Tyronn Lue led Cleveland Cavaliers to three consecutive NBA Finals and one title, but that wasn’t enough for him to keep his job after 0-6 start in the 2018/19 season. Looking back to Cavs’ decision now, Lue thinks that the organization made a mistake.
Lue, who currently serves on Doc Rivers’ staff with Los Angeles Clippers, recently had a sit down with The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and said that he thinks he shouldn’t have been fired by the Cavaliers.
“I don’t think it should’ve happened” said Lue. “When it happened, I just kind of — it puts everything in perspective. You don’t see that very often where a coach goes to three straight finals and wins a championship and gets fired six games into (the season). You probably have never seen it.”
Lue wishes he was still at the helm of Cavaliers, thinking he and general manager Koby Altman could have done a good job in Cleveland despite the departure of LeBron James.
“What I tried to build there, I think the culture I tried to set. I thought we could do it together. Koby (Altman) being a young GM, me being a young coach, having young players,” he added.
Reportedly, one of the reasons for Tyronn Lue’s exit was his wish to field a competitive team after James’ exit. The management, on the other side, wanted Lue to focus more on the future and give younger players a chance. This eventually caused the disagreement between two sides, and Lue ended up being fired.
Lue took the year off after finishing his stint with Cleveland and entered the running for the Los Angeles Lakers’ job this offseason. He ended up deciding to turn the offer, as the organization wanted to give him only a three-year deal while forcing him to take Jason Kidd as one of his assistants.
