When the Cleveland Cavaliers take the floor Friday night, they will have a new coach in J. B. Bickerstaff.
This is will be the third time the soon to be 41 year old has taken over a team in the middle of a season. He took over for Kevin McHale in Houston during the 2015-16 season, guiding the Rockets to a 37-34 record.
He also assumed the reins in Memphis from David Fizdale in 2017-18 and coached through last season, going 48-97 with the Grizzlies.
Here, he takes over what appears to be a mess. And we say that including the front office, John Beilein’s relationship with the roster, and the players themselves.
Let’s start with the front office. Koby Altman was the first GM to receive a second contract under owner Dan Gilbert, but since LeBron James departed via free agency after the franchise’s fourth consecutive Eastern Conference title, the Cavs have a 33-103 record.
Yes, the wine and gold are rebuilding, but they haven’t stripped the roster bare either. Kevin Love, Tristan Thompson, and Larry Nance Jr. all received a lot of minutes on that 2017-18 team, and they are still here.
So is Cedi Osman, who was considered a youngster with talent on that squad.
However, has Altman put his thumbprint on this organization? It seems here like he is collecting talent, which on the surface would appear to be a good thing, but basketball is a different sport. Collecting talent isn’t everything, collecting complementary talent makes for a winning team.
Getting Andre Drummond for pretty much nothing is a good move. But it seems to clash with the team’s leading scorer, Collin Sexton.
Shouldn’t the current roster be playing inside out, with Drummond and Kevin Love getting the ball around the paint and the guards playing off them when they are double teamed? That doesn’t seem like Sexton’s strong point.
We would guess Bickerstaff has a better relationship with the players than Beilein, because they didn’t seem to like the former college coach, and the assistant would typically be the guy the players complain to about the head guy.
But now Bickerstaff is the boss, and he is setting up the rotations and controlling the playing time. Because of his previous experience, maybe he will grab the players’ attention, and get them to buy in to the way he wants the game played.
The players aren’t immune from criticism either. It’s one thing to complain about a coach trying to teach when you are winning, but when you are losing 3/4ths of the time you take the floor, perhaps you should listen.
We have said this before, but two former players who do Cavs’ telecasts, Austin Carr and Brad Daugherty, use this word all the time…accountability. It is lack among this roster and we fear nothing will improve with the Cavaliers until there is some.
And that goes for the young guys and the veterans. Perhaps this was lost when the coaching staff didn’t hold the newbies to an NBA standard from day one. We don’t know that, but it has to be enforced by both the coaches and the veterans starting now.
The defenders say Cleveland is only a year and a half into the post-LeBron era, so the struggles are understandable.
Our problem is we don’t see a lot of progress in performance particularly in the basics of the game. You can play the right way and lose or play the wrong way and lose. We prefer the former.
The next era starts Friday. Hopefully, the internal strife is behind this organization and they can start to pull in the same direction.
MW
Cleveland Sports Perspective 