Tag Archives: JB Bickerstaff

JB Bickerstaff overlooked in coach rankings

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Is JB Bickerstaff one of the best coaches in the league? Not necessarily. Then again barely cracking the Top 20 seems to be a bit disrespectful, but that is where he appeared in a recent list ranking NBA head coaches.

Checking in at number 19 is Bickerstaff. This does seem quite low when comparing last season’s success combined with the talent gap between Cleveland and those teams who made deeper playoff runs. When it comes to evaluating the ability of a coach, it should be those who can get more with less that should be favored higher.

Is JB Bickerstaff without his faults? No, but this applies to most, if not all coaches. Some of those are just general shortcomings in the way he approaches the game. Others come from areas of weakness on the roster that were hopefully addressed this past offseason.

The Cavs are a team on the rise and the tutelage of Bickerstaff is a big reason for it. Cleveland should be able to take another step forward this season and join the group of contending teams. The players believe in him. The front office clearly believes in him. Now is the time to put everything together and show the rest of the league that this team has truly arrived.

What do the Cavaliers have right now? It’s unknown

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Figuring out exactly what the Cleveland Cavaliers are is not easy and attempting to assess exactly what they have is near impossible.

Attempting to define the Cleveland Cavaliers right now is difficult. What exactly are they? Are they a team that is as bad as their record is or were their early season struggles a direct result of their former coach? The team parted ways with John Beilein and eventually hired JB Bickerstaff as their new head coach. The Cavaliers appeared to be a better team with Bickerstaff, but it is not as simple as their record.

Judging the team based off their 5-6 record under JB Bickerstaff is not only foolish, it’s irresponsible. There is more to it than what the surface suggests. Cleveland’s opponents during the 11 games with Bickerstaff as their head coach were either missing key players or sub-par overall.

Collin Sexton saw a sharp uptick in performance under Bickerstaff which is very encouraging. Although a good portion of those games were without his regular backcourt partner Darius Garland. Garland missed some time due to injury and the team looked to be a bit more competent with the experienced Matthew Dellavedova stepping in on an as needed basis. Delly helped keep the ball moving and his teammates engaged. Something that was almost non-existent during the John Beilein era. Ideally Garland would have been able to come into the lineup and duplicate something resembling Delly’s efforts when he was supposed to return.

What does the Cavaliers roster consist of?

The team is imperfect in regards to construction and the team is built in two halves. Veterans and inexperience. The veterans include the likes of Kevin Love, Andre Drummond, Larry Nance Jr., Delly, and Tristan Thompson. Although it is worth mentioning that Thompson will be a free agent and is expected to depart in free agency. The young guys include Collin Sexton, Darius Garland, Kevin Porter Jr., and Dylan Windler. There are also a handful of players who are just there. Cedi Osman and Dante Exum to be exact. Their presence should not impact the future of the team in either way.

It’s about putting together a longterm plan and with how the roster is currently constructed it is quite difficult.

What are the Cavaliers supposed to do? They have an unknown when it comes to Andre Drummond and his team option. Drummond’s decision will likely impact what Kevin Love wants as they represented by the same agency. They could be with or without both to start next season, whenever that is. Then there is the backcourt. Are they going to give the combo of Sexton and Garland another go? Will they move one of them to the bench? Will one of them be traded? These are the questions they need to ask themselves during this idle time. Cleveland needs to identify a direction and head towards it. With their current roster they are pulling in two different directions, tanking and attempting to win, (however it is worth mentioning that their efforts in the latter have been quite lackluster).

What should they do? Build around Kevin Porter Jr.

Kevin Porter Jr. has shown that he has the most promise out of any of the young Cavaliers on the roster currently. When it comes to building around one player and evaluating their future, Kevin Porter Jr. should be who they build around. Find players who compliment Porter and are able to work with his playing style. If they are able to do that they might be able to get back on the right track and shake the woes of the second post-LeBron era.

John Beilein out as Cavs coach

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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.