With Tyronn Lue stepping away from the Cleveland Cavaliers to take care of his health Larry Drew has taken over on an interim basis.
But just because Drew is not the head coach, it doesn’t mean that Tyronn Lue will be completely away from the game and that he won’t have any say in the Cavs’ decision-making.
Drew coached his first full game on Monday night and the Cavs didn’t miss a beat. LeBron James had another triple-double and that led to a 124-117 win over the Milwaukee Bucks. After the game, the interim coach talked about how Lue will still have an important role in the team.
“I’ll talk to Ty,” Drew told Joe Vardon of Cleveland.Com. “We’ll talk about it. He’s got the final say-so. Whatever he wants, then that’s what we’re going to go with. But if he tells me to make a decision, then I’ll have to make a decision. But we’ll talk. We’ll talk probably tonight. If not tonight, probably tomorrow. Once we do get our full squad back, decisions will have to be made and as a a staff we’ll make them.”
One of the next big decision coming up will have to do with the starting lineup. Rodney Hood, Larry Nance Jr, and Tristan Thompson should all return to the lineup soon. All three of those guys could be in the starting lineup, but only one of them will probably be. Drew, however, won’t be the one making the decision.
“Coach Lue is the one who makes that decision,” Drew said. “That’s not my call.”
Larry Drew will continue to make the in-game decisions which are important down the stretch run, but Drew has made it pretty clear that this is Lue’s team and it will continue to be that way.