The NBA’s first coaching change of the season came to pass on Sunday morning as the Cleveland Cavaliers cut ties with Tyronn Lue. When a team fires a coach in the middle of a season there’s always a succession plan in place. Someone, usually one of the assistants, takes over as head coach and hopefully auditions for the role full-time.
It just makes sense: someone has to steer the ship, and it might as well be a respected member of the coaching staff that is still employed by the team. Usually that coach gets the “interim head coach” label and everything is decided at a later date. But that interim head coach is often put in a strange situation if the team decides to go in a different direction with their coach at some point in the future. Some interim coaches, in fact, eventually end up out of a job once the season is over.
This is clearly what Larry Drew is trying to avoid in Cleveland. The Cavaliers want the assistant coach to take over for Lue and coach the team as the 2018 campaign rolls on. But much like the person you met on Tinder and sometimes go to the gym with and hang out in groups but it’s still kind of weird, Drew is being very careful about putting a label on anything just yet. Drew met with reporters at Cavaliers practice on Monday and said he’s not the head coach, but the “voice” of the team.
#Cavs Larry Drew: “I’m not the interim coach. I’m the voice right now. As I’m sure you know, there is no agreement right now.
“Me and my agent have been in talks with organization about restructuring my contract. No decision has been made and I don’t know if one will.”
— Sam Amico (@AmicoHoops) October 29, 2018
That’s the same kind of language that was reported on Sunday after the news of Lue’s firing and Drew’s selection as interim head coach was made. Drew reportedly wants assurances that he’s not just playing out the string here this season while Cleveland looks for another coach. In other words, he wants to know he’s going to be the real head coach, hence him avoiding the “interim” label altogether.
In fact, he won’t even call himself the head coach right now. He’s just using the other teacher’s lesson plan and hopefully it involves putting on a movie.
Larry Drew likens being voice of #Cavs is like being a "substitute teacher."
— Spencer Davies (@SpinDavies) October 29, 2018
It’s an amazingly shrewd way of trying to secure the proverbial bag, but it also, well, isn’t how sports works. Someone has to be in charge, whether there’s a label on it or not. Right now, that’s Drew who is being tasked with running the Cavaliers.
He may want a bit more security in his position, but it might not come at all. Eventually, the real teacher comes back. Drew wants to make sure he has a full-time gig, which is completely fair, but this might not be the way to go about getting one, either.
