The Cleveland Cavaliers and head coach Tyronn Lue agreed to a contract extension Monday, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.
Wojnarowski noted the deal is for five years and worth $35 million, and Jason Lloyd of the Akron Beacon Journal confirmed the report.
Lue, 39, led the Cavaliers to a 27-14 record after taking over for the fired David Blatt in January. Cleveland reached the NBA Finals for the second straight season and overcame a 3-1 deficit to the Golden State Warriors to win the first title in franchise history.
“It’s been very tough,” Lue said after Game 7 of the Finals, per Steve Aschburner of NBA.com. “The team was great. They supported me from day one, taking over a tough situation that wasn’t—you can’t see yourself taking over the situation that I took over in, and then also taking over when you’re coaching a LeBron James team—and I knew it was going to be tough.”
While the trio of James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love had had difficulties coexisting on the court—and Blatt never seemed to unlock the formula to maximize the talents of each player—Lue got the Cavs on the same page.
That, more than anything else, was the biggest difference between he and Blatt, though Lue was shocked when the latter was fired.
“I didn’t see it coming,” Lue told Chris Haynes of Cleveland.com in May. “I couldn’t believe it. But, you’re prepared because you’ve done the coaching interviews and you have your philosophies. But to fire the head coach, and you take over the next day with no practice or anything and you have the Chicago Bulls coming in—it was overwhelming.”
Lue also navigated critiques of Irving’s selfishness on the offensive side of the ball and talk about James’ future in Cleveland and whether he would return the next season.
But the Cavs seemed to click in the postseason, rolling to 10 straight wins to start the playoffs before losing Games 3 and 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Toronto Raptors. Two contests later, however, Cleveland was back in the NBA Finals—James’ sixth straight.
And then the Cavs overcame the Warriors, who finished 73-9 in the regular season—the best record in NBA history.
Lue, a former player who averaged 8.5 points and 3.1 assists per game in his career, seems like the right fit for Cleveland.
Courtesy: Bleacher Report
