Given the job security in Cleveland these days, it’s hard to blame Larry Drew. After firing Tyronn Lue on Sunday, the Cavaliers claim they named Drew the interim head coach — only Drew doesn’t seem to agree. “I am not the interim coach, I’m the voice right now,” Drew told reporters on Monday. “I’m sure you guys are aware that there is some talks that are going on. I don’t know if any type of agreement or settlement will be made. I am prepared either way. I’ll continue to do my job.” The hang-up stems from Drew wanting security from the front office before he accepts the new role. The LeBron James-less Cavaliers are 0-6, just lost Kevin Love to injury and seem to be headed for full rebuilding mode. “I would like to be a part of it long term, to be perfectly honest,” the 60-year-old Drew said. “Rebuilding is not an easy thing to do. It’s usually something that takes a little time. If it’s going to take some time, I’d like to be a part of it. I made the organization pretty aware of that. It’s not going to happen overnight, but I’m committed to helping out and doing what it takes to be a part of that. In order to be a part of that, I feel that it’s going to have to be something done with a little more security.” Drew, who compared his current role to being a substitute teacher, previously had stepped in for Lue last season when he took time off to address his health. The former point guard also has been a head coach for the Hawks (128-102) and Bucks (15-67). “We’re relying on him right now, and his experience his right now, to push this thing forward,” GM Koby Altman said Monday. At least according to the Cavs, Drew is currently the second-longest tenured head coach in Cleveland. Nearly 24 hours after the Cavs canned Lue, the Browns fired Hue Jackson. Terry Francona, meanwhile, is doing just fine with the Indians.<doc-sep>It took only six games into the Cavaliers’ first season without LeBron James for ownership to wipe their hands of the coach who co-piloted Cleveland to its last three NBA Finals berths. Following an 0-6 start to the 2018-19 season, head coach Ty Lue has been fired. The Cavs also fired Cavs assistant Damon Jones, a LeBron confidant, and promoted Larry Drew to interim head coach. The 41-year-old Lue joined the Cavs as a highly priced assistant in 2014 and was elevated to the head position after the firing of David Blatt midway through the 2015-16 season. The Cavs went on to improbably beat the Warriors in the Finals that season under Lue’s watch, then lost to Golden State the following two Finals. In many ways, Lue represented LeBron’s power within the franchise—LeBron and Blatt never connected, but Lue was thought of as LeBron’s guy. His departure after a winless start to the season is an even bigger testament to LeBron’s impact on a team. With LeBron, the Cavs made the Finals even with a defense as bad as the Sacramento Kings. Without him, they are not even a playoff team. In six games, the Cavs have looked abysmal. They have a bottom-10 offense and have the second-worst defense in the NBA. When I talked to Cavs’ players and coaches at summer league, it appeared they were motivated by wanting to play a faster style of basketball this season. But as the league zooms by, Cleveland is playing at the sixth-slowest pace. The Cavs are a team split by generational regimes. Rookie Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and Larry Nance Jr. are young pieces that point toward the future. Lue, however, was distinctly of the LeBron era. So are Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, and J.R. Smith—the veterans that are supposed to help Cleveland compete in a weak Eastern Conference. So much for that. The old-guard players do have value, though, and it feels like the natural step after showing Lue the door is for the Cavs to punt on this season and get as much value in return for their players that could help actual playoff teams. Maybe I’m underestimating Dan Gilbert, but firing Lue and making Drew interim head coach will almost certainly not spark the Cavs into turning it around. It’s time for the fire sale. Love is averaging 19 points a game so far this season—tied for his highest since his final season in Minnesota—and 13.5 rebounds. On this team, those are the emptiest of stats. On a contender, he’d be a godsend. Plenty of teams could use Love, and you get the sense a change of scenery would do him well. His shooting has been subpar to start the season (32 percent from the field, 29 percent from 3) and he’s missed two games with left foot soreness. The latest reports are that the Cavs are considering a longer period of rest for his lingering foot injury, and if healthy, Love could still help a team in need of offense (ahem, OKC) as a stretch 4 or small-ball 5. This is still a five-time All-Star we’re talking about, and one who was even willing to change his entire game to fit around a star player. Love signed a four-year, $120 million extension this summer, which seemed like a sign the Cavs didn’t want to blow it up and rebuild. Now they should trade him as soon as they can to allow him to flourish on a contender. Love just turned 30; it’s about time we get his renaissance going elsewhere. Love is the best player left on this team, but the rest of the roster is also full of players that may not pop off the page, but that teams love taking a chance on. The