CLEVELAND, Ohio -- No NBA coach has ever been fired with a 30-11 mid-season record, especially after his team went to the NBA Finals the previous season.

But the Cavs did just that when they replaced David Blatt with Tyronn Lue, who had been Blatt's top assistant.

David Griffin took over as the Cavs' interim general manager on Feb. 6, 2014. The interim tag was dropped at the end of the 2013-14 regular season. Most of his moves have been well received by fans and the local media.

Only the firing of Blatt has been strongly questioned.

"David really didn't do anything inherently wrong," said Griffin. "It just wasn't the right fit."

Griffin is careful not to say anything negative about Blatt, who was hired in the summer of 2014 before LeBron James announced his return. Blatt came from the Euroleague, where he coached Maccabi Tel Aviv and the Russian National Team. He was the first NBA head coach who had never played in the NBA, been a U.S. college coach or assistant or an assistant NBA coach. In other words, all his coaching background was overseas.

That was a hard sell to the players, who simply didn't know him.

In interviews with Blatt and Griffin a year ago, both said Blatt was hired to coach a younger team where there would be some patience. The return of James changed all that.

WHY FIRE BLATT?

The question will hang over the Cavs, at least until the end of the playoffs.

Other than making some general comments about the spirit of the team and "accountability," Griffin has little to say about the coaching change. He doesn't want to be critical of Blatt. Nor does he want to leave the impression that the players were the sole reason for switching to Lue.

"We (the players) are radically more engaged with each other," said Griffin. "You can see it on an night-in, night-out basis just by watching the bench during games."

Griffin did not discuss this. but it was obvious James received very favorable treatment from Blatt, who often was reluctant to challenge his star. That created problems because other players thought even by NBA star standards, James was given too much leeway.

Furthermore, when James pushed some teammates to be accountable, they would wonder why he wasn't being held to same standards, such as getting on defense, etc.

"The first thing Ty did was hold LeBron accountable," said Griffin. "That was true with other players, too. It began in his first film session as coach."

It's clear the brass had doubts about Blatt with this team and the pressure to win now with James. If the Cavs had kept Blatt and failed to win a title, the question would linger, "Would it have been different with Lue?"

The Cavs also knew some of the players (not just James) had doubts about Blatt. Firing him took away that excuse. It also put the players in a position where they needed to embrace Lue.

After all, the players wanted the former NBA point guard and Doc Rivers assistant as their head coach.

A TOUGH SPOT

Blatt's supporters will mention the team had a 30-11 record under Europe's most decorated coach. They were 27-14 after Lue took over.

"I told everyone that things were likely to get worse before they got better after the change," said Griffin. "I know the (coaching) change was somewhat unprecedented. We were going to make some significant changes, and it was going to take Ty a while to get his feet on the ground."

The Cavs played the fourth-easiest schedule in the NBA during the first 41 games. It was the 10th hardest in the second 41, the period that Lue coached. James only missed one game in the first 41. He sat out five after Lue took over, as he was rested for the playoffs.

"At one point, we had 23 games in 41 days," said Griffin. "When Ty took over, we were changing offensive and defensive schemes and there were periods where we had absolutely no practice days. We put him in a very tough spot."

The 38-year-old Lue played 11 years in the NBA. He had been an assistant since 2009.

"Ty has the respect of having done it as a player in the league," said Griffin. "He also was the kind of player that was about everything he's asking his players to be about. Ty is a man's man. He absolutely doesn't let anything slip."

WILL THE CHANGE WORK?

One of Lue's short-term goals was to coax a faster pace. That didn't quite happen. But the offense made a major change, scoring 14.1 points more per 100 possessions. On his watch, it's at 114.1 points per 100 possessions -- that's an elite level.

"What we ended up doing was radically improving our offense," said Griffin. "Given the weapons we have, we didn't think we were playing up to our expectations on offense (prior to the coaching change)."

Griffin admitted the Cavs "took a step back defensively" after the change.

"Ty's speciality is defense." said Griffin. "When he was our defensive coordinator, defense was the strongest part of our team. When he stepped into the [head coach] role and wanted to do things differently on offense, our defense slipped.

"In the playoffs, there is time between games for Ty to handle the defensive preparation like last year."

Griffin's point is the regular season was "a no-win for Ty. But he doesn't worry about that. For us to be good come playoff time, he had to make some painful changes. His goal is not to look like a great coach. His goal is not to sell slogans on T-shirts. He's trying to get people to play the right way, and he has a knack for that."