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With the trade deadline coming, changes are probably going to be made by the Cavaliers. Those changes, however, won’t be happening at head coach.
Per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, head coach Tyronn Lue’s job is safe even as the Cavs have lost 12 of their last 18 games:
Story filed to ESPN: Despite losing 12 of 18 games – including a 120-88 loss to Houston – Cleveland coach Ty Lue’s job is safe. “We are not firing our head coach,” one Cavaliers official told ESPN. Cavs will keep working to improve team prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) February 4, 2018
There are reasons to critique Lue and he isn’t blameless in the Cavs’ many, many struggles. But with how far Cleveland is in the season, it’s also unclear what firing Lue now would accomplish. It’s not as if any of the Cavs’ assistants are beloved ex-head coaches or would implement anything dramatically different than the Cavs are doing now. And hiring a new coach altogether — say, ex-Grizzlies head coach and ex-Heat assistant David Fizdale — sounds great, it’s a complicated in-season endeavor.
Maybe Lue gets his walking papers in the summer. But for right now, he’s the Cavs’ head coach and that won’t change even if the roster is overhauled this week.