Cleveland Cavaliers: Is Tyronn Lue The Next Greg Popovich?

Success has been a constant fixture in Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue‘s career. Could his achievements lead to him becoming a hall of fame coach?

Tyronn Lue has only been the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers for a few months, but what an impressive start he has had. Lue, a former NBA point guard turned assistant coach and now in his current role has been around winning cultures for a good chunk of his career.

Having played and/or coached under some of the best minds in the game including Phil Jackson and Doc Rivers, Lue knew first hand how to get the most out of a team. Lue did win a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2000-2001 season.

Lue compiled a 27-14 record as Cleveland’s head coach during the regular season. In this year’s playoffs, he was undefeated up until the Eastern Conference Finals versus the Toronto Raptors.

Now with a championship in hand, Lue led the Cleveland Cavaliers to something they were unable to do before while finishing with a 16-5 playoff record. As the youngest NBA head coach, Lue has the potential to be one of the best coaches of all time.

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Having LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Love on his roster, success should not let up any time soon. Lue will be able to grow as a coach with the current Cleveland Cavaliers roster.

Someone Lue could emulate is San Antonio Spurs head coach Greg Popovich. Popovich was able to grow as a coach while having future hall of fame power forward Tim Duncan as the nucleus to his team.

However, Lue is a former player and assistant coach, while Popovich was in the Spurs’ front office prior to being named coach. Although they had different paths to their current roles, both of them have had plenty of success (especially in the playoffs).

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Popovich is now near the end of his coaching career, but he is now one of the most winningest coaches in NBA history. Despite being on the tail-end of his career, Popovich has been able to keep San Antonio as a contender year in and year out with one constant driving force: Duncan.

Duncan is not the player he once was, but he is still able to make a significant impact. So what does Popovich’s history have to do with Lue and the Cleveland Cavaliers?

Lue, over time will only be getting better as a coach. With Lue and James leading the team, many more championships could end up in northeast Ohio.

However, as James’ skill set declines, Irving has the talent to take over games more often. In doing so, he can be Lue’s equivalency of Popovich’s Duncan.

Sure, other all-stars will still be needed to help the Cleveland Cavaliers long-term, but Irving will eventually have to take his game to the next level. Lue would be able to coach one of the best point guards to numerous playoffs and hopefully NBA Finals appearances.

He will also be able to help mentor Irving better than anyone due to his first hand experience at the position. We saw in this past NBA Finals the plays and stat lines Irving is capable of putting up in the most crucial of situations. Just imagine what yearly experience would do for Irving, and in turn, Lue.

Now, could you say Lue will eventually be a Hall of Fame head coach? Sure, but it is too early to go down that road. What is known is the success Lue had this season and how that could impact the Cleveland Cavaliers next season.

There is plenty of excitement surrounding Lue’s potential. As long as there are great players like James on the Cavs roster, the sky is the limit. Regardless of how much more James plays for Cleveland, the confidence and expectations will be very high.

Whether Irving becomes a hall of fame player is to be determined, but he definitely is on the right track to such an honor. In three to five years, we will have a better idea of how good of a coach Lue is.

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I really like what I have seen from Lue and the way he can relate to players. At the end of the day, even if Lue falls short of being the next Popovich but is able to maintain yearly success with multiple championships, then that is a win to Cleveland Cavaliers fans.

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