INDEPENDENCE — Cavaliers coach Mike Brown has not been fired — yet.
A day after his team was eliminated by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals, owner Dan Gilbert said Friday at Cleveland Clinic Courts that a decision on Brown’s future, as well as that of general manager Danny Ferry, will be made in a week to 10 days.
“We are going to take a long, deep hard look at every key position in this franchise and make an evaluation,” Gilbert said. “It’s not going to be a long time. In a week to 10 days, we’ll have our evaluation done.”
Gilbert then added, “I don’t think it’s a secret head coaching will be one of the things we’ll be evaluating.”
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Brown, who is 272-138 in the regular season and 42-29 in the playoffs in five years as head coach, has one year left on his contract. It will pay him $3.5 million.
As for Ferry, who is earning approximately $2 million this season in the final year of his deal, Gilbert said, “The ownership team is going to look at every single piece of this organization, as we would do every year, and make an evaluation and judgment.”
Gilbert was asked several times about the importance of re-signing superstar LeBron James, who is expected to opt out of the final year of his contract and become a free agent on July 1, and said he hasn’t “really thought about” what it might be like without the two-time league MVP.
“As great as LeBron James is, we don’t sit around and say, ‘How can we make him happy, how can we make any player happy?’” Gilbert said. “What we do is strategize and think of how we can make this team better.”
Gilbert added that posting a great regular-season record — the Cavaliers had the best mark in the league the last two years — is not nearly as important as building a team that can succeed in the playoffs.
“Having the best regular-season record two years in a row, it’s just not as relevant and confidence-building,” he said. “It is important? Sure, it’s important. You’d like to have home-court advantage, but it doesn’t guarantee success in any way.
“The playoffs are very, very different,” Gilbert added. “We’re going to figure out what that exact difference is and try to build our team (for that).”
The owner, who spoke for a little more than 20 minutes, talked most about the disappointment he felt for Cleveland fans.
“I thought about the kids in Cleveland, Ohio, waking up today and having to be disappointed,” he said. “I’m sorry for them. This isn’t about money, it’s about delivering to the fans.”
Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4061 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com.
