Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt was named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month April 1, though some would argue that LeBron James deserves some of those votes.
Both Blatt and James acknowledged that LeBron calls plays on the floor, and the coach doesn’t sound too threatened by James’ autonomy and intelligence.
LeBron did the same thing during his four seasons in Miami, according to former Heat teammate Dwyane Wade.
Per the NEOMG and The News-Herald and :
When the media entered the practice facility on Wednesday, James was seen introducing Blatt and the coaching staff to a couple of new plays he suggested they consider implementing. […] The coaches were spread out on the court and James was directing them in where the ball should move. Blatt along with assistants Tyronn Lue, Jim Boylan, Larry Drew and Phil Handy were paying close attention.
“It’s just a feel I have for the game,” James said. “I know what helps our team and we’ve got great minds. Our coaching staff is great. I thank them that they allow me to give some input on what I think we should do at times, but, ultimately, it’s their call. So, it’s great to be able to just get different sides of the game with some of the great minds that we have.” […] “If I see something, I have the right to call plays,” he said. “Kyrie (Irving) does as well. We kind of do that play-calling. Coach Blatt does the play-calling, obviously, throughout the game in timeouts. But it’s great to be able to have some type of freedom out there with Kyrie to be able to call sets that we feel best suit our team.”
Blatt said having James call some plays is not out of the ordinary. […] “I don’t think that’s peculiar,” he said. “When the game is going on and you are in the heat of the battle, at times you can’t get a message through or you don’t want to stop the flow so a guy may (make a call). We have a package that we’re going to use going in and, at times, according to the flow of the game, somebody may call out a play. I don’t think that’s unusual, certainly if you know what you’re doing and we have a plan going in. That’s, obviously, not an all-the-time case, but it’s going to happen during the course of a game, sure.”
