Blatt has come under fire as Cavaliers have struggled recently…
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Cleveland Cavaliers general manager David Griffin has dismissed speculation over David Blatt’s future and insisted that his job as coach is safe.
Griffin has insisted that the first-year coach is not going anywhere despite speculation to the contrary, with suggestions that a rift has developed.
“This narrative of our coaching situation is truly ridiculous,” Griffin told reporters on Sunday. “It’s a non-story, it’s a non-narrative. Coach Blatt is our coach, he’s going to remain our coach. Do not write that as a vote of confidence. He never needed one. It was never a question. So don’t write it that way.”
League sources had told ESPN last week that there was growing concern within the organisation that Blatt was struggling to reach the players and get his ideas across while stamping his authority down on the team.
It was evident in a heavy loss to the Detroit Pistons last Sunday that there were issues with Blatt himself conceding that “we lost our energy and we lost our competitiveness”.
However, despite falling to 19-15 for the season after their loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, Griffin was adamant that Blatt would remain the franchise’s coach moving forward.
“It’s such a ridiculous assertion. It seemed giving life to it is what would happen by talking about it so I didn’t want to do that,” Griffin said. “At the same time it’s just time for everybody to get on with it. We have a chance to galvanize ourselves and grow and move in a positive direction so I want to make sure we’re doing that in a fresh environment.”
LeBron James remains sidelined for the next two weeks, Kyrie Irving picked up a back injury on Sunday while Anderson Varejao has been ruled out for the rest of the season.
Both Kevin Love and Shawn Marion have both struggled with niggles as the Cavs continue to be inconsistent, but Griffin said that the team is actively working the phones and doing everything that they can to improve the team as they now have a $5.2m trade exception and a $4.9m disabled player exception.
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