It is now official. John Beilein is no longer the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Beilein is walking away from a five-year deal to coach the Cavs.
Rumblings of this move began not too long ago. Early Tuesday the expectation was that Beilein would move on and the team would be on their fourth coach in less than a calendar year.
Assistant head coach JB Bickerstaff will replace Beilein as the head coach of the Cavaliers. This is the third time that Bickerstaff is replacing a departed head coach and this is the second consecutive season Cleveland finds themselves in this situation. At least this time the replacement seems interested in doing so. Larry Drew did not find this prospect all that appealing just one season ago.
The plan from the beginning in Cleveland was for JB Bickerstaff was to succeed John Beilein. Nobody expected it to be in the middle of year one.
The succession plan aspect of this situation is interesting. Cleveland was already preparing for his exit before his time as a coach even began. This is not exactly being set up for success is it?
John Beilein had shortest tenure of any coach who began the season as the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers (54 games). The only coaches who lasted fewer games were interim/replacement coaches.
Things just didn’t seem to be a good fit with John Beilein. Not everything was his fault. The Cavs are sort of directionless and that did make his job any easier. Add in older players who didn’t want to cooperate with what he was trying to do and there was no chance he would succeed here.
