Windy: ‘NO DOUBT’ Donovan Mitchell factored into Cavs firing J.B. Bickerstaff | NBA Today
breaking news out of Cleveland this morning the Cavaliers they dismissed head coach JB bicker staff that’s what our senior NBA Insider Adrien wowski reported that’s despite making the second round of the playoffs for the first time in six seasons the franchise now embarks on a search that will land them they hope a coach to take Cleveland deeper into the Eastern playoffs Ryan wior every move that Cleveland makes this offseason it feels like it has to be viewed through the lens of Donovan Mitchell so what does the decision to move on from bicker staff signal to you here I think it is through the lens of Donovan Mitchell I think the Cavs this was a difficult decision which they always say when they fire a coach but this is a coach who’s taken them from the lottery to the playin to the playoffs to the second round that is exactly what you want when you hire a coach of a rebuilding team and not only that there’s an extreme closeness between the bicker staff family and Kobe Alman uh Bernie bicker staff JB’s father has been a longtime Aid and an adviser to Kobe so this was not a simple answer and so the answer that I will tell you and the one that’s hard for the Cavs to say is is that they obviously believe that changing coaches here will benefit them in their in their quest to resign Donovan Mitchell now um when they do come to Donovan in a in a few weeks they they can’t really officially negotiate with him until after the NBA Finals you would expect that they would have a new coach at that time who has a vision for how he wants to play and maximize Donovan obviously they will offer him the extension at that time and Kobe Alman would have an offseason plan to present um for for their roster and those are things that the Cavs have to work on but there’s no doubt that um you know the JB bicker staff Donovan mitell relationship was a was a factor in this decision and that the the new head coach uh whoever that may be will have to have a plan for how to maximize Donovan Mitchell not only to sell the Cavs but to sell the Donovan himself Donovan still has a year left on his contract and then of course he has that player option but when looking at this Brian it is a little bit Stark to see that three head coaches that were in the playoffs this season Darvin ham Frank vogle and now JB bicker staff were all dismissed as head coach that is despite making it to the postseason so let’s talk a little bit about Los Angeles since we mentioned Starvin ham how does the vacancy vacancy in Cleveland impact the Lakers search here yeah I do think that there’s going to be some crossover in some candidates specifically uh James bgo I think James bgo you know I know that JJ reck has been routinely viewed as the leading candidate in in La James bgo interviewed there this week he is a strong candidate and I I expect he will be a strong candidate in Cleveland as well this is a a guy who’s got a very good coaching uh background in history uh was uh you know known for for his offensive Concepts which is one of the things he brought to Charlotte as a head coach there they were a great offensive team something the Cavs frankly could use a little bit um you know I also think that uh Kenny Atkinson who was uh the lead assistant on Steve K’s bench um he will you know I believe get an interview in Cleveland and I would also not be surprised if the Cavs have some interest in Mike and Nory who is sort of serving as the sideline head coach right now uh for the Wolves there’s some teams that have sort of been impressed with him as well but um you know the Lakers you know they’ve been going through their process and and and everything and and now there’s uh an interesting other job out there and the thing about the Cavs job that I think is interesting relative to Laker job and this is candidates who I’ve talked to have told me about this like coaching in the East right now is a little bit more attractive than coaching in the west and you know sometimes you don’t get a choice but I’ve even talked to agents who have potential uh free agents this summer or players who may uh end up getting traded this summer who are saying you know what it might not be a bad idea to go east and uh just look at how packed the West is and how strong even the teams that miss the playoffs are and I don’t know if that would be a factor in the coaching Market but certainly a factor in all NBA transactions that we’re going to watch over the next month right because it seems like the West even the teams as you mentioned that aren’t in the playoffs this year we very well could see them in the postseason next year so [Music] [Applause] I’m [Applause]
Brian Windhorst joins Malika Andrews on NBA Today to make sense of breaking news that the Cleveland Cavaliers have fired J.B. Bickerstaff despite making it to the second round of the 2024 NBA Playoffs.
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50 Comments
No job is safe 🙄
Whoa this is BS for sure
Coaches getting fired while still getting paid for the remaining years is a next level finesse
Females are to be seen not heard especially about sports 💯
So they would have us to believe that Donovan Mitchell a player with no stroke in the league is able to get coaches fired but the so called goat has never had anything to do with his coaches being fired
He had 3 starters hurt in second round, no job is safe.
