Prior to being hired by the Cleveland Cavaliers last season, Tyronn Lue was widely recognized as one of the top up and comers in the NBA’s coaching circle. This year, he finally got his chance when he was tasked to take over David Blatt’s 30-11 team halfway through the season.
Instantly thrust into the fire, Lue finished the regular season with a 27-14 head coaching record as he transitioned into implementing his uptempo offense on a team that appeared to have lost some spark. The rookie coach piloted his men to the East’s top spot, but this came without much fanfare as the Cavs, with their talent, were expected to be in that position.
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However, after Cleveland’s first round sweep of the Detroit Pistons, Tyronn Lue has definitely earned his spurs. Not only did he outcoach the veteran Stan Van Gundy, but he also held his own amidst the words that were thrown at them by their opponents.
In Jason Lloyd’s recent article for Cleveland.com, Cleveland’s bench tactician received some words of approval from two of his veteran players.
LeBron James, who was very vocal about his adherence to his coach from day one, sang praises for Lue.
We definitely recognize it and understand that it’s his first challenge and he succeeded as well as any coach could or if he were a player as any player could in their first series. He physically, mentally and spiritually prepared us every single night and gave us a game plan along with the coaching staff. If we could execute that as close to 100 percent, then we had a good chance to win every game, which we did, because of the preparation of those guys starting with Coach Lue, our captain.
He’s just very composed. He’s very sure of his knowledge of the game and what needs to be done for our team to be successful. I just think it’s great to have him standing up over there because he’s very even keeled. He knows what he wants from us, he demands it. For the players, we just have to go out there and demand it from each other as well.
Meanwhile, J.R. Smith observed some finer details on how Lue went about with business.
His hands don’t shake when it’s time coming down the stretch to draw something up. That’s big.
He’s very calm in the huddles, he knows what he’s doing, he looks everybody in the eye and tells them what we need to do and we respond to him. In my eyes he’s doing a helluva job.
Looks like coach Tyronn Lue has prepared his team well for this stage. But everyone knows it’s only going to get tougher from here. The good thing is that it appears that Lue already has his players’ trust, which means we can also say with utmost confidence, “In Lue we trust.”