Despite What Anonymous Sources Tell You, It's Too Early to Panic Over David Blatt

No one ever leaks good news anonymously. Unnamed sources never have anything nice to say. Not once has an anonymous official in the league office told me I'm having a handsome day. Execs with knowledge of the team's plans never announce a surprise pizza party. Anonymous insiders definitely never report that athletes love their coach so much that they would consider hanging out with him on off-days.

This week, unspecified insiders cropped up in an ESPN report that rookie Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt isn't connecting with his players. The club's management is worried about this. They're not sleeping, they're barely eating.

The Cavs' once and future meal ticket, LeBron James, did not help matters by issuing a lukewarm statement of support on Monday. The internet's host of LeBronologists have already dissected the star's comments on Blatt and deemed them tepid verging on subversive. Even though the Cavs are a solid 18-12 in a thin conference, it's never too soon for neurotic Cleveland fans to worry.

Cleveland's big-league championship drought turned 50 on Saturday. The Cavs celebrated by getting blown out at home by the lowly Pistons on Sunday. Earlier comments from James about the existence of a "chill mode" setting confirmed nervous fretting by some Cavs-watchers that #23 is saving his best for the postseason—if he even has any best left at the advanced old age of 30. But can this wobbly Cleveland team, led by an Euro-league import coach with no NBA crunch-time experience, even expect to chill their way into the playoffs?

Of course they can. The NBA's Eastern Conference is about as competitive as the Puppy Bowl (which, by the way, isn't even filmed live). With Love, Irving, and even chill-mode-addled LeBron in the lineup every day, it would take a reverse miracle to keep the Cavs from securing a playoff bid. While the Cavs don't appear to be buying into Blatt's scheme—or his leadership tactics—just yet, a third of a season into his career is too soon to panic. Even for Cleveland fans. Even Jello has to set in the fridge overnight before it can start jiggling. 30 games isn't even overnight in NBA time. It's a decent nap between lunch and dinner.

The unreasonable expectations can wait until spring. For now, Blatt can take comfort in having three superstars in his lineup, even if they're not always listening to his playcalls. The rookie coach can find additional solace in the fact that the NBA title is consistently awarded in mid-June, not January. For the time being, he's in a 30-way tie for "2015 NBA Titles Won."

Unfortunately for the David Blatts of the world, the unsourced whispers out of Quicken Loans Arena are a symptom of a new brand of frustration that seems to be catching around the sports world. The acceleration of modern life has exacerbated a tendency toward corrective action, really any kind of action, over the actual hard work of building something lasting. Nothing succeeds like success, after all. In the absence of actual victory, angsty owners and GMs turn to promiscuous hiring and firing. You can't botch dismissing an employee—you just hand them a cardboard box and a severance check. Same thing goes for hiring—you just slide the contract across the table. The consequences of who you actually hire or fire are another matter, but that comes later. Hasty personnel moves play well to the cheap seats and the sports pages, even if they pack a skunky aftertaste

Jay Cutler may be done in Chicago one year into a seven-year, 126m contract. Kings owner Vivek Ranadive #disrupted head coach Mike Malone 30 games in to what seemed like a solid season with a young team. In fact, Blatt's boss, mortgage mogul/hair gel collector Dan Gilbert, has fired Mike Brown twice in the past five years, with Byron Scott sandwiched in between. Shooting first and considering who's going to replace the guy you shot later creates more problems than it solves, from a personnel-management standpoint.

Unnamed sources make for good hatchet men, but they can't coach an NBA team.