Nepo Baby sucked at coaching so he got fired, amazing how many casuals are confused and whining here in the comments.
🤷🏿😭🏀😱
Morons
Soft diva @ss weak generation
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Mark Jackson
Surpise people didn’t spin this into does this mean lebron come back to cavs
Travesty. Players rule it’s that simple, Mitchell is probably the culprit, he’s a chucker, he shoots, shoots, and shoots again, not much else, Jared Allan was hurt, with him they could’ve possibly won the series. Bickerstaff should be on the Lakers radar
Cleveland next coach Frank Vogel or Sam Casell 🤔🤔🤔🤔
Every single vid on any subject descends into talk about the Lakers about 35% of the way in. It's relentless
When the player makes the owner fire the coach the team looks bad
Tanking the last game of the season, when they had a chance for the #3 seed, didn’t help his cause.
Smh 🤦♂️
Mark "LGBTQ+" Jackson
the pivot of having to find a way to talk about the lakers was crazy "darvin ham, frank vogel, and now jb bickerstaff, so let's talk about los angeles because we mentioned darvin ham"
they are making room for JJ reddick and LeBron
I'm almost done with the NBA. Players aren't accountable. Management making idiotic moves. The game lacks actual teamwork. Might be time to move on
Why get him fired if you finna leave anyways diva
Itll be 11pm and espn will still run breaking news cavs fired their coach
Disgusting firing. Had no business being even competitive against Boston with their injuries and yet they were. It was all coaching. He deserved a BETTER job.
How does “no neck” have any idea what Donovan is thinking?
Lets keep it a bean….Donovan Mitchell is too hollywood for Clevland. LA, NY or MIA will be his next stop
Considering how underwhelming the roster has been, it's a miracle that the Cavs made the Playoffs at all. Sometimes the coach gets blamed for how poorly or lacking the team was constructed.
What have you done for me lately? There's no loyalty. It's business, not personal.
These 5eams are crazy. Who they think their gonna get? They will return to irrelevance
Black players lobby for more Black HC hires, then Black star players don't respect them, which contributes to them getting fired. Yeah, I said it, and I'm Black. Don't @ me. Just accept and deal with the truth
WOW.
They need to hire Agreementstaff
As a Cavs fan this was not “out of nowhere”. Every Cavs fan knew Jb was gone, he has been terrible in the playoffs and does many things bad. Things as simple as calling timeouts/ substitutions. Not to mention holding player accountable and getting the best out of them and lastly his play calling was TERRIBLE. So many times with the game on the line after a timeout his play was Garland driving to the rim and 90% of the time getting blocked… even tho he had 2 7 footers in the game (Mobley and Allen). He was good for the rebuild era but now we need an experienced guy who’s gonna help get our guys to the next level.
Was probably Bron before he goes back 🤦🏻♂️
He never figured out how to make that team work. Didn't figure out how to make the big men work or the guards.
Coaches that make it to the finals and even win the finals are fired within a couple of years. Has been happening for a while. Not a big deal
Y’all don’t watch Cavs games .. saying it was a bad firing is insane ..
I would have kept Bickerstaff and traded Mitchell. Mitchell is not a championship player.
fire the general manager for getting the cavs in this mess
Reasons why Bickerstaff was fired:
1) Mitchell and some other players lacked confidence in him as the coach going forward.
2) This was the 3rd straight season that the Cavs fell off after the All-Star break.
3) The front office didn't think he was doing enough to convince Mitchell to stay (despite Mitchell stating that he is happy in Cleveland).
4) Tanking the last game of the regular season, which reportedly annoyed the players.
According to Cavs fans:
5) His schemes, adjustments, and rotations were all horrible.
6) Garland and Mobley have not developed that well under him.
These are the reasons that I've seen given, not my own.
Of course Lakers have to be brought up in any conversation that has nothing to do with them…
Coaches aren’t safe at all. You got coach of the years getting fired, championship coaches fired and coaches who lead turnarounds
nahhh, these are the same ppl saying oml fire bickerstaff just a week ago
hire LeBron
This is disgraceful
The man was one hell of a coach and I bet EVERY cavs fans is pissed beyond belief. Smh bad move for the cavs organization and they will feel his absence next season, bet.
Watch them trade Mitchell next year and make this entire segment void