Blatt: LeBron calling Cavs' plays not unusual
-
Dave McMenamin, ESPN.comClose
- Cavs and NBA writer for ESPN.com
- Covered the Lakers and NBA for ESPNLosAngeles.com from 2009-14 and the NBA for NBA.com from 2005-09
- Syracuse University graduate
- 0 Shares
INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — LeBron James says he has “freedom” to call plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers during the course of a game, and coach David Blatt says that the superstar dictating the action is business as usual.
“I don’t think that’s peculiar,” Blatt said after Cavs practice Wednesday. “When the game is going on and you are in the heat of the battle at times, you can’t get a message through or you don’t want to stop the flow, so a guy may [call the play on his own].
“We have sets that we know what we’re going to use going in. You know, we have a package that we’re going to use going in and at times, according to the flow of the game, somebody may call out a play. I don’t think that’s unusual.”
James and Blatt were responding to questions about the Cavs’ offensive play calling, a topic that gained attention Wednesday following a recent ESPN podcast that featured commentary on their player-coach relationship in Cleveland.
Speaking on “The B.S. Report with Bill Simmons” on Tuesday, ESPN’s Brian Windhorst discussed James’ increasingly prominent role in the Cavaliers’ play calling this season, saying that the four-time MVP regularly calls plays before Blatt relays the call to the rest of the team.
James has been open about the influence he has over the Cavs’ offense this season. Back in December, he shifted from his more traditional small forward position to point guard for a spell and said, “I can do it on my own. … I’m past those days where I have to ask,” explaining that he didn’t consult Blatt about the change.
James elaborated on his leeway to call plays Wednesday.
“Well, we have a package,” James said. “If I see something, I have the right to call plays. Kyrie [Irving] does as well. We kind of do that play calling. Coach Blatt does the play calling obviously throughout the game in timeouts, but it’s great to be able to have some type of freedom out there with Kyrie to be able to call sets that we feel best suit our team.”
This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service – if this is your content and you’re reading it on someone else’s site, please read the FAQ at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php#publishers.