The Cleveland Cavaliers hired David Blatt in late June of 2014 before the free agency of LeBron James in which he chose to return to the franchise that drafted him.

David Griffin was asked whether they would have approached their coaching search differently had they known James would return to the Cavaliers.

"100 percent, sure," said Griffin.

"We didn't believe for a second LeBron was coming back at that point. We really believed he was going to take at least a year and figure out whether or not we could start to build in a positive direction."

Many of the coaches the Cavaliers had interest in questioned whether the 

"I certainly thought LeBron, being the absolute savant of basketball savants, was going to take his time and watch us from afar and try to decide whether or not he could trust our process. We were really blessed in the sense that he chose to buy-in right away, but I think it certainly changed the dynamic in a way where if we had foreseen it was that legitimate he was coming back, we certainly would have done something different at that particular juncture."

The Cavaliers fired Blatt and promoted Tyronn Lue in January of the 15-16 season.