After James signed, he showed no interest in meeting Blatt. Weeks passed before James took a brief break from filming a movie in New York to have a face-to-face conversation with his new coach. It was clear James' respect for Blatt was limited, and soon it also became clear that Blatt assumed respect would be coming his way.
This set the stage for a traumatic tenure for Blatt. In fairness, this was not the team he had been hired to coach, as James had signed and the young player Blatt was primarily hired to develop,
Andrew Wiggins, had been traded to acquire
Kevin Love.
"David was hired to coach a developmental team and young players who would've wanted to please him," one team source said. "He ended up coaching a finished product where the players expected him to please them."
To complicate matters, the Cavs hired the runner-up for the job, Lue, to be Blatt's assistant. To keep him away from the Clippers, the Cavs gave him a record four-year, $6.5 million deal -- for an assistant. Gilbert would later call the coaching staff the best he had assembled in his time as owner.
Blatt endorsed the Lue move, which many in the league saw as an immediate undercutting of the head coach. Never before could anyone remember the runner-up for a job being hired as the lead assistant, and it was taken as an example of Blatt's NBA inexperience. Blatt also didn't understand that he would have to earn players' respect; it would not be instantly given.
"I've been a head coach for 22 years. People overlook that too easily and, I think, unfairly," Blatt said last season. "I am not now, nor have I have been for quite some time, a rookie coach."
Within days of the start of the past season, James began expressing doubt that Blatt would work out as the Cavs' long-term answer. That was crystallized during a road trip to the West Coast in the second week of the season, when James and Irving began a bit of a tug-of-war over control of the offense. Blatt seemed powerless to control them, and if he tried, it didn't work.
Shortly thereafter, James changed his role in the Cavs' offense and began playing point guard while moving Irving off the ball. In conjunction with the move, the Cavs, naturally, started moving away from the Princeton sets Blatt had installed during the preseason. James nonchalantly told the media he didn't consult Blatt on the changes.
"No, I can do it on my own," James said. "I'm past those days where I have to ask."[\quote]
y'all just not gone give Bron any blame .
