Cavaliers coach David Blatt, like the rest of his team and its fan base, is trying to keep things in perspective.
While many predicted a learning curve for the revamped Cavs, the inconsistency of their early play - in which they've knocked off quality opponents like the Bulls and Pelicans, but dropped stink-bombs against bottom-feeders like the Nuggets and Knicks - has been jarring.
LeBron James's return to Cleveland has been the season's most pervasive storyline, but Blatt is making a return of his own - albeit a far less heralded one. After living overseas (mainly in Russia and Israel) for 33 years, the coach is slowly getting re-acclimated to both life and basketball in America.
"It's a readjustment to be back, yes, but the biggest change is in me," Blatt told Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski in an interview published Thursday morning. "I see the world differently. I no longer see the world through the eyes of simply an American kid growing up here. I see them through the eyes of a worldly man who has experienced new sets of surroundings and made me look now at the world and the USA that I live in again, in a whole different way."
Perspective is a word that's been frequently associated with the Cavs through their early-season struggles. LeBron has touted the perspective he gained from a similar situation in Miami four years ago, and it's clear Blatt puts a lot of stock in this too, particularly given his varied, far-reaching experience in the world of basketball.
He's been extremely forthright, taking the blame for the ugly Nuggets loss earlier this week, and acknowledging he probably needs to scale back his stars' minutes. He's moving along the same learning curve as his players, trying to apply lessons from his extensive coaching experience in Europe to the nuances of the NBA game.
"Because of the body of work I've already had, I do trust my instincts," Blatt said. "But I do also recognize that to come in and change the entire landscape is neither realistic, nor is it palatable to the people that I'm working with. It's got to be a process. It's got to be something that happens over time; something built on trust, built on belief - and hopefully built on some modicum of success.
"You have to be creatively realistic."
Blatt, with so many tools in his coaching kit, also recognizes the need to keep things relatively simple while trying to get a roster full of new teammates on the same page.
Of what he's learned so far as an NBA head coach, he said: "Less is more in the beginning."
