* Recap: Rockets 120, Cavaliers 88
How bad is it for the Cleveland Cavaliers? Well, apparently not too bad.
Which means: Nobody’s head is about to roll, at least not yet. Following another embarrassing setback, this time to the Rockets on Saturday, Ty Lue wasn’t being led to the door.
According to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN, the front office and ownership isn’t about to pull the plug on the man who just two years ago stepped in and saved the Cavs’ season and won their only championship. It’s not a surprise that Lue’s name would even invite such speculation, given how the Cavs have fallen among the elite, at least here in the regular season.
It’s quite possible that owner Dan Gilbert is simply biding his time until the playoffs, to see what happens in the important months of April, May and (if they’re still playing) June before deciding if the Cavs are truly broken.
“We are not firing our head coach,” one Cavaliers official told ESPN late Saturday night.
The Cavaliers are planning to continue pursuing deals to improve the floundering team between now and Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, league sources said.
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Lue has expressed frustration with the team, describing the Cavaliers to ESPN’s Lisa Salters at halftime of Saturday’s loss as “soft, weak, no physicality, no toughness, no grit.”
Cleveland has lost All-Star forward Kevin Love for two months with a fractured left hand, is failing to defend and is fighting internal disconnects as it tries to restore itself to Eastern Conference championship contention.
Lue was promoted to head coach halfway through the 2015-16 NBA season and led the Cavaliers to an NBA Finals victory over Golden State. The Cavaliers lost in the Finals to the Warriors last season.
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