Ex-Cavs center Haywood: Blatt was 'very hesitant to challenge LeBron'

There wasn't much precedent for David Blatt's firing on Friday, given that his Cleveland Cavaliers were defending conference champs and pacing the East with a 30-11 record.

But according to veteran center Brendan Haywood, who played for the Cavs last season before being dealt in the summer to open up a trade exception, the issues with Blatt went well beyond what showed up in the win-loss column.

"From what I was hearing, David Blatt kind of lost the team," Haywood told Sirius XM's NBA Today channel, according to NBA.com's Steve Aschburner. "Then there were differences about what guys should be playing and what guys weren't playing, from a management-coaching standpoint.

"When you throw in those type of things combined with the fact that Tyronn Lue already had a lot of power in the organization, had a lot of traction, and a lot of people that were there already viewed him as the coach, these type of things happen."

Haywood's account corroborates reports from last season that Lue had surreptitiously supplanted Blatt as the Cavs' nominal decision-maker on the bench. The more pertinent issue, though, appeared to be Blatt's locker-room presence, which Haywood described as overly meek and deferential.

"Coach Blatt was very hesitant to challenge LeBron James," Haywood said. "It was one of those situations where, being a rookie coach, and LeBron being bigger than life, it was a little too much for him. I remember we had James Jones (talk) to Coach about how, 'Hey, you can't just skip over when LeBron James makes a mistake in the film room.' Because we all see it. ...

"That's when … as a player, you start to lose respect for a coach."

Haywood didn't stop there, either. He was also critical of Blatt's understanding of basic x's and o's.

"David Blatt can't come to a huddle and draw up a play that would get us a good shot," Haywood said. "David Blatt doesn't understand sometimes substitution patterns.

"The mistake he made against the Bulls when he didn't have the ball in LeBron's hands at the end of the game … There were obvious mistakes he was making, and you start to see it as a player, where 'We're going to have to win this on our own, because he can't do for us what Gregg Popovich can do for the Spurs.'"

In fairness to Blatt, not many coaches can do for their teams what Popovich does for the Spurs. But the broader picture Haywood paints doesn't depict a man who inspired much confidence in his troops. Whether Lue will be able to steady the ship is anyone's best guess, but Haywood feels the move will pay dividends.

"As a guy who was there last year," he said, "I think Tyronn Lue will do a better job."