Ex-UH star Handy out as Cavs’ player development, assistant

Change is good. That’s the philosophy Phil Handy takes with him after five seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers as director of player development and an assistant for the NBA team.

“Yes, it’s time for a change for me,” the former University of Hawaii combo guard told the Star-Advertiser in a text on Monday. “Been a great run in Cleveland. On to the next.”

Handy’s contract and that of assistant Jim Boylan were not going to be renewed, as first reported by the Bleacher Report on Monday. Handy said he was “planning to leave, but it was somewhat of a mutual thing.”

“I’m working on a few things,” Handy, 46, texted. “A few teams are interested.

“I am also working on a camp for this summer on the Big Island.”

Handy, a junior on Hawaii’s 1994 NCAA Tournament team, played two seasons for the Rainbow Warriors (1993-95) and had a brief professional career, mostly overseas, before finding his niche training players at the college and pro levels. In 2011, he was hired by the Los Angeles Lakers as a player development coach, a position he took with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2013.

The ride with the Cavaliers included the 2016 NBA title as well as the disappointments of the past two seasons when Cleveland lost to the Golden State Warriors in the Finals. Handy had a well-documented argument on the bench with Cavs star LeBron James this January during the second quarter of a game at Toronto.

Handy and Boylan are gone. So, too, is big-man coach Vitaly Potapenko, who joined the Memphis Grizzlies’ staff last week.