New Cavs coach Tyronn Lue promises he will 'do some things better'

New Cleveland Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue and former Cavs coach David Blatt were not longtime coaching partners. Lue never played under Blatt in his active career, and he never acted as an assistant on Blatt’s bench prior to last season. He was as associate head coach after the Cavaliers considered him as the lead man prior to hiring Blatt 19 months ago, and Cleveland made him the league’s highest-paid assistant.

This was not a decades-long relationship, merely a brief, professional one. A relationship that ended on Friday as the Cavaliers fired Blatt prior to making Lue its full-time head coach.

Lue met the media on Saturday, and he hardly sanguine in discussing the switchover. From Dave McMenamin at ESPN:

Asked what he would do "differently" than Blatt, Lue replied, "I'm not going to say 'differently.' I will say do some things 'better.'"

That might sound cold because, well, it is. Lue, who was mostly shielded from having to speak with reporters during his seven-year run as an assistant coach in Boston, with the Clippers and in Cleveland, might have to find a nicer way of parsing out what was a genuine response to a good question; and one he hopes turns into an accurate response.

In short, he’s going to have to learn to tell half-truths to the press.

The new coach says he did meet with the old coach following Friday’s news:

"He said, 'I thank you for everything you've done for me. I know you had my back 100 percent,'" Lue said.

LeBron James, speaking to the media for the first time since his coach’s firing, told reporters he was “surprised, and caught off-guard” by the transaction that the Cavaliers went out of their way to impress upon observers that James had no prior knowledge of, and no formal participation in encouraging.

James’ refusal to commit to David Blatt had a significant hand in the coach’s termination, but LeBron genuinely wasn’t being evasive here. There had been rumblings about Blatt’s job future for weeks, dating back to his NBA rookie season in 2014-15, but for the hammer to come down in full (especially with the Cavs stuck at 30-11, tops in the East) still qualifies as “holy crap!”-level news.

Just because we could see the ominous signs all along, it doesn’t make it any less surprising. I was asked in three different radio interviews this week about Blatt’s shaky job status, assuring hosts that his job status was, well, “shaky,” and yet you could still knock me and any other NBA observer over with a feather when the news actually hit.

Similarly, just because LeBron had a major hand in eye-rolling his way to Blatt’s dismissal, it doesn’t mean Blatt deserved to stay on the job. David Blatt is an honorable man with a significant resume and obvious coaching talent, but he appeared to betray some of the principles that made him so wildly successful in the international game.

His offense looked nothing like the setups we saw before in Maccabi Tel Aviv or with the Russian National Team. The formerly fiery coach reportedly refused to criticize LeBron James in games or practices, an effort that failed to win him LeBron’s ear while losing the rest of the unimpressed locker room. There were tactical errors, ironic coming from someone so obsessed with being labeled an NBA neophyte, and team’s work with James, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving all on the floor at once left something to be desired.

At some point, “Kevin’s on a new team, LeBron is taking it easy, and Kyrie’s been hurt” isn’t a big enough excuse. Even at 30-11. This would have been the case even if Cleveland had lost by just four points against the Warriors on Monday, instead of 34. The team, with 31-year old LeBron James at the helm, needed to take a chance on moving from B+ to A+. And soon.

Is Lue the guy to make that happen? Cleveland will likely start off his career with a big win, on national TV at home on Saturday against an excuse-making Chicago Bulls squad that played the night before in snowy Boston.

From there, he has to make the Cavs bigger than the sum of their parts. Love, LeBron and Irving all like to occupy the same stretch of real estate offensively, and Love has lost the most in the triptych’s time together. Lue referred to himself as the team’s former “defensive co-coordinator” on Saturday, but he’ll be pressed into turning the Cavs into something they need to become in order to top the Warriors and Spurs – a knockout offensive club.

The Cavs, already at fifth in offensive efficiency, have been very good, but this team needs to be great. James’ age and the team’s massive payroll only add to the immediacy.

This is why a “surprising” move can also be an expected and understandable one. James might have been the driving force since Day One to push Blatt out, but he’s not lying on this Saturday.

What matters most is Lue’s quote. “Better” has to become reality.