Cavs and Larry Drew Agree to Part Ways
2019-04-11
While attending the Cavs matchup against the Boston Celtics a few weeks ago, I asked CtB’s very own David Wesley Wood who he wanted to coach the team next season. His answer was Larry Drew. David wanted Drew to stay on board because he found a way to keep the players motivated and competing every night during the frigid backend of the season, rather than counting down the days until they could hit the sunny Caribbean.
Drew assumed the reigns of the squad after Tyronn Lue was fired on October 28th, just six games into the season. Other than a brief contract squabble that was settled eight days later with Drew being given the formal title of head coach and a new contract, it has been about as drama free of a campaign as can be expected when LeBron James bolts, and the best player left on the team misses 60 games. Drew went 19-57 overall in his tenure at the helm. Today, General Manager Koby Altman announced that the two sides have agreed to part ways.
“We have great respect and appreciation for Larry and the job that he did as the head coach of the Cavaliers for nearly the entire 2018-19 campaign. He brought professionalism, class and steady leadership both this past season and prior four years,” said Altman. “Larry and I had a productive discussion about this past season, the future of the franchise and the search process that we will shortly launch regarding the head coaching role. Larry respectfully declined to participate in the search process and will not be returning to coach the Cavaliers. All of us in Cleveland wish Larry nothing but the best going forward.”
As expected, Cavaliers opening search for a new head coach. Cleveland plans to run a wide-ranging process, but expect experienced NBA assistants like Utah's Alex Jensen, Portland's David Vanterpool and Nate Tibbetts, Denver's Wes Unseld Jr., to be among multiple candidates.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 11, 2019
Drew was a key assistant coach on the 2016 championship team. Perhaps the greatest longterm mark Drew will leave us with is the improved play of rookie Collin Sexton. Before the all-star break Sexton was widely panned as an inefficient draft bust. Since the mid-winter intermission, Sexton averaged 20.8 points per game, and shot a sizzling 41% from downtown. Sexton improved his field goal percentage from 40.9% before the break to 47.7% afterwards through better shot selection at the urging of the coaching staff. As Sexton enters his sophomore campaign, he will be on his third professional coach.
FWIW, I like Drew, but if retaining him meant keeping Longo to run the D, he had to go. Last 4 years our 2 rating: 10th, 21st, 29th, 30th.
And I do not believe Longo had the D the year they were 10th.
Have to be better on D. Individually. Collectively. And there must be consequences for bad effirt/dumb plays.
Well Ty Lue had the D for the first half of the year we were 10th, right?
When he took over midseason I doubt anyone said “Well we already have a top 10 defense, but why don’t we change things up and just start being really really terrible from now on?”
Apparently they saved that conversation for the offseason after winning a championship…
*facepalm*
On the one hand, I liked how hard the guys played, generally speaking, as a tribute to LD’s leadership.
OTOH, there were definitely questionable coaching decisions being made… the question is how much was tank-related or how much was coaching related.
I wasn’t necessarily against tanking, but now I see why it’s so bad… it engrains bad habits and dumb decisions that discourage guys from learning how to win with proper play.
That’s why I have so much trouble going all in on tanking for even a single season. After Love went down it was almost a necessity. After like 60% of the team went down it was definitely a necessity.
Overall I really liked a lot of things LD did to keep the team together, but I also agree there were quite a few headscratcher moments that I’m worried about if they carry on into bad habits in the future.
There was some discussion of Joerger in the other thread. From what some Kings fans are saying, his main issues are he doesn’t like to play young players unless forced, if they then succeed he takes credit, and he’s just basically an abrasive douche in general. A lot of Kings fans aren’t happy with the firing, but if those points are in any way accurate he’d be a terrible choice for the Cavs. Not that I think that he’s even on the Cavs radar.
The Kings FO wanted him to start Bagley. Joerger did not want him to play with Cauley-Stein & clog the middle. Wanted more shooting & spacing.
It worked well. Bagley & Bogdanovich scored well off the bench & Fox had room to grow and did. And Heild went nuts.
Interesting… those were good decisions, but the lasting memory I have of Joerger this year was blasting Hield for shooting a game-winning 3 that he was supposed to take. That was terrible coaching.