The Detroit News' Eric Lacy caught up with Byron Scott's agent, and his comments about Tom Izzo and the Cavs job were very interesting.
"Byron is deeply appreciative of being considered for the Cleveland Cavaliers' position," McInerney said Saturday. "He has great respect for Coach Izzo and realizes what a difficult decision this must be for Coach Izzo and his family. Whatever decision Coach Izzo makes will be a good one.
"Any other information should be released through the Cavaliers organization."
On the surface, these comments imply that Izzo has an offer and is the one with a decision to make, which has been the assumption throughout all of this. Some have speculated that Izzo does not have an offer, though, which could explain why we have yet to hear about a decision -- because there isn't one to make. If that were the case, then Izzo may be waiting for an offer, but obviously he can't say anything as negotiations continue to progress.
The comments from Scott's agent do suggest an offer has been made to Izzo, but that was all that was said. Scott's agent wouldn't clarify the comments nor expand on them.
I suppose another inference that could be made from the comments is that Scott is not interested in taking the Cavs job. As mentioned in the article, many think he would be interested in taking the Lakers job should Phil Jackson decide not to return. By saying that Scott "is deeply appreciative of being considered for the Cleveland Cavaliers' position" and wishing Izzo luck with his decision, one could easily get the impression that Scott isn't involved in this situation directly anymore.
Whatever these comments truly mean, one thing that seems to be clear is that the Cavaliers are preparing backup plans. Assuming Izzo does have an offer, the Cavs are still waiting to hear what his decision is but are taking the necessary steps to ensure they are ready to move on to other candidates if he decides to stay at MSU. That was evident when Scott entered the picture earlier this week, and now here are a couple more names that may be in the mix:
Sources say #Cavs have talked to fmr Hawks coach Mike Woodson this week. Also Cavs have interest in talking to LAL asst. Brian Shaw.
It's tough to speculate just because there are so many different pieces to this story, but if I had to guess, I would say that Izzo does have an offer and the Cavaliers are just waiting to hear one way or another before moving forward. That's not exactly going out on a very big limb, but I would be pretty surprised if Izzo didn't have an offer after spending nine hours in Cleveland on Thursday and remaining silent for the most part throughout all of this.