CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With his health in order -- thanks to some improvements to his lifestyle, eating habits and an important leave of absence at the end of last year's regular season -- plus a new emphasis on player development, the Cleveland Cavaliers will be getting a "revitalized version" of head coach Tyronn Lue, according to former GM David Griffin.

"Seeing him be on the court again in sweats, on the floor and working with guards and we have been able to see that now in terms of the Instagram and all those things, T-Lue is going to be the best version of himself he's ever been," Griffin said during the Wine and Gold Talk podcast. "When you have that in the form of a guy who is that good out of timeouts yeah I think you can be a six, seven or eight seed and a really difficult out (in the playoffs). If you're a six it's not a given that three beats you."

Since taking over as head coach in 2016, Lue has compiled a sterling 128-77 record in the regular season, good for the third-best winning percentage in franchise history. He was also at the center of Cleveland's historic come-from-behind series win in the 2016 NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

"There isn't a championship without him," Griffin said.

And yet, despite those impressive numbers, Lue hasn't been able to escape the criticism. Some of it comes with the territory of leading a LeBron James team. He gets an abundance of credit and very little blame.

But the detractors had specific issues they seemed to target.

Sometimes it was about his rotations and lineup combinations. Other times it was about his demeanor. Mostly, it was about the team's shoddy defense.

How could a coach with a defensive background look so helpless in a quest to fix one of the worst units in the league?

According to Griffin, who hired Lue as the highest-paid assistant coach prior to the 2014-15 season and then appointed Lue to the big chair after firing David Blatt midway through the 2015-16 season, the defensive woes weren't all on Lue.

"It's hard to scheme a lack of effort," Griffin said. "And they got lack of effort from a whole bunch of people, but I think what was important for Ty and this was always the case with us, when Ty takes over the defense, which is what he does in the playoffs, he turns the water off of whatever the best weapon is that the opponent has an that's because he's so good at taking away what you do best. We're going to beat you because he has enough time to prepare. There's a reason Toronto had to change as radically as they did and a big part of it is Ty Lue. He completely took away the two greatest weapons they had. That's all Ty Lue. That's his genius.

"So the same person they are faulting for the faulty defense in the regular season is the guy whose magic makes it possible to get stops in the playoffs. When he takes over the defense things change radically. I think moving forward Ty is going to have to learn from that and moving forward he's going to have to understand just as you are now intimately involved with the guards on the floor, this defense has to be yours again and if it's not going to be his they could struggle again."

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You can also download the interview here.

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