Browns Sign Kicker Shayne Graham
April 15, 2013
While We’re Waiting… Sports, please distract us
April 16, 2013Multiple sourced reports are circulating on Tuesday which state that the Cleveland Cavaliers are expected to part ways with head coach Byron Scott following the conclusion of the 2012-12 NBA season.
Joe Kotoch of Pro Basketball Draft tweeted late Monday that the erosion of the second half of the Cavaliers’ season will lead to the end of Scott’s tenure with the team despite having one more year on his contract.
Expect Byron Scott to be fired shortly after regular season conclusion based on conversations w/ several Cavs sources.
— Joe Kotoch Real Estate (@luxuryagentchi) April 16, 2013
This is corroborated by a report which was published later in the evening in by NBA analyst Sam Amico which stated, while the Cavaliers would not comment, Scott is about to be fired.
Scott is en route to his third-consecutive lottery-bound season. While injuries and youth have played a role, the Cavaliers hae seemingly regressed since the month of February when they were .500. Shoddy defense and several losses that included 20–point leads have resulted in heavy scrutiny being placed on the head coach. Following Monday night’s loss to the Miami Heat, Scott said that he is operating under the premise that he will be back for the 2013-14 season.
“I am going to be back to coach them next year,” said Scott. “I’ve got a year left on my contract, that’s how I figure it, unless I’m told differently. But that’s the way I approach that.”
When asked how he felt, All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving gave Scott his vote.
“Absolutely,” Irving said. “I do want coach Scott back.”
If Scott were to be fired, Dan Gilbert and the Cavaliers would have to find a replacement amidst several other vacancies that are expected to be among the coaching ranks in the NBA.
[Related: The Best Laid Plans and Fan Loyalty for the Indians and Cavaliers]
70 Comments
While I don’t see any way Byron Scott could win with this roster, I also can’t see a positive defense of Scott. Take the injuries aside, what has Scott done to show us he’s done a good job coaching this team?
Same here.
Thank god we don’t have to worry if the new coach will run a 3-4 or 4-3
Byron Scott is better than any other coach the Cavs could go after right now if they were to fire him. I can’t blame him for giving up huge leads in the 4th quarter. You can’t expect your bench players to play starter minutes night in and night out. Cavs need their starters to stay healthy so the bench players can come in when needed to fill roles and give starters the rest they need to finish out the game. Hopefully in a 4th season, his young team will now have the experience to make notable strides should they stay healthy. Gilbert and Grant would make a huge mistake not letting Scott’s contract play out.
MSkog has it exactly right. Sure the roster wasn’t all that talented and the players that have talent are very young. And yes, the team battled injuries all year (though, it could be argued that almost every NBA team has to deal with significant injuries at one point in the season). Scott has shown me nothing that indicates he can take this team to the next level. He’s taken virtually no responsibility for the lack of effort this team consistently shows and while he talks all the time about playing better defense, he’s shown no ability to inspire his players to do it. Are the Cavs failures Scott’s 100% Scott’s fault? Absolutely not. In fact, I think you could argue that they’re not even 50% his fault. But if Scott’s not part of the solution, then he’s part of the problem. There may not be a better head coaching candidate available on paper at this point for the Cavs, but that doesn’t mean you hold on to Scott either.
Have putrid couple of seasons. Fire coach. Hope and pray high draft pick gets you somewhere. Wash. Rinse. Repeat. It’s the Cleveland way.
Who is out there better at this point? We aren’t getting Phil Jackson here, and even if we did he doesn’t instantly make this young roster more experienced.
Byron got a raw deal here. He seemed to coach like a parent of young children…let the kids make their mistakes and they should learn from them. I like the idea personally, but if the kids DON’T learn from the mistakes then his way of coaching doesn’t look very good and he will be let go.
This may be stupid because I know nothing of his coaching style, I only ask because he recently became available – what about Doug Collins?
That just seems to be how the NBA is these days, only 8 other coaches have been with their current team longer than Scott.
Maybe Tito can coach them in the offseason?
if we hire Beilein, then will he bring the 1-3-1 zone?
