PARIS (George Eddy's International Show) - When I see David Blatt's face on the sidelines this season, he looks like he bears the weight of the world on his shoulders.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have been up and down so far but they have won three in a row and look like they are ready to start playing some defense which is the key according to Blatt. He feels the pressure probably because he remembers what happened to his predecessor, Mike Brown, in 2012 when the Los Angeles Lakers fired him rapidly after a bad start despite his four-year contract!

David needs to relax and smile a little bit so his players will feel confident around him. He needs to rediscover his legendary sense of humor with the media. He's over-coaching which is a typical rookie mistake in the NBA and he's playing LeBron James way too many minutes to try and reassure himself and his team.

Sitting next to him is Tyrone Lue who was passed over for the head coaching job but who is definitely a possible solution for the club if things turn really sour as he is the highest paid assistant coach in the league and many experts think he has head coach potential.

What other things can Blatt do to help the situation besides looking less stressed out in front of all those TV cameras? He already knows that he's got to ride LeBron's wave because he is the best player in the game and a future all-time great who is a proven winner and the last few games the ball has been in his hands a lot, which is generally a good place for it to be!

On the other hand, Blatt has to rein in Kyrie Irving and especially Dion Waiters, two players who fought an ego battle last season for top dog status and this cost Cleveland a lot of wins and Brown his job.

I feel more confident that Irving can adapt whereas Waiters reminds me of Lance Stephenson last season who had an overblown opinion of his own status and level.  Dion is shooting whenever he touches the ball in an almost ridiculously suicidal way while shooting 37 percent overall from the field and 26 percent from three-point land up to now. Blatt uses him as a gunner with the second unit but when he's a starter alongside James, Irving and Kevin Love, there are just too many shoot-first finishers on the floor at the same time!

Love is another case in point because his career so far has been alot of big-time stats on a Minnesota Timberwolves team with small-time results! He will become a great stretch four to open up the driving lanes for his teammates and he's already the Cavs' best rebounder. I feel he fits in quite well with Anderson Varejao, a true glue player shooting 61 percent, who hangs around the basket and does the dirty work like defense, setting picks and hitting the boards.

Blatt is right that the key will be to create some solidarity among all these new parts through tough team defense which creates togetherness and easy baskets which makes EVERYBODY happy.

So far, teams like the Toronto Raptors and Chicago Bulls are much more advanced whereas Cleveland is a work in progress but remember what Kareem Abdul- Jabbar said to the rookie Magic Johnson after a game-winning shot in his first NBA game. Magic was jumping for joy and Kareem said, "Hey, calm down we've got 81 more regular season games to play".

Yes, the NBA season is a long marathon and nothing is decided in the first month, so once the Cavs move up the standings and start defending with some true consistency, Blatt will be able to sit back and take a deep breath.

He'll be able to forget that one NBA coach already anonymously sniped at his so-called "simplistic" European offensive systems which to me is a bunch of uncourageous hogwash!

The NBA coaching community is very self-centered and corporatist but thank goodness some open-mindeness exists with the likes of Gregg Popovich who was replaced for a couple of games (both wins) by Ettore Messina, his Italian top assistant, while Pop was recovering from minor surgery.

Messina as interim head coach of the Spurs was an historic moment and the highly-international San Antonio Spurs are back on track after an iffy start. In any case, november has been an interesting month for the NBA's Euro coaches!

George Eddy

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