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

In conclusion

Drew believes in a similar offensive game as Lue, built around transition offensive opportunities, lots of threes and motion over isolation sets. That should ease the offensive transition. However, his defensive results are considerably better. The Cleveland Cavaliers have actually played better defensively under him, and he’s helmed a Top 10 defense in two of his four head coaching seasons.

He’s also shown some ability to develop point guards, depending on how much credit you want to give him for Jeff Teague’s emergence into an above average point guard, and spotting Khris Middleton’s talent where Pistons coach Lawrence Frank could not. Like Lue, he’s a former point guard who’s watched the league change for 35 years: You could find a lot worse mentors for Collin Sexton.

Given the amount of chaos likely in the coming months with Love now in bubble wrap until the All-Star break and many of his veteran compadres ticketed for other cities, a year-long audition for Drew may not be the worst thing. Cleveland’s looking for a coach to rebuild things, not to take them to a championship.

Given his knowledge of the team and the league, he’s probably the team’s best option at this late date for the interim job, and may deserve a look as a cheap option to lead the rebuild. (Owner Dan Gilbert’s on the hook for $13 million more to Lue, so he might be watching his wallet.)

Needless to say, the decision to fire Lue probably should’ve come earlier. That said, none of the assistants are so indispensible (Mike Longabardi anyone?) that the team should worry about locking them up for the future lest they start making their own plans for next year.

Drew has been coaching in the NBA continuously for more than a quarter-century. He’s not a bad choice for what’s likely to be a thankless job this season.

The Cleveland Cavaliers should possibly wait until April to weigh their future course, and Drew’s good enough for that kind of mission.