The Cleveland Cavaliers have solved at least one of the issues permeating within their franchise. Late on Monday afternoon, the team reportedly came to an agreement with Larry Drew that will make him head coach for the rest of this season, along with a partial guarantee for next season.
Drew will be the head coach for rest of this season and has an agreement for 2019-20 if Cavs choose to keep him — or will get a buyout payment should team decide to move on to a new coach, sources said. https://t.co/Jseeh7U20U
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) November 5, 2018
Drew was the associate head coach on Ty Lue's staff, and had been coaching the team since Lue's firing just over a week ago. However, while he was acting as coach, he was not officially head coach due to his reluctance to take on the interim head coach role.
Knowing what usually happens to interim head coaches, Drew was seeking additional guarantees from the Cavaliers in terms of money and the length of his contract in order to accept the role as head coach for the rest of the season. It was a strange stalemate, though each side had a point.
Drew didn't want to take on all the extra work and responsibilities of coaching a bad team just to be fired at the end of the season, but the Cavs didn't want to give any longterm guarantees given Drew's resume as a head coach. In the end, this agreement seems fair.
The Cavs will still likely move on from Drew at the end of the season, but he'll get some extra money in the deal.
