David Blatt receives offer from Cavs

The Cleveland Cavaliers have officially offered Israeli-American David Blatt the opportunity to fill their vacant head coaching job. The team has done their due diligence and have met with the 55-year-old Blatt several times. If he accepts, David will be the first European-based coach to be at the helm of an NBA team. It came as a surprise some, considering he has had no experience in the league and that he would jump straight into a head coaching position from the get-go. Blatt brings a fat resumé filled with many successful years coaching European teams from Israel, Russia, Italy, Greece and Turkey. He recently piloted Maccabi Tel-Aviv (Israel-Winner League) to an amazing Turkish Airlines Euroleague championship in 2013-14. He also led the Russian national team to a bronze-medal finish at the 2012 Olympics.

Demand for his services rose in recent days as the Cavs narrowed down their search to Blatt and Los Angeles Clippers assistant coach Tyronn Lue. The Golden State Warriors expressed strong interest in Blatt to come in as an assistant to newly hired coach Steve Kerr. Blatt is known for using a Princeton-style offense with his teams.

The Cavaliers have been in their rebuilding period far too long for owner Dan Gilbert’s liking. He wants his team to make leaps and bounds as far as their competitiveness is concerned. Cleveland has missed making the NBA playoffs for the last four seasons.