NBA Rumors: David Blatt to interview with Houston Rockets

Former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt is making his way around the coaching carousel, as he will reportedly interview with the Houston Rockets.

According to Marc Berman of the New York Post, former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt “is expected to be interviewed for the vacancies with the Rockets and the Kings.”

While news of Blatt interviewing for the head coaching job with the New York Knicks and the Sacramento Kings were known, the Houston Rockets are now one of three teams that are in the mix to land the former Cavaliers coach for the 2016-17 NBA season.

Blatt was unjustifiably ousted from his post with Cleveland 41 games into the 2015-16 NBA campaign in favor of his top assistant Tyronn Lue. Blatt won over 67% of his games leading the Cavaliers over the last two seasons and Cleveland did make it to the 2015 NBA Finals where they lost to the eventual champion Golden State Warriors in six games.

Given that Blatt has a short albeit impressive resume as an NBA head coach, he will almost certainly land a head coaching gig for the 2016-17 NBA season. It seems that interim head coach Kurt Rambis is the front-runner to stay on with the Knicks, but the gigs in Sacramento and now in Houston are very much in play for Blatt.

While many have tabbed television analyst and former Rockets/Knicks coach Jeff Van Gundy as the leader to replace interim head coach J.B. Bickerstaff in Houston, Blatt is a worthy candidate for that job.

He still won at an impressive rate for a team that frankly had a myriad of difficult personalities in Cleveland. Houston’s chemistry, or blatant lack there of, would serve as a huge turnoff for perspective coaches.

However, Blatt did show in a year and a half with the Cavaliers organization that he can manage egos of a chaotic NBA locker room and win big in the process. Could Blatt find a new home in Houston with the 2016-17 Rockets? We’ll have to wait and see.

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