Tyronn Lue’s career as an NBA head coach just celebrated its six-month anniversary. Here’s how it has gone:
January 22 – Cavs fire David Blatt, name Lue coach. Their record is 30-11.
April 13 – Regular season ends with the Cavs having gone 27-14 under Lue. They win the Eastern Conference easily.
May 27 – Cavs beat the Raptors in six games, win the Eastern Conference Championship. This outcome was never really in doubt.
June 19 – Lue hoists the O’Brien Trophy after the Cavs come back from down 3-1 to defeat the Warriors in the NBA Finals.
July 25 – The Cavs and Lue agree to a five-year, $35 million extension, according to The Vertical.
Cleveland Cavaliers coach Ty Lue has agreed to a five-year, $35M extension, league sources tell @TheVertical.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) July 25, 2016
Wow this coaching stuff sure is easy!
Seriously, has anyone had an easier go of NBA coaching than Tyronn Lue? He takes over a first-place team with one of the five-best players of all-time plus another perennial All-Star. He gets his bearings during the regular season, saunters through the conference playoffs by trouncing a depleted conference and then watches LeBron James put on a historic show during the NBA Finals. And since you can’t can a title-winning coach, the Cavs inevitably offer him a lucrative extension.
Jokes aside, Lue seems like a promising coach, and obviously he deserves some credit for the Cavs’ title. But you’ve got to imagine someone like Sixers coach Brett Brown is sitting there with that 47-199 record and dreaming of the alternate reality where he got to coach LeBron, win a title and get paid $35 million.
The point is, it’s good to be Tyronn Lue.