I’m not sure this is true. Scott may be the biggest name available but he is almost certainly not the hungriest or hardest working. We should be cautious in conflating the two.
if Gilbert/Grant believe Scott has lost the team or is not the right guy or the team needs a new voice, then he’s gone. It’s as simple as that.
1. Helped turn Tristan Thompson into a significant threat on both ends of the floor.
2. For a while, had Irving-Varejao be Cleveland’s Stockton-Malone duo. That wasn’t something Andy had been known for doing previously.
3. Making Luke Walton useful.
4. His players certainly seem to support him. And not in a Romeo Crennel kind of way.
If it makes a difference, exactly one NBA coach demonstrably helps his team: Popovich, and we can’t get him.
If the coach isn’t coaching well, if he has left no imprint or personality on the team and the players are clearly tuned out and playing without effort, I don’t buy the “name me a better coach or keep him” argument.
It’s not up to fans to know and name better alternatives. That’s Grant’s job. And he may have correctly determined that keeping Scott in this toxic atmosphere (see Kyrie’s post-game comments about his “injury”) is the worst of all possible options, even if he doesn’t get SVG or a well-known coach.
yes, exactly.
Erik Spoelstra was considered a bad HC at first, but he may have just helped reinvent NBA offenses (all of the Big-3 have given him full credit for divising their weakside kickout offense that has NBA defenses baffled – yes, it helps having those guys and shooters to do it).
Scotty Brooks coached as an assistant for 9years before landing the OKC HC job (and was a relative unknown).
Greg Popovich coached for 23 years as a relative unknown before getting his chance at the Spurs HC job. And, he only got that HC job after he fired his coach and appointed himself to the position (he had gotten the GM job).
There are unknown coaches out there who can help our team. It is up to Chris Grant and the FO to find them.
We don’t know that Tristan’s development would have been different with any coach, given his touted potential coming out of the draft. Andy played off LeBron’s passes for years; he’s been moving without the ball and giving effort long before Byron got here.
With few exceptions, the players have quit. And they quit for long stretches last year as well. In no sport can a coach last long when the players tune out. That’s toxic. That cost Lenny Wilkins his job and, unlike Byron, he was a fine teacher with much more talent.
classic cleveland. what do they expect with a new coach and that roster? i’m going for 10 wins. i think grant needs to be fired. he builds the roster. you can’t win if you don’t have talent. hell. i’m impressed scott got over 20 wins.
Lol
I believe Collins hasn’t lasted longer than 3 or 4 years with a team. That’s not what this team needs.
you have a link to the video of Kyrie’s post game comment (or could you sum it up)?
Just curious as to what he said.
http://www.cleveland.com/cavs/index.ssf/2013/04/miami_bench_beats_cleveland_ca.html#incart_river
who is better than John Cooper? I mean, he cannot beat Michigan or win big bowl games, but we are in the top10 every single year, dominating recruiting and have a ton of players in the NFL. we may wind up hiring some relative unknown D-1AA guy.
we better just keep this Cooper guy.
#1999’d
I am almost completely soured on Scott not because of the losses, but because of the way the losses happen.
I do think he could probably do some really good things with a Year 2 Dion, but another year of super crappy basketball is almost guaranteed with another year of Scott.
And, if LeBron is the goal (which I think it probably is) you need to at least make the 8th seed next season. And frankly, barring a season ending injury to Kyrie, this team should be able to do that.
But that’s usually what we get! Sign him up!
Doc Rivers is offended that you didn’t remember how terrible everyone thought he was as a coach before he won the title with the original “Big 3”.
I still think he’s a bad coach though. And, he doesn’t win that title without Tom Thibodeau.
Much respect to Dougy, but he’s kind of old, clearly tired, and negotiating his way out of his current failed gig in Philly. Wouldn’t even consider him unless he had a year off for R & R and was back to his kinetic self. My guess is that Grant will not go for anyone over 50.
How did you come to the conclusion that Chris Grant is doing a bad job and that the roster is the problem? Isn’t it pretty much a conceded fact that Kyrie Irving is a perennial All-Star and that both Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters had strong 2nd and 1st seasons, respectively? I think most people think that the move to get Speights and Ellington plus a 1st round draft pick for Jon Leuer’s carcass was genius, and the move to bring in Livingston was fantastic. I guess I don’t know what you think Chris Grant should have done differently.
