David Blatt’s star favoritism and inability to call plays after timeouts turned the Cavs against him, per report

A major cause for the Cleveland Cavaliers' firing of head coach David Blatt was the excessive favoritism he showed toward his star players, according to Cleveland.com's Chris Haynes.

Blatt was replaced Friday by assistant head coach Tyronn Lue, who was immediately given a three-year contract extension. Haynes, citing unnamed Cavaliers players and league sources, said that Blatt would call phantom foul calls on his star players during practice. During film sessions early in the 2014-15 season, Blatt would hesitate to criticize his stars for mistakes, forcing Lue to rewind the tape and call out the errors himself, according to Haynes.

Word circulated to cleveland.com that Blatt had trouble drawing up plays out of timeouts. He would freeze up and waste precious seconds, one player said. He would even draw up plays for players who weren't in the game, another player said.

In the closeout game of the Eastern Conference Finals, a game the Cavaliers trounced the Atlanta Hawks by 30 to sweep the series; Blatt had signaled for Tristan Thompson to reenter in the closing minutes with the game already wrapped up. This was when Thompson was the team's most valuable big man with Kevin Love out of commission with a dislocated shoulder.

This season, Cleveland was ready to move on from Blatt shortly following the team's first loss to the Golden State Warriors on Christmas Day. After losing by 29 on the road against the Trail Blazers without Damian Lillard, the Cavaliers nearly fired Blatt, who survived only by winning his next game, according to Haynes.

Cleveland's first game with Tyronn Lue on the sideline will come Saturday against the Chicago Bulls.