{"id":78570,"date":"2024-05-23T11:37:40","date_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:37:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=78570"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:37:40","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T15:37:40","slug":"cavs-make-decision-head-coach-jb-bickerstaff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/23\/cavs-make-decision-head-coach-jb-bickerstaff\/","title":{"rendered":"Cavs Make Decision On Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers have parted ways with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff after he spent four-plus seasons with the famous franchise, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania. Bickerstaff, 45, went 170-159 with the Cavs in the regular season. Securing back-to-back playoff berths the last two years, Cleveland was 6-11 with Bickerstaff at the helm.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">The Cleveland Cavaliers parted ways with head coach JB Bickerstaff, sources tell <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TheAthletic?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@TheAthletic<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Stadium?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@Stadium<\/a>. Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson and Pelicans associate James Borrego are expected to be among candidates for the job. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/PVU0ZUcRGb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/PVU0ZUcRGb<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShamsCharania\/status\/1793648845504802986?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 23, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Golden State Warriors assistant coach Kenny Atkinson and New Orleans Pelicans assistant coach are expected to be among the candidates for the vacancy.<\/p>\n<h2>Cavs Make Decision On JB Bickerstaff<\/h2>\n<p>Ultimately, while a well-liked and mature leader, Bickerstaff\u2019s Cavs tenure was a mixed bag.<\/p>\n<p>After acquiring All-Star guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mitchdo01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Donovan Mitchell<\/a>, Cleveland was able to fortify their playoff chances. Nonetheless, Bickerstaff had gotten steady development out of his team, both individually and in the win column. Inheriting a team that went 19-46 in the COVID-shortened 2019-20 season, Bickerstaff only won 22 games his first year leading the Cavs. However, every core member of their rebuild was under 23 years old. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/mobleev01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Evan Mobley<\/a> had yet to be drafted.<\/p>\n<p>After adding Mobley and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/m\/markkla01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lauri Markkanen<\/a> in the summer, the Cavs won twice as many games (44) the next season. That was even with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/s\/sextoco01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Collin Sexton<\/a> \u2014who averaged 24.3 points per game the previous season \u2014playing just 11 games due to injury.<\/p>\n<p>Mobley and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/a\/allenja01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jarrett Allen<\/a> both formed an excellent pick-and-roll pairing with Darius Garland, who was becoming more assertive and confident. Garland wasn\u2019t the only player developing though, as Bickerstaff had unlocked Markkanen in a way his previous team could not. The seventh overall pick in the 2017 NBA Draft, Markkanen was using his 7-foot frame to be a defensive menace.<\/p>\n<h3>Bickerstaff\u2019s Biggest Flaw<\/h3>\n<p>That being said, the Cavs didn\u2019t develop much under Bickerstaff.<\/p>\n<h4>Lauri Markkanen<\/h4>\n<p>Markkanen was playing better defense than ever. However, he was averaging 14.8 points per game on a .582 true shooting percentage. Today, executives believe he\u2019s worth multiple first round picks, as the Finnish forward has averaged 24.5 points per game on a .636 true shooting percentage since being traded.<\/p>\n<h4>Collin Sexton<\/h4>\n<p>Sexton managed to improve as a scorer every season but his progression as a painstakingly slow. In many ways, this is what led to him eventually being traded. Last season, Sexton averaged 10.0 potential assists per game, outpacing even Boston Celtics guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/w\/whitede01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derrick White<\/a> (9.8).<\/p>\n<h4>Darius Garland<\/h4>\n<p>Garland has seemingly regressed and it\u2019s not just because Spida\u2019s in the neighborhood. However, it is notable that Bickerstaff\u2019s usage of Mitchell could be <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/05\/16\/nba-rumors-cavs-star-to-seek-trade-if-teammate-stays\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">the source of some tension<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Nonetheless, being a true point guard, he always seemed to get a bit out of control when trying to take over as a scorer. This season, Garland was just plain ineffective in that role. He shot 40 percent or lower from the field in eight of the 21 games he played without Mitchell, and the Cavs went 9-12 when Garland played without him.<\/p>\n<h4>Evan Mobley<\/h4>\n<p>Mobley\u2019s lack of development and toughness has become a legitimate talking point.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s a premier defender capable of making game-changing plays in space or in the paint. He\u2019s also a versatile offensive option, scoring from all three levels and flashing guard skills. However, he\u2019s not aggressive, leading him to underwhelm on the scoreboard. In three seasons, he\u2019s yet to average below 15 points or above 17 points per game.<\/p>\n<h4>Isaac Okoro<\/h4>\n<p>Then there\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/players\/o\/okorois01.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Isaac Okoro<\/a>, the fifth overall pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, shot a career-high 39.1 percent from 3 in 2023-24. Indeed, he\u2019s incrementally improved his 3-point efficiency every season since being drafted. Yet, he\u2019s shown little development in the ways of developing a scoring package. A wing with nascent passing ability, he hasn\u2019t evolved into an offensive playmaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Cleveland Cavaliers have parted ways with head coach J.B. Bickerstaff after he spent four-plus seasons with the famous franchise, per The Athletic\u2019s Shams Charania. Bickerstaff, 45, went 170-159 with the Cavs in the regular season. Securing back-to-back playoff berths the last two years, Cleveland was 6-11 with Bickerstaff at the helm. The Cleveland Cavaliers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":78588,"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":[1594,1937,900,3966,2842,1557,49128,236,4557],"class_list":["post-78570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","tag-collin-sexton","tag-darius-garland","tag-donovan-mitchell","tag-evan-mobley","tag-isaac-okoro","tag-james-borrego","tag-jb-bickerstaff","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-nba-offseason"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78570","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=78570"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78570\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78588"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=78570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=78570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=78570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}