David Blatt must be enjoying his first year as an NBA head coach. The Cleveland Cavaliers head coach studied English literature at Princeton, so he’s no stranger to drama. And Cleveland is where the play’s the thing these days. First LeBron James decides to come to Cleveland, then All-Star Kevin Love joins him. Then Blatt starts getting drunk in the morning with Johnny Manziel–wait, no, that’s not right. But after today’s big trade Blatt must feel like Manziel does some mornings. It’s disorienting, this whirlwind Cavaliers’ activity. Disappointed by a tepid start, the Cavs have done the junior version of blowing things up–dumping Dion Waiters and acquiring J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks.
Shumpert is a defensive specialist with great athleticism–he’ll complement LeBron’s stingy defense, especially against teams with two strong perimeter scorers. Smith is another story. A wildly gifted scorer who can fill it from anywhere, Smith will be looking all over the place for shots. But he’s going to have to look under the team bus some nights, because the Cavaliers already have guys like Kevin Love wondering where all their touches went. (Look, Kyrie Irving’s got them, as he should?) Blatt, who coached in Israel under a slightly different set of rules, may petition the league to see if the Cavs can play certain games with two balls at once on the offensive end. Blatt should maybe have majored in Chemistry.
