{"id":77634,"date":"2024-05-16T06:42:16","date_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=77634"},"modified":"2024-05-16T06:42:16","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T10:42:16","slug":"cavs-head-coach-jb-bickerstaff-hits-hot-seat-after-playoff-elimination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/16\/cavs-head-coach-jb-bickerstaff-hits-hot-seat-after-playoff-elimination\/","title":{"rendered":"Another Head Coach Hits Hot Seat After Playoff Elimination"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Eliminated from the playoffs following their loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cleveland Cavaliers are preparing to clean house. According to ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavs \u201cplan to take time to evaluate (head) coach JB Bickerstaff\u2019s future,\u201d though they\u2019re \u201cfond of him and (the) marketplace is sparse of proven candidates.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ESPN Sources: After an Eastern Conference semifinal loss to Celtics with short-handed lineup, Cavaliers plan to take time to evaluate coach JB Bickerstaff\u2019s future, but organization remains fond of him and marketplace is sparse of proven candidates. There will be a lot of\u2026<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/wojespn\/status\/1790932425842761970?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Bickerstaff, 45, has coached Cleveland since the tail end of the 2019-20 season.<\/p>\n<p>Taking over for former Michigan head coach John Beilein, who is now the Detroit Pistons\u2019 senior player development advisor, Bickerstaff has went 176-170 as head coach. Notably, while winning 47.7 games per season over the last three years, he\u2019s just 6-11 in the playoffs.<\/p>\n<h2>JB Bickerstaff Hits Hot Seat After Playoff Elimination<\/h2>\n<p>Though Wojnarowski paints a rosy picture of the relationship between Bickerstaff and the Cavs\u2019 organization, that may not be completely true.<\/p>\n<p>Bickerstaff\u2019s a respectful and even-keeled motivator and allows his guys to play to their strengths. His father Bernie, a former NBA head coach, is Cleveland\u2019s senior basketball advisor. However, for the past two seasons, Bickerstaff has been rumored to be on the hot seat. Just last week, The Athletic\u2019s Joe Vardon reported that Cleveland <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5483802\/2024\/05\/10\/cavaliers-celtics-game-2-recap-nba-playoffs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">considered parting ways with him<\/a> early in the 2023-24 season.<\/p>\n<p>That said, though Bickerstaff has likely been coaching for his job all season, this isn\u2019t what brings his relationship with the Cavs into question. It\u2019s how he was publicly berated by Cavs president Koby Altman after a mid-December win over the Houston Rockets. In that game, All-Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a> played over 45 minutes (with a usage rate of 29.6 percent).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/athletic\/5497268\/2024\/05\/15\/cavaliers-donovan-mitchell-darius-garland-jb-bickerstaff-future\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Altman was livid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the game, (Altman) walked into the coach\u2019s office and admonished (Bickerstaff) in front of his entire staff for playing Mitchell such heavy minutes,\u201d per Vardon (and Shams Charania) write in a separate piece for The Athletic. \u201cDescriptions of the incident spread across the organization, including the locker room,\u201d they add.<\/p>\n<h3>Koby Altman\u2019s Future in Jeopardy, Too?<\/h3>\n<p>Curiously, Altman \u201cwas unaware at the time\u2026 that the coach had asked Mitchell if he wanted to come out\u2026 and Mitchell declined.\u201d For a typically calm, measured, and peaceful executive, Altman\u2019s behavior seems slightly out of character. That his temper boiled over to the point where he didn\u2019t do his homework on the situation before \u201dscolding\u201d Bickerstaff speaks to both a head coach wearing on his nerves and anxiety about his own future.<\/p>\n<p>Vardon and Charania note that Altman\u2019s behavior was partly due to Cleveland\u2019s desire to sign Mitchell to a contract extension. As of now, that <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/05\/can-lakers-pry-another-star-from-cavs\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">doesn\u2019t seem particularly likely<\/a>. Unfortunately for Altman, he gave up a lot for Mitchell, including five first-round picks. That\u2019s a bit too much for a three season rental that didn\u2019t result in much playoff success. There are several other personnel moves that have questioned, including the decision to trade <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/i\/irvinky01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Kyrie Irving<\/a>; to fire former head coach Ty Lue; and to draft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okorois01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaac Okoro<\/a> fifth overall. Each of those moves altered Cleveland\u2019s destiny and not for the better.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, last offseason, Altman was arrested for driving while impaired and nearly causing an accident. That incident alone isn\u2019t enough to make him lose his job, though it tainted his pristine public image. However, if he\u2019s not performing at level of expectations at work and managed to give the organization a black eye while off the clock, his future with the organization may not be secure either.<\/p>\n<p>Though signed through the 2027-28 season, Cavs owner Dan Gilbert could always choose to move on before then.<\/p>\n<h3>The Writing\u2019s on the Wall<\/h3>\n<p>But back to Bickerstaff, whom \u201cMitchell did not have great confidence in&#8230;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeveral players questioned Bickerstaff\u2019s strategies, game management, practice habits and accountability measures, privately and publicly, throughout the season.\u201d This is a fireable offense in and of itself, as there has to be trust between a coach and players. Indeed, that distrust was a key factor in the firings of Darvin Ham and Frank Vogel.<\/p>\n<p>While he plans to keep showing up until the Cavs tell him not to, the writing may already be on the wall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eliminated from the playoffs following their loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals, the Cleveland Cavaliers are preparing to clean house. According to ESPN\u2019s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavs \u201cplan to take time to evaluate (head) coach JB Bickerstaff\u2019s future,\u201d though they\u2019re \u201cfond of him and (the) marketplace is sparse [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":77636,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1608,62,3],"tags":[900,49128,1185,4557],"class_list":["post-77634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-koby-altman","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=77634"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77634\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}