LeBron and David Blatt Not Getting Along, Could the Cavs Fire Him?

While sports fans around the country enjoyed the Holidays, watched the Jim Harbaugh saga unfold, devoured NFL playoff scenarios and the draft order, and everyone gambled on exhibition bowl gameswhile bracing for Black Monday … quietly, in the NBA, LeBron James and his rookie coach David Blatt continued to struggle.

After a humbling defeat to lowly Detroit last night, the Cavs fell to 18-12 and can’t get hot. It’s difficult with Kyrie Irving out (knee) and Anderson Varejao done for the season. Here’s how bad it has gotten, according to Brian Windhorst on Sportscenter this morning:

“There’s a growing tension … between the players and coach David Blatt. There’s been a disconnect there that has been increasing. It may be something the organziation has to deal with either giving David Blatt a vote of confidence, or maybe looking at the position again … They have completely abandoned his offensive system. Lebron has taken over point guard without even consulting David Blatt.”

Nobody said it was going to be easy. LeBron’s return home so far has been a rocky one, but they’re only 30 games in all is not lost. Kevin Love, eventually, will start to play defense and make some 3-pointers (33 percent), and perhaps the Cavs will add a rim protector.

Right now, they’re a mess … but still in the East. Are you ready to trust the Raptors or Wizards in a 7-game series against the Cavs yet? I’m not.

I can’t imagine that the Cavs could fire Blatt this early into his first season as NBA head coach … but it should be noted the team did bring him on before LeBron signed with them. LeBron’s birthday is tomorrow, but here’s the good news for the Cavs – football is going to be such a big deal the rest of this week, and next week too, that he’ll probably get a free pass for another two weeks before the media scrutiny begins to heat up.

They say the NBA season begins on Christmas, but with the college football playoff extending all the way to January 12th, perhaps the Cavs have two more weeks to get it together.