When Thinking Outside the Box Doesn't Work

 The Cleveland Cavaliers just fired their head coach, David Blatt, who had a career record of 83-40 with the Cavs since the start of last season.  So much for the rewards of thinking outside the box.

 The hire raised eyebrows because most of Blatt’s coaching experience had been in Israel and Russia.  Former NBA guard Tyronn Lue takes over as coach.  All of which leads to the question, was hiring Blatt a mistake?

I say a team is entitled to do whatever it wants in the name of getting better, as long as it’s willing to deal with the consequences.  In 1949, the Yankees hired a relative nobody to take over for manager Bucky Harris, and the new guy, by the name of Casey Stengel, made a name for himself soon enough.  Stengel in turn was let go after the 1960 season.  His replacement, Ralph Houk, managed one of the greatest teams in MLB history to a World Series win the next year and the one after that.

Phil Jackson was another relative nobody, coaching-wise, when he took over the Bulls in 1989; the rest is NBA history.  Then the Bulls went to the nobody-well once too often in picking college coach Tim Floyd to replace Jackson.  Floyd proceeded to go 49-190.  Long story short, it all depends.

If the Cavs made a mistake with Blatt, the Bulls appear to have done the same when they dumped Tom Thibodeau for Iowa State coach—and former NBA guard—Fred Hoiberg.  Thibodeau was a taskmaster who confused games in February with those in May (he never got to June).  So far, Hoiberg has been little more than a guy with a clipboard.  What it comes down to sometimes is two wrongs, inside the box or out, don’t make a right.