Cleveland Cavaliers: What does Drew’s career say about his style?

Drew’s assistant coaching career

Drew joined the Lakers coaching staff a year later after Mike Dunleavy was fired and assistant coach Randy Pfund was elevated. Pfund lasted a year and a half before he was ultimately replaced by Del Harris. Drew stayed on for that six-year run where he helped develop young players such as Derek Fisher, Eddie Jones, Kobe Bryant and Nick Van Exel. Indeed, Drew was on hand for Lue’s rookie season.

After Harris was fired, Drew made his way to Washington (after a year-long stop in Detroit) where he coached for Leonard Hamilton and then Doug Collins under general manager Michael Jordan. Lue wound up the starting point guard there essentially by default. (Chris Whitney, anyone? I didn’t think so.)

When Collins was canned after Jordan retired and Ernie Grunfeld took over as GM, Drew moved on to Atlanta where he was part of a successful rebuild.

Under Mike Woodson, the Hawks went from 13 wins in the 2004-2005 season to 53 wins five years later, with steady growth the entire way. This was the era of the Al Horford–Josh Smith–Marvin Williams–Joe Johnson–Mike Bibby lineup. However after getting bounced in the second round in consecutive years (first by the Cavaliers and then the Orlando Magic), GM Rick Sund canned Woodson, replacing him with Larry Drew.