INDEPENDENCE: He used the “big lineup” successfully in February, the “shooterpalooza lineup,” as one beat writer dubbed it, with good results in Sunday’s closeout victory in Toronto.
He began practicing defensive sets for the playoffs in November.
If the Cavaliers’ Tyronn Lue was coaching Ohio State instead of the defending NBA champions, he’d start working on plays for Michigan in training camp, as has been the tradition in Columbus for years.
Lue turned 40 last week. He’s been at the helm for 16 months. But he’s already proved he has a cool, unflappable temperament, a strategic mind for the game and the ability to get along with all types of personalities.
He said he prays for J.R. Smith’s premature daughter every night. He’s a hugger, genuinely instigating the gesture. But despite his softer side, he’s gained his players’ respect, which leads one to believe he can be tough behind closed doors.
“He’s very advanced, and that’s why he’s been successful,” Richard Jefferson said Thursday. “He’s still only a second-year coach, so he’s going to get far better. But he really has all the tools that you need to be one of the great coaches, not just in basketball, but also in sports.”
While I appreciate Jefferson’s 16 years in the league, I’m not ready to make that pronouncement. But Lue’s penchant for thinking outside the box seems to be the perfect match for a student of the game like LeBron James, for a team with the Big Three, for a group with eight players over 30. Lue seems to have the right blend of humanity and acuity.
Eye on the future
With a week off as the Cavs awaited their opponent in next week’s Eastern Conference finals, Lue drilled the Cavs on sets needed for both the Washington Wizards and the Boston Celtics, who squared off in Game 6 of the semifinals Friday night. The Cavs might be relieved; Lue admitted recently that his players got tired of practicing things in the regular season that they never used in games.
He said he wanted to do the same when he was an assistant under Doc Rivers for three seasons, two with the Celtics, one with the Los Angeles Clippers.
“He wouldn’t let me,” Lue said of Rivers.
But when Lue joined the Cavs in June 2014 as an assistant under coach David Blatt, Lue instigated his plan.
“We’ve done it the last three years, just working on things we knew we were going to have to use in the playoffs,” he said. “If you go back the last three years, things we did in the regular season, everything we did in the playoffs was totally different.”
All coaches save things for the postseason, hold back rotations or plays because they don’t want to show their hand. Even now, when a question could lead to a possible strategic tip, Lue answers, “Just happy to be here.”
But Lue could be a trendsetter when it comes to how early he starts and how committed he is to such preparation.
“There’s only three or four things you want to take away from a team,” Lue said before the Cavs finished their sweep of the Raptors in Toronto. “We just try to work on those things throughout the course of a season knowing each round and each team is different. It’s just something I like to do and I’ve always tried to do throughout my time being defensive coordinator.”
‘Shooterpalooza’
When it comes to rotations, Lue’s imagination also seemingly knows no bounds. On Sunday, his “shooterpalooza lineup” of LeBron James, Deron Williams, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love and Kyle Korver helped the Cavs expand a three-point second-quarter lead to 12 at halftime.
“We haven’t really played with that lineup a lot, but we all know what it’s capable of,” Korver said afterward. “I think surrounding Kyrie and ’Bron with shooters and have them attack and make plays, if they collapse, we’re all going to be there. It’s a hard unit to help off of. As long as we’re getting stops and rebounds, it’s a really good group.”
In that vein, Lue seems to rely on instincts honed during his 11 years as an NBA point guard. He has not hesitated to experiment, even in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
“I don’t know, you just watch film and you study and when it’s time to try it, you try it. If it works you look like a genius, and if it doesn’t, you get criticized,” he said after Game 4 against the Raptors. “We had to go small at times to try and match up with those guys. We went big at times. Just trying to play cat-and-mouse and trying to feel out what works.”
Lue’s cat-and-mouse approach, his ability to pull out a new inbounds play or defensive set at the perfect time, has helped him compile a 78-45 record in the regular season and a 24-5 record in the playoffs.
Yet the only award he’s won was Eastern Conference coach of the month last November. Coaching James doesn’t bring personal glory, only team glory, as the Cavs try to defend their title.
“He’s very confident in his ability. We trust him,” Jefferson said. “It doesn’t mean everything’s perfect. But he doesn’t care about anything other than winning. Every coach can say that, but in this situation we all believe him. There’s no grudges. We just want to win, and it shows in the playoffs.”
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Cavs blog at www.ohio.com/cavs. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.