With the Cleveland Cavaliers’ awful play this season, current head coach Larry Drew is reportedly not a serious candidate to be Cleveland’s head coach after this year, and he’s not sure he’d even want to coach after 2018-19.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been, well, we’ll say less than perfect this season, and with the combination of them firing former head coach Tyronn Lue after just six games this year, the season was really doomed from the start. Current head coach Larry Drew was reportedly not willing to coach Cleveland after Lue was fired, which eventually led to him accepting the head role but needed to be compensated more. Now with the way the year has headed and the team likely wanting a new face, Drew is not likely being considered as a head coach for Cleveland after this year, according to a report from The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Jason Lloyd (subscription required).
Drew even said (via that report) that he doesn’t know if he would ‘”ever want to be a head coach again”‘ following this disaster of a season in which Cleveland has the league’s worst record. The extensive injury list Drew has had to deal with this year is a key reason why Cleveland has the league’s worst net rating (per NBA.com), and one of the more limited offenses in the league as currently constructed.
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With Cleveland general manager Koby Altman likely wanting to bring in his own guy for the near future, it was reported by Vardon and Lloyd that sources said Cleveland would “likely target a first-time NBA head coach with experience developing players and/or coaching in the G League.”
Cleveland has reportedly not reached out to anyone yet or their representation, but according to Vardon and Lloyd, there are “no fewer than six candidates who fit the above criteria.”
These candidates are said to have ties to Altman and/or the Cleveland Cavaliers.
The candidates named by Vardon and Lloyd were three former head coaches of the Canton Charge (from 2014-16, 2013-14 and 2011-13, respectively), in Denver Nuggets assistant Jordi Fernandez, Orlando Magic assistant Steve Hetzel and Utah Jazz assistant Alex Jensen; the other three names included were Toronto Raptors assistant Adrian Griffin, Hawks assistant Chris Jent (who was a player development coach with the Cavs), and Dallas Mavericks assistant Jamahl Mosley (a former Cavs assistant from 2010-14, as Vardon and Lloyd noted).
The Cavaliers and Altman will need to do a very, very thorough coaching search in the coming months, because players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Ante Zizic will need to continue to be coached hard to reach their full potential, and Drew didn’t sign up for this sort of situation, and I don’t blame him for not initially signing up for this horrible ordeal.
People inside the Cleveland organization even are said to “privately believe Sexton is not a long-term fit at point guard” and that they “believe his future might ultimately be as a sixth man.”
Given how much the Cleveland Cavaliers need to develop their talent in the coming years, it’s not surprising that Cleveland and Drew won’t be a long-term match, considering Drew (per Vardon and Lloyd) is simply doing the “best he can just to get this franchise to April.”