Cavs hire Blatt as head coach
David Blatt went overseas to chase his basketball dreams. He’s coming back to fulfill them.
One of Europe’s top coaches, Blatt was hired Friday by the Cavaliers, who ended a sweeping, 39-day search with an out-of-the-box selection they hope changes their fortunes.
American-born, Princeton-schooled and considered one of the game’s brightest offensive minds, the 55-year-old Blatt has long been interested in coaching in the NBA and the Cavs will give him his first shot.
The club signed him to a three-year deal that includes a team option for a fourth year and could be worth $20 million. Cleveland contacted high-profile college coaches and interviewed both retreaded head coaches and on-the-rise assistants before zeroing in and landing Blatt, who won several European titles while coaching in Israel and guided Russia to a bronze medal at the London Olympics two years ago.
“David Blatt is going to bring some of the most innovative approaches found in professional basketball anywhere on the globe,” Cavs owner Dan Gilbert said. “Time and time again, from Russia to Israel and several other prominent head coaching jobs in between, David has done one thing: ‘win’. He is not only an innovator, well-trained and focused on both sides of the court, but he is always learning and always teaching.”
Blatt will be introduced by the team Wednesday, one day before the club picks first in this year’s NBA draft.
Cleveland’s third coach in three years, Blatt replaces Mike Brown, who was fired – for the second time – on May 12, a few weeks after the Cavs finished 33-49 and missed the playoffs for the fourth straight season. Blatt was not believed to be on Cleveland’s radar early in its search, but that changed when he resigned at Maccabi Tel Aviv to pursue an NBA gig.
“I couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to come to Cleveland and lead the Cavaliers as their head coach,” Blatt said. “We are going to work extremely hard to achieve the kind of results we all expect and know are possible.”
Blatt also was coveted as an assistant by Golden State and Minnesota, but the Cavs made him the first European coach to make the jump to the NBA.
“David is a great basketball coach and a special person,” said Cavs general manager David Griffin. “His abilities to communicate, to build relationships with his players and to foster winning environments at several stops throughout Europe and across the highest levels of international competition speak for itself. He brings unbridled passion, energy and creativity to his craft.
“I have watched David’s work for many years. He has an uncanny ability to adapt his system to maximize the talents of his teams year after year. That is why I am very confident he will make a smooth transition to the NBA.”
With Blatt in place, the Cavs can focus their attention on next week’s draft.
As agent Mike Tannenbaum was negotiating Blatt’s contract, Griffin and the rest of Cleveland’s front office got a closer look at Duke forward Jabari Parker, who worked out at the team’s training facility in Independence, Ohio. Parker is one of the Cavs’ options with the No. 1 pick, a selection they are determined to get right.
Warriors hush about Love: If Kevin Love is on his way to Golden State, Warriors GM Bob Myers isn’t telling.
With his team one of the many that has had discussions with the Minnesota Timberwolves about Love, Myers declined Friday to speak specifically about the possibility of adding the three-time All-Star to a team that won 51 games last season. He said it was “unlikely” that the Warriors would make a significant trade before the draft Thursday, but also acknowledged that things could change on that front at a moment’s notice.
“I will say if you asked me last year at this time would we be in a situation to grab an (Andre) Iguodala, I would have said the same thing,” Myers said. “I could get up from this (press conference) and five minutes later my phone rings and it’s a deal that I hadn’t thought of, and all of a sudden you’re going down that path. Right now it’s unlikely.”
The Timberwolves are considering moving the face of their franchise because Love can opt out of his contract after next summer and has made it clear to the team that he plans to sign elsewhere after missing the playoffs for the first six seasons of his career.
Flip Saunders, the Timberwolves’ president and coach, has received interest from a number of teams, including the Warriors and Celtics, who could send Minnesota their two first-round picks in this year’s draft – Nos. 6 and 17 – and a player or two in exchange for Love. The Rockets, Bulls and Cavaliers are among the other teams who could be interested in one of the best power forwards in the league.
Embiid surgery complete: Top prospect Joel Embiid had surgery on the stress fracture in his right foot Friday, and now he waits.
He waits to see how far he falls in the NBA draft Thursday night. He waits to see how long it will be before he can hit the court again. He waits to see how he responds to an injury that has a history of giving NBA big men problems.
The Kansas center, who was in the running to be taken No. 1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers, had two screws inserted into the navicular bone in his right foot at Southern California Orthopedic Institute, according to a release distributed by agent Arn Tellem.