The relationship between LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt came under further scrutiny on Tuesday, when a report indicated that LeBron is basically calling all of the shots with the Cavs. Not surprisingly, both he and Blatt say that is not entirely true.
ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said he has observed for months that LeBron calls plays on the court and Blatt simply plays the role of his parrot. Blatt claims Windhorst is overreacting to the flow of the game.
“I don’t think that’s peculiar,” he told reporters after practice Wednesday, via ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “When the game is going on and you are in the heat of the battle at times, you can’t get a message through or you don’t want to stop the flow, so a guy may [call the play on his own].
“We have sets that we know what we’re going to use going in. You know, we have a package that we’re going to use going in and at times, according to the flow of the game, somebody may call out a play. I don’t think that’s unusual.”
LeBron agreed.
“Well, we have a package,” James said. “If I see something, I have the right to call plays. Kyrie [Irving] does as well. We kind of do that play calling. Coach Blatt does the play calling obviously throughout the game in timeouts, but it’s great to be able to have some type of freedom out there with Kyrie to be able to call sets that we feel best suit our team.”
LeBron added that Cleveland’s coaching staff does a “great” job and credited Blatt and company for allowing him to have input. He also said that play-calling decisions are ultimately up to the coaches, but we all know that’s not entirely true.
Remember, LeBron took over point guard duties earlier this season without consulting Blatt and later explained that he is “past those days where I have to ask.” Couple that with the fact that Windhorst said players are constantly looking past Blatt and paying more attention to assistant coach Tyronn Lue, and you get the impression that there may be a problem with the Cavs’ hierarchy.
As long as the Cavs are winning and LeBron isn’t doing stuff like this to Blatt, everyone should get along just fine. But if the team starts struggling, the glue could melt in a hurry.
