NBA News: 1st place Cavs fire Blatt; Rockets trade for Josh Smith


Two NBA moves caught the headlines today. The Cavs fired their head coach David Blatt despite being in 1st place. Blast never really bonded with LeBron and the rest of the Cavs, so this isn't a shocker. Tyronn Lue will take over. Lue you will recall was an assistant under Doc Rivers in Boston. Last year the rumor was that players were going to Lue on the bench for coaching and passing over Blatt. Blatt was gracious in his exit.


Blatt was scheduled to be the NBA All-Star head coach, but now that's obviously not happening. Ironically the top team in the West (and league) will be changing coaches this weekend as Steve Kerr will finally make his season debut. So while Luke Walton and Blatt guided their teams to the top of each conference, neither will be on the sidelines at the All-Star game (Walton could be an assistant though). Pretty sure that has never happened in the NBA.


In other news the Rockets traded the draft rights to a player who will never play in the NBA to the Clippers for former Rocket Josh Smith, the draft rights to a player that will never play in the NBA, and cash. For the Clippers they are looking at this as addition by subtraction. Smith actually played very well for the Rockets last season and could help them. The Rockets considered waiving Smith before finding a team to take on part of his minimum contract. Yeah that's how much they wanted him gone. Smith was of course waived by the Pistons last season as well. Poor Lance Stephenson will have to find another slap box partner.