There’s much truth to this.
Do the Cavs have a superstar in their video department they can hire?
I hope they fire him because he would be hired as the 3rd new coach for the Lakers…
And the 2nd former Cavs coach!
Whomever the next coach is im gonna just bash him for the next three seasons, so when he gets fired i can say i told you so. The cavs will make a huge mistake by not letting him finish his contract out. I really feel that no other coach could have done much better then what he has done with this team this year
I think this is a pretty solid argument. Waiters also improved drastically as he started to listen to what Scott wanted him to do. I’m not as anti-Byron as many. I would be okay with him staying as long as he hires an assistant who can actually teach the young guys to play defense.
The maintenance crew talks about a chubby dude who’s there when they open up and when they lock up. Lifts his feet without taking his eyes off the laptop while they pick up the fast food wrappers and vacuum. Grunts coach speak and cliches when he speaks at all.
Mangini. Eric Mangini.
I would give this more upticks if I could. Bravo!
Brian Shaw anyone?
Byron Scott is not the issue, experience is.
It takes time to grow but just like we want to fire a lot of browns coaches until the owner took his team to another city and then won 3 championships (while how to silence the side line coaches) Do you remember, or do everyone remember all of the other players who have left Cleveland to play for other teams and became stars. It’s not the coaches is the players but, again it’s not the players it’s the FANs, who always want to fuss at every turn and the players are responding to us and playing to that level. Meaning they are rejecting our comments and showing it on the playing field.
STOP COMPLAINING.
FIRE THE COACH AND BECOME A FOOL. We tried this before and look what it got us nothing it’s like a never ending circle.
are you saying that we would have won a championship if we kept Paul Silas?
So you’re saying its b/c of the fans he may get fired? Hahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahahhaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahahahahhahahahahhahahahahahhahahahahahahhahahahahahahahaahahaha
Assumed the reference was to Randy Wittman.
LGPony brings a valid point. But if most of your foundation players are already here and the coach has lost them, even a competent coach, he’s good as gone. Especially if there’s no love from the young superstar. Ask Paul Westhead.
Hmmm….. What about Mark Price? Wouldn’t that be a great story to see in Cleveland? Isn’t he an assistant coach somewhere?
While we’ve all be frustrated this season, the more i think about it the harder it becomes to lay it all on Byron Scott. After all, if it becomes
clear to the players that the organization sees value in losing, does
their disinterest and or lack of improvement reflect on the coach or a management that has rolled the dice on being less than competitive on purpose? It’s also easy to forget the optimism we probably all felt when the team was play .500 ball and looking good.
I agree that there are a number of unknown coaches available to help the Cavs, but I wonder how much time will be given to him to improve this team before the fans run him out of the city, if the Cavs decide to hire a new coach?
Exactly. Hire the next Brown/Thibodeau. I’ll throw David Joerger’s name into the ring. Memphis has been solidly improving, their defense has become elite, and he’s a guy open to the advances in analytics around the game.
Mike Brown possible come back?
In the NBA its win or be fired pretty plan and simple! Injuries this season probably cost Cleveland a shot at the 8th seed! Reality check though another strong draft pick and all the guys coming back! Cleveland has a shot a really moving forward next season! I am not the GM and my opinion really doesn’t count but I would give Byron one more year with the talent he will have and see what happens! Either way if Grant makes the right draft pick and they do want to lure Lebron back what a better way than a decent roster and Lebron having voice over whom the next coach would be!
Any coach who cares about the defensive end of the floor demonstrably helps this team. The improvement in three years there is almost nonexistent.
Mr. Gilbert, go get BOTH Van Gundy brothers.
Popovich is insulted having these others listed with him especially Spoelstra. I’ll be curious to see how well Spoelstra does when/if he doesn’t have the best player in the NBA not to mention either Wade or Bosh. Maybe that won’t happen though and he can be like Pat Riley and Phil Jackson and coach teams loaded with superstars his entire career.