Cleveland Cavaliers: What Must Change Under Tyronn Lue?
1. Accountability
Track every team that’s won multiple championships with the same head coach in NBA history. There’s one constant in every case, and it goes beyond the all-time talent and tremendous supporting casts.
The head coach may be kind and friendly, but he always holds his team accountable.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are held to many standards, but accountability doesn’t appear to be one of them. Multiple reports have surfaced since Blatt’s firing of how the inmates ran the asylum.
According to Jason Lloyd of The Akron Beacon Journal, Lue believes that starts with the face of the franchise.
"“I talked to Bron. I told him, ‘I got to hold you accountable. It starts with you first,'” Lue said. “‘And if I can hold you accountable in front of the team and doing the right things, then everybody else has got to fall in line, fall in place.’”"
The question is, can Lue be the coach who commands a LeBron James locker room?
James, who’s holding opponents to 31.8 percent shooting as the primary defender, can still shut his man down. He’s often accused of getting back too slowly on defense, however, which was something Blatt was allegedly uncomfortable doing.
Per Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com, Lue had to speak out against The Big Three when Blatt wouldn’t.
"During the first portion of the 2014-15 season, film sessions were a topic of discussion among the players. Blatt was reluctant to criticize star players even when they clearly messed up a play. This became routine. It got so bad that I’m told that Lue finally intervened, stood up and demanded that somebody rewind the footage so that he could get on members of The Big 3."
Accountability will be key throughout the remainder of the 2016 season.
For as brilliant as James is, it’s become abundantly clear that he and the Cavaliers cannot compete with the Warriors with their current approach. No matter what changes schematically, The Big Three must be held to the same standards as every other player on the roster.
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The good news: Lue comes from the Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers schools of teaching. Cleveland might just thrive.