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Cleveland Cavaliers: David Blatt Needs To Be More Authoritative

By Ryan Rosko

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Despite prior success elsewhere, David Blatt did not fully take over the leadership that a top coach does last season.

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt is a leader in an important position with his team as their head coach. Yet he has not fully acquired the respect he deserves; something that the majority of coaches have around the NBA.

The Cavaliers soon will be starting training camp and their regular season games start at the end of October. During that time Blatt needs to be more of a leader; a leader similar to Phil Jackson when he coached and as Gregg Popovich currently does in San Antonio.

We have all heard of “back seat” drivers. At times during the 2014-15 season, it seemed to me that Blatt became a “back seat” head coach and that needs to stop.

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Last season during his rookie year as an NBA coach he made mistakes, just like any coach. The issue is that when he made those mistakes, that allowed LeBron James to “take over.” At times James simply did whatever he felt was right during a specific situation. There were scenarios when James flat out ignored Blatt’s play and decided on something else.

A team’s top player should have input and speak his mind. That is no problem but Cavs players seemed to look towards James rather than Blatt for related coaching instructions. I go back to Popovich. He has a great working relationship with Tim Duncan. Duncan says what he has to say when it is needed, but when Popovich says something every player following the instructions.

Blatt is not just some nobody coach. He has had plenty of experience with lots of success. Blatt could have been learning from James, but James along with everyone else needed to also learn from Blatt. By the end of last season, some improvement was seen, but not enough.

That is not to say Blatt was unable to get through to players all the time, far from it. However, his lack of response by the players throughout the season did occur more often than I would have liked to have seen.

Blatt needs to be more vocal. He needs to take charge. Yes, James will continue to teach as a player, but Blatt also knows what it takes to succeed. Could Blatt have been seen in James’ eyes similar to Eric Spoelstra when he first became coach? Maybe, but either way Blatt is the coach and James is the player.

Success is going to continue with this team regardless. If he is able to accomplish that success, especially if the team can get on a run early unlike like year, then that media talk of him being replaced will not come up anymore.

I am sure the team has plenty of respect in Blatt. On the other hand, given last year was his first year in the NBA, listening to James and assistant coaches might have been the right thing to do to succeed in certain situations. That however should not be the case going forward.

Blatt and the team’s talented roster reaching the NBA Finals last year. Another year together certainly helps. The only difference at the end of this upcoming season is that instead of just making it to the finals is that Cleveland will end up winning it all!

Next: LeBron James Is Ranked First By SI.com In Players Ranking

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