Jeff Greens of the world, if you will. There will be a team that talks itself into trading for J.R. Smith, or George Hill’s veteran presence, and there will definitely be a bidder for 37-year-old Kyle Korver’s sharpshooting. (Hello, Lakers?) Kover and Smith are playing just 15 and 12 minutes a game this season anyway. By dealing their vets, the Cavs can give all the minutes they can to their young players. This doesn’t have to happen right away. The season is young and there will be plenty of injuries or expectations that go awry around the league. It will make teams look elsewhere for ways in which they can improve, and the Cavaliers will be a perfect vessel for that. That is, if they’re willing. At this point, trying to win with Drew as coach and a team full of players that don’t fit with each other would be malpractice. It would stunt the growth of Osman and Sexton, and it would do nothing but make the players that want out of dodge disgruntled. There’s nothing left to do for Gilbert and Cavs general manager Koby Altman but to completely move on from the LeBron regime. Lue is the first step. The second step is being realistic and investing in the future by accruing future draft picks and taking a chance on young players. Life with LeBron may have been difficult for the Cavs, but as the old Cavs saw and the Heat can tell you now, nothing is tougher than trying to figure out life without him. The window to win left when he did, and now Cleveland has to make the best out of what it has left.<doc-sep>Larry Drew wouldn’t mind the opportunity to rebuild the Cleveland Cavaliers. (Getty Images) When the Cleveland Cavaliers announced the firing of head coach Tyronn Lue on Sunday, the team’s statement said, “Larry Drew has been named interim head coach.” Except, when Drew faced the media for the first time in what was supposed to be his new role on Monday, he denied accepting the job. Drew instead described himself as “the voice” of the team or “a substitute teacher” in charge of a roster without a coach, all of which was a message to Cleveland’s front office that he is not interested in the interim title. In essence, if they want Drew to fill Lue’s job, his contract needs to reflect that. “I’m not the interim coach,” Drew told reporters at Monday’s practice. “I’m the voice right now. I’m sure you guys are aware that there are some talks that are going on. I don’t know if any type of agreement or settlement will be made. I am prepared either way. I’ll continue to do my job, but right now there has not been any type of agreement. … “We’ve been in contact with the organization about some type of restructuring of my contract. No agreement has been made, no settlement has been made, no decision has been made. As far as I know, yesterday I was getting all these texts about being named interim, and I’m saying that has not happened, but talks went on all day yesterday, they went on this morning, and no type of settlement or agreement has been made, and I don’t know if one will be made to be perfectly honest.” Drew’s entire conversation with the media was posted on the team’s official website above this caption: “Cavaliers Interim Head Coach Larry Drew spoke with the media following Monday’s practice.” You knew the Cavaliers were a dysfunctional franchise, but firing the coach who led the organization to its only NBA championship, only to name a guy who hasn’t even accepted the job yet as his replacement — and then sending him out in front of the media to openly discuss the awkward negotiations between the two sides during an actual practice? That’s a whole new level of chaos. Story continues Why is Larry Drew playing hardball with this job? It’s not difficult to understand Drew’s perspective. After 18 years as an assistant, he received his first head coaching job with the Hawks in 2010, leading them to three straight playoff appearances, before being fired in favor of Mike Budenholzer. Drew served as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks the following season, before Jason Kidd successfully lobbied behind his back to take his job in 2014. It’s hard to land an NBA head coaching job, and while it may seem worthwhile to some to accept that role, even if it is in the short-term, the near-impossible task of assuming the reins from the person who hired you as an assistant begs to differ — to say nothing of the token nature of the interim tag. Drew wants to be Cleveland’s coach ‘long-term’ Drew did clarify that he would like to be a part of Cleveland’s rebuild for the “long-term,” so long as it comes with “a little bit more security,” and the Cavs have yet to match his level of commitment. In the meantime, he will run practice, lead film sessions and coach Tuesday’s game against Atlanta “until we find out what happens.” Drew said he has not set a deadline as to when a commitment must be made. “If things don’t work out with me,” he told reporters, “I hope things can be resolved sooner than later.” It’s stunning to see how quickly the Cavs have devolved from a title team in 2016 to a franchise in full teardown mode two years later, even considering LeBron James left in free agency. The trade that sent Kyrie Irving to the Boston Celtics proved an absolute death knell for the franchise’s prospects of competing without James, yielding nothing of value, save for the potential promise of rookie