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The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

The University of Utah's Independent Student Voice

The Daily Utah Chronicle

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Want your voice to be heard? Submit a letter to the editor, send us an op-ed pitch or check out our open positions for the chance to be published by the Daily Utah Chronicle.
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Great Debate: Biggest Surprise of NBA Season So Far

Great Debate: Biggest Surprise of NBA Season So Far

Cavaliers’ Sudden Coaching Change the Biggest Shock of the NBA Season

by Tyler Crum

There’s an old saying here in the States: “You don’t swap horses in the middle of a stream.” The idiom became popular back in the Civil War, when President Lincoln used it during his re-election campaign, and it boils down to the idea that it is better to follow a tried and tested leader than to switch during troubling times.

It seems like common sense, but the Cleveland Cavaliers completely defied this line of reasoning when they fired head coach David Blatt halfway through his second season with the team.

The Cavs didn’t just change their horse in the middle of a stream — they shot the perfectly good one they were riding on.

Firing coaches at this stage of the season isn’t unheard of, especially when teams are struggling and need a fresh start to salvage any post-season aspirations. But Cleveland has the dubious distinction of being one of the only teams in professional sports to fire its head coach while having the best record in its conference and looking well on the way to return to the NBA Finals.

The team’s front office may not have been entirely enthusiastic about the team’s 30-11 record, which included a few bad losses against the Bucks and the Bulls as well as an atrocious 34-point loss to Golden State, but 30 wins is nothing to scoff at. In fact, Cleveland finds itself with a better record and in a better standing than they were at this point last season.

The Cavs have only played two games under new head coach Tyronn Lue, with the first being a mediocre 96-83 loss to Chicago and the second an uninspiring 114-107 win over the lowly Timberwolves. It has yet to be seen whether Lue’s leadership and up-tempo offense can produce results, but I don’t see Cleveland getting much better than it was with Blatt at the helm.

Highly respected around the world, Blatt spent the last two decades coaching various teams around Europe, Israel and Russia before being hired by Cleveland in 2014. In his inaugural season as an NBA coach, Blatt led the Cavs to an Eastern Conference title and amassed a franchise best .639 career-winning percentage. His methodical offensive game plans were a great fit for the Cavaliers and were executed to near-perfection by a tremendous roster made up of Kyrie Irving, Timofey Mozgov, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith and team superstars Kevin Love and LeBron James.

Just about the only area that Blatt had great difficulty with was in his personal relationship with James, who was very open about his dislike for his former head coach — calling Blatt a “rookie” and questioning his experience, frequently disregarding Blatt’s play calls and infamously shoving the coach during an argument with referees.

In spite of the on- and off-the-court conflicts between Blatt and King James, the two were able to put together an effective system and elevate Cleveland from conference doormat to championship contender in an incredibly short amount of time.

LeBron claims to have had no influence on Blatt’s termination, and Cavs GM David Griffin cited Blatt’s “lack of fit with our personnel and our vision” as justification for the drastic decision.

Assuming Blatt did not say or do anything egregious that the team wants to keep quiet from the media, there was absolutely no good reason for letting him go, unless winning games and making it to the championships don’t fit in with the GM’s vision for the Cavaliers.

[email protected]

@tylerfcrum

 

Warriors’ Historic Run is Biggest Storyline of 2015-16 Season

by Brock Jensen

In the aftermath of Cleveland head coach David Blatt being fired, we started to wonder what the biggest storyline of this NBA season is. We’ve nearly reached the halfway mark — and while the Blatt firing has a recency bias, I believe the historical — and ridiculous — start by the Golden State Warriors is the top storyline so far.

Sure, we knew that as the defending champions, the Warriors would come into the season as the team to beat and a force to be reckoned with. But I don’t think anybody thought they would be this good.

Stephen Curry and Co. are a league-best 41-4. You just need to look at their last few games to get an idea of how dominant they are. Three of their last four games have come against top-of-the-line teams in the league. And in each of those contests, opposing teams have been sentenced to the same fate as other foes the Warriors have faced.

The Spurs lost by 30, the Bulls by 31 and the Lebron-led Cavaliers by 34.

Part of these annihilations are due to the fact that the Warrior offense has simply been unstoppable. The Warriors have scored 100 or more points in all but four games this season, and three of those have been losses. Advice for other teams: Keep the Warriors under 100, and you may have a chance to win — definitely not an easy task, by any means.

This team has also been without its head coach for a lot of the season. Of course, these are professionals, and they know how to play the game, but come on, four losses without having your head coach at the helm is pretty impressive.

Curry is continuing to defy out-of-college expectations as he averages over 30 points per game so far this season. Draymond Green is proving to be worth the money he earned as well, averaging 14.6 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game this year.

Yes, firing Blatt came at an interesting time. But it seemed like it was something that was going to happen eventually anyway.

And I give credit to Blatt for what he did with the Cavs. People are forgetting that he signed up to coach this team pre-Lebron James and Kevin Love. The fact that he was able to maintain the team and get them all the way to the Finals last year is quite the accomplishment. I mean, he signed up to coach a rebuilding team that became a championship contender overnight.

But sorry — that just isn’t as big of a story as the Warriors’ domination.

Golden State isn’t just proving why it was last year’s champion, but the Warriors are proving to be one of the best teams this game has ever seen. They look to be on a roll to another championship, and while there’s still plenty of season left, the Warriors are continuing to show that they are the best team in the NBA.

[email protected]

@brock_jensen02

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