Cleveland Cavaliers: Eastern Conference Finals Preview

Coaches

JH:

David Blatt has gone up against two very good coaches.

First, he disposed of Brad Stevens’ Celtics team in a sweep while everyone raved about how good of a coach Stevens is.

Then, he eliminated Tom Thibodeau’s Bulls in a six game battle that ended up being surprisingly more lopsided than perhaps anyone thought.

True, it isn’t just Blatt doing this. He’s also got LeBron James leading the team and finding the best ways to tear his opponents to shreds no matter what they throw at him. Tyronn Lue saved Blatt’s rear end in one of the biggest almost-blunders of the season when the Cavs coach tried to call a timeout when his team didn’t have any left in Game 5 against Chicago.

Blatt hasn’t been perfect. He’s made some mistakes: the decision to have LeBron inbound in the pivotal final possession of Game 5 that James nixed; odd rotations; sometimes (ironically) slow-to-call timeouts.

But look here: some great coaches are out of the playoffs now. Blatt’s team bested two of those coaches. That’s gotta count for something.

Budenholzer of the Pop Tree is a different animal with his Spurs East. He’s going to try and play Xs and Os with Blatt probably far more than Stevens or Thibs did.

It’s going to be an interesting battle. Admittedly, the edge must be given to the reigning Coach of the Year, but that doesn’t mean in any way that Blatt doesn’t deserve to be where he is.

AM:

Mike Budenholzer is the Coach of the Year for a reason, although some were flippantly doubting that as the Hawks stumbled at times through the first two rounds.

How can you argue with going from being the eighth seed and a first round exit, to 60 wins and a Conference Finals in the space of twelve months though?

Budenholzer and the Hawks have achieved that by buying into a system and way of playing that is designed to benefit the sum of all parts, and in that regard Budenholzer is very much a next man up coach, unafraid to trust his players in even the biggest moments.

Atlanta’s series with the Wizards turned after Game 3, when Budenholzer allowed his bench players to mount a colossal comeback from 19 points down in the final quarter. He stuck with the guys who got him there pretty much all the way to the end, with only a Paul Pierce bank shot denying them a famous victory.

In that sense, Bud is excellent at seeing the flow of a game and reacting to it. He makes excellent in-game adjustments, and often runs creative after timeout plays, and his players let him do so (looking at you, LeBron)!

For evidence of that you need look no further than the way in which he ran plays to get DeMarre Carroll open cuts to the basket on consecutive possessions in the closing minutes of Atlanta’s decisive Game 6 win over Washington.

Budenholzer is unafraid of being creative, and you’ll see that on both ends of the floor in this series.

Next: Style of Play