far from perfect and we are still not at our best, but it’s not for lack of effort and it’s not for lack of good group of guys that want to do their job as best as they possibly can and I think have done pretty well so far.“We’ve got a long way to go and we’ve got a lot of work to do, but you can’t be in the situation we’re in, you just can’t be…Nobody just wrote in the beginning of the season, ‘Ok, 41 games into the season, you’re going to be in first place, 30-11.’ Nobody wrote that down. It wasn’t promised to us. Nobody gave us that. (They) had to work for it and they’ve been working hard and doing a good job overall, a really good job.”"

So, as I went to sleep following overly optimistic about the Cavs, I woke up to news that I seemingly still cannot believe, despite the countless reports and reactions I’ve read and watched.

Blatt is no longer employed by the Cavaliers.

In a shocking turn of events, the Cavs have fired Blatt, in a curveball that no one in the NBA world saw coming. Here are Blatt’s first and most likely only comments about the decision.

Cleveland currently sits in the Eastern Conference with a record of 30-11. They have won 11 of their last 13 games but this was about more then the wins and losses.

As Griffin mentioned multiple times during his press conference, this decision was due to the Cavs locker-room and Blatt having a sense of disconnect with the players and the group not having enough joy after winning games.

“There is a disconnect on this team.” Griffin stated emphatically, via Fedor. “There is a lack of spirit.”

Griffin citied a lack of connectedness a number of times in his press conference and also mentioned more then once how the Cavs don’t handle winning or expectations well. Griffin implied that he has never seen a team not enjoy winning as much as this Cavalier team.

If you knew nothing about the NBA and watched Griffin’s press conference, you would think that the Cavaliers were bottom-feeders and the locker-room was a dumpster fire.

Quite frankly, the news that came directly from Griffin’s mouth may actually be more shocking then the actual decision to fire Blatt.

Forget how much impact LeBron James had on this move or how he and Blatt didn’t get along. Forget about how Tyronn Lue may very well be a better candidate in more ways then one for this team.

The fact that this Cavalier team, the best in franchise history, isn’t having fun winning and are disconnected in the locker-room? Wow.

I wrote earlier in the season that the Cavs needed to let loose a little bit and how James’ all-business approach wasn’t exactly what this team needed.

Although, it had seemed like those issues had passed the team by. If you watch this team, we see the players frequently laughing, dancing, dapping, raising the roof and performing their personalized handshakes with each other when the team is winning.

A disconnect in the locker-room seemed like the last possible thing possible but I guess there was deeper, underlying issues with this team that Griffin “couldn’t accept.”

As a head coach, you’re job is to control the mood of the team and the locker-room and make sure that the group of players are enjoying themselves. It seemed like Blatt was failing in this area.

Blatt had lost the locker-room and it may have happened as long as a couple of weeks ago. ESPN’s Dave McMenamin reported that Blatt’s management of the rotation on the Christmas Day loss to the Warriors, the 29-point loss the next night to the Portland Trail Blazers and then just barely beating the Phoenix Suns a couple nights later may have been the beginning of the end for Blatt.

There was also a report that Blatt didn’t know that J.R. Smith had arrived to the Quicken Loans Arena just 45 minutes before tip-off for the Warriors game a few days ago. It doesn’t matter why Smith was late but the fact that Blatt was not aware of this is just one of many danger signs.

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Cleveland didn’t have any issues this season. Heck, the team is on the pace to win 60 games this season. Now though, issues seem to be popping up left, right and center. But, as Griffin indicated, the lack of connectedness this locker-room possessed was the ultimate tipping point. Griffin said he knows what the atmosphere of a championship locker-room needs to be and he didn’t feel this Cavalier team had that correct championship mentality of a locker-room.

“Winning has got to be a joy, not a relief.” These were the words Doug Collins echoed on ESPN NBA Countdown Friday Night. For the Cavs, winning simply masked some of the bubbling issues this team has dealt with. Those issues boiled over and now Cleveland must respond in a way that once again connects winning and enjoyment.