The Cleveland Cavaliers have fired coach David Blatt, league sources told Yahoo Sports.
Tyronn Lue, Blatt's top assistant, has agreed to a three-year deal worth $9.5 million-plus to become the team's new head coach, sources told Yahoo. The contract is similar to Blatt's deal with the Cavs, sources said.
LeBron James and his agent, Rich Paul, had been strong advocates of Lue becoming head coach since last season, sources said.
Blatt's dismissal comes one season after he helped guide the Cavs to the 2015 NBA Finals in his first year as an NBA coach. Cleveland leads the Eastern Conference with a 30-11 record and has won 11 of its past 13 games. The two losses came against the San Antonio Spurs and Golden State Warriors, who beat the Cavs by 34 points on Monday in a rematch of last season's Finals.
Blatt is the third coach in the past 40 seasons to be fired the season after taking a team to the Finals and the first since the New Jersey Nets fired Byron Scott shortly before the 2004 All-Star break. The Nets were two games above .500 when they fired Scott and promoted assistant Lawrence Frank to head coach.
In a news conference announcing the firing later Friday evening, Cavaliers general manager David Griffin cited the team's inability to develop a true identity as a reason in making the coaching change.
"Every step forward," Griffin said, "we've taken two steps back."
Griffin also said the Cavs' schedule had been relatively easy and that they didn't handle prosperity well.
"This team is not galvanized after wins," Griffin said.
The Cavs hired Blatt as head coach in June 2014, about two weeks before James decided to leave the Miami Heat and return to Cleveland. Blatt had been a successful coach in the Euroleague, most recently with Maccabi Tel Aviv, but did not have NBA experience before the Cavs hired him. He also coached Russia's national team to the bronze medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Blatt leaves the Cavs with a career record of 83-40 in the NBA.
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