point guard Collin Sexton. That Drew might be willing to steer the franchise in this state should be welcome news to the Cavaliers. Any coach tasked with cleaning up this mess deserves to be paid handsomely, and good luck finding a more qualified candidate willing to walk through Cleveland’s revolving door. Cavaliers GM Koby Altman isn’t fully endorsing Drew Also speaking with the media on Monday was Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman, whose comments were not exactly a ringing endorsement of Drew beyond this short-term commitment. “We just didn’t think coach Lue was the right fit for this group, so we wanted to go in a different direction,” Altman said from practice, expressing frustration with the team’s performance and Lue’s inability to mesh the team’s veteran players with young talent. “We wanted a different approach and a different voice. Right now, Larry Drew is going to be the voice for now for this team, but right now it was my job to right the ship and push us in the right direction, so we had to make the decision.” Asked why Drew was a better fit than Lue now, Altman added, “That’s going to unfold, but I do know how I feel about Larry. We’re very, very fortunate to have him in the program, because he’s been in the NBA for such a long time and he’s accomplished a lot. He’s been in a myriad of situations as a head coach and an assistant, winning programs, losing programs, he’s done a lot of different things for us and in this league, so we’re relying on him and his experience right now to push this thing forward.” Pressed on whether or not Drew was indeed the team’s interim coach, Altman said, “Right now, we’re working through it with him and his representation.<doc-sep>Pat Forde, Yahoo! Sports: "Everyone says they want ‘Bama, but most of them don’t really want ‘Bama. Well, here comes a team that means it. Fourth-ranked LSU gets its shot at the No. 1 Crimson Tide on Saturday night in Death Valley — your basic Game of the Year in college football. For the Tigers, this is the latest chance to end an unusual run of suffering at the hands of Alabama; the Tide has won seven straight over LSU, longest run since Bear Bryant beat the Tigers 11 straight times from 1971-81. For Ed Orgeron, this is the opportunity for coaching validation and to finally become the LSU hero he dreamed of being as a kid. LSU-Alabama has, by any objective measure, been the most significant rivalry in college football since Nick Saban got to Tuscaloosa in 2007. This will be the 12th straight meeting in which the winning team will be ranked in the top five, which might be unprecedented in the history of the sport. Ohio State-Michigan, Texas-Oklahoma, Auburn-Alabama and USC-Notre Dame have never had such a streak. Now here is the question: Can LSU not just hang with ‘Bama, but actually beat ‘Bama? Nobody has done either this season — the Tide’s closest margin of victory has been 22 points. Quarterback Tua Tagovailoa hasn’t even played in a fourth quarter yet."<doc-sep>
The Cleveland Cavaliers made a bold move on Sunday morning, firing head coach Tyronn Lue after the team's 0-6 start. It was not only the Cavs' worst start in 20-plus years, but also the worst start in NBA history for a team coming off a Finals appearance. Still, it seems like strange timing, and players on the team are reportedly "pissed" about the decision. If that wasn't enough, there's now more drama surrounding the decision. According to multiple reports, Larry Drew, the team's choice to become interim head coach, has reservations about taking on the role without a long-term commitment. Now, nearly 72 hours after Lue's firing, the Cavs and Drew are still locked in a strange stalemate over the interim coaching role. Drew coached the team in their first win of the season Tuesday night over the Hawks, but has not officially taken on the role of interim head coach, as he waits for further commitments from the team. Via ESPN: The Cavs told Drew they might bring in a new head coach from the outside, but the team has not yet been aggressive in hiring one, sources said. Drew, who is one of the league's highest paid assistants at nearly $1 million this season, is seeking an adjustment to his contract that would guarantee him additional money in return for assuming the interim job. His deal is up in July. "There are no updates, which I'm very disappointed about," Drew said Tuesday. "I'm going to be professional and I'm going to do my job. It's been close to 72 hours." This is an interesting situation, because both sides have a point. It's understandable that Drew wouldn't want to take over as interim head coach -- a move that will likely lead to his firing at the end of the season -- without getting extra money or a longer term extension. But for the Cavs, it's hard to commit to Drew long-term without seeing what he does with the roster, especially considering that Drew hasn't exactly been a successful head coach in his previous stops. Most disappointing about this, though, is that it's just another moment of unnecessary drama and dysfunction in Cleveland. No one -- from ownership, to the front office, to the coaching staff and the players -- seems to be on the same page there. And while they obviously need to find a lot of talent, solving the chemistry issues throughout the organization is the first issue they need to figure out.