Cavs Fire J.B. Bickerstaff. Does the NBA Have a Great Coaching Shortage? | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Cavs Fire J.B. Bickerstaff. Does the NBA Have a Great Coaching Shortage? | The Bill Simmons Podcast

Cleveland fired JB bicker staff so we’re up to four coaches who um were job preservation fired by the GM who was like hey don’t look this way Kobe Alman about to be five probably right who’s the well I guess technically because if Monty Williams gets fired by the new layered in uh Tron langon got hired to be the president of the Pistons oh yeah yeah and they might fire yeah Jaylen used to have that joke when we all work together about uh they keep getting them checks right Monte would the Aller right just completely [ __ ] up the Pistons for year and gets 80 million it’s like a sunk cost um that listen the GM is with the owners I make this point I’m gonna make it again the GM’s with the owners and the people that run the team way more than the coaches are and when things go wrong and the owner’s like hey what the [ __ ] we traded five first rounders for Donovan Mitchell and marke and who made an All-Star team why aren’t we better the easiest thing to do is be like I don’t know man this coach what what is he doing and you’re just buck passing Buck passing Buck passing the bottom line is maybe Cleveland should be cleaning house period and I you know I just feel like but they can’t clean out the part of the house that’s probably the the the most detrimental which is Gilbert you know and Gilbert’s probably like reading ishbia headlines and being like I I’ll get I can fire a guy like well there was stuff today about how Mitchell it’s like leaning toward maybe signing the extension so this might be the Ryan rello theory of he signs the extension and then that’s for a trade a year from now but we already know from all the reporting that Garland his representation same as CR he’s represented by clutch um that they might push for a Garland trade and it does feel like CL Cleveland’s going to be the big pivot team for some trades this year they might have a Jared Allen trade and a Darius Garland trade in the next like five weeks and I don’t know what those guys would fetch but it’s not going to be an insignificant amount if you’re a team like the Spurs and Garland’s on the table I’m I’m like [ __ ] let’s go let’s let’s start trading I did Rob am I right like that’s isn’t Garland the ideal wanyama guy I love that fit for Darius Garland it’s sick so good it would be such a great pairing I and that’s honestly what’s so weird I’ll say unusual about the GB picker staff firing not that coaches don’t get fired in this situation but usually they get canned because you don’t want to change the roster or you can’t change the roster that your hands are kind of tied behind your back as far as what you can do with trades or free agency the Cavs feel very much like a team like you’re saying that is poised to make significant deals to change the entire shape of their roster and yet I guess they just want someone completely different to kind of Envision how to use all those parts but that’s not usually what we see out there well Chris we knew we had a feeling when the Cavs got eliminated and eight minutes later there was a 5500w story on the athletic about about all the Terrible Things in the JB Becker staff fair so I can’t say I was shocked the weird thing is that the uh coaching Carousel and the coaching Talent bll seems to be uh I wouldn’t say it an all-time low because like I think there’s some good coaches available but I you wouldn’t be like hey fire our guy for this dude right you know right like it’s not like um I mean honestly like it it wouldn’t be surprising I guess if vogle gets one of these jobs or something like that because of like his past success with the Pacers and the magic but yeah uh and also winning a title but I think maybe vogle is better suited to coaching you know like a a kind of like mid-table team like that than he is like maybe going back in again with another star-laden team I feel like 25 of these guys are right around each other right yeah but like I I I this just doesn’t seem like a draft class of coaches that you’d be like hey I’ll go on the hook for several millon I mean Tom Gores if he fires Monty he’s Monty Williams he’s gonna owe him $60 million like that’s a crazy build of foot for who like who are you bringing in that you think is going to revolutionize your culture that like in a way that Monty Williams couldn’t I get it I get that it seemed crazy and that he wasn’t playing Jaden Ivy and stuff like that like that there was there were problems but it that’s a steep bill to pay well there’s been proven coaches in the market like The Proven guys are James burgo and Kenny Atkinson like perfectly decent NBA head coaches with mixed records and if if you’re not batting for them then you’re getting you know the lead assistant off somebody’s bench then then you’re going for Sam Cassell and those those are those are not the kinds of names that you envision as revolutionizing your franchise even though they’re perfectly good coaches but I mean I money is money and there’s only 30 of those jobs or whatever so I understand why people do it but like if I was Mike an Nori I would be like uh so I can be like the lead assistant of Minnesota yeah or I can get fired in 18 months in Detroit I’ll stay in Minnesota you know what I really miss the big inefficiency right now with all this is you know in the 80s and 90s teams would splurge on college coaches and they’d be like we’ve hired Lon Krueger you missed this we we’ve given Lon Krueger $12 million you missed ricking no but I missed these college coaches coming in and just being terrible was always really fun it’s like here comes PJ carisimo oh my God he’s being strangled by one of his own players it would be fun if Andy Enfield was just hired as like by an NBA team not we had caliper we had patino we you know there was now now it’s like it’s just ring around the rosie with these NBA assistants so like the Lakers let’s say JJ’s not the guy even though we all know they’re hiring JJ um they go from vogle to Darvin ham and then James bgo like is is there so they’re G to be still paying vogle and still paying Darin ham yes but then also getting bgo who’s kind of in the same level as those other guys like I did they figure out the tyo extension the Clippers yeah we got to bring him back he lost in round one in six games gotta get that gotta bring that guy back players are like this dude is a genius so like I mean this guy’s a genius he’s never made the finals with the Clippers well he’s not an orthopedic surgery like he can’t keep that team healthy like he can only just I know he wasn’t knocking my socks off in that map series I wasn’t like whoa tyou no but is is it more all the moves he’s making is it more important as a coach to be a genius or for your players to think you’re a genius I do players think he’s a genius because they kind of rolled over in the last two Clipper games I don’t really put that at tylo’s feet personally but I you can I my bigger point is there’s probably like four coaches that matter and I think everybody else like BOGO won a title four years ago he said two jobs since you know it’s just like I think Carlile is a good coach but Carlile was also awful in Dallas for you know years and years we like when are they gonna fire this guy he lost crazy yeah yeah and it seemed like he were out as welcome how many Rob how many like really good coaches are there is it less than six I would say less than six that are that are significantly moving the needle for you and honestly at the bottom end there’s prob only two or three in the league at a given time that are actually that bad and most fan bases are just so dialed in on exactly what their coach is doing wrong or not doing that it gets a little stretched out of proportion but I don’t know I don’t see a lot of needle movers out there even if your coach is like great at challenges I mean congrats that’s a couple possessions to swing a game it’s not an insignificant thing but it’s not it’s not really changing who you are as a team those I mean those guys are what like SPO is clearly in that group who else do we feel super confident is a dramatic like a transformational coach I mean is it Finch or is it Anthony Edwards why why is Minnesota where they are I mean they definitely has that demeanor that I think the team takes on there’s a calmness to him right I think kids done a really good job the last couple rounds and I was never a huge fan K before like like at previous stops right right and even like this year he was getting killed if you if you talk to any Mavericks fan in like February they were flipping out about him but you know it’s a relationships business and the fact that he has Kyrie this version of Kyrie he gets some credit for that right you could say Kyrie got older and Kyrie’s mature and Kyrie is in the right the GM for Dallas apparently like new PJ Washington for a really long time and was like I know that this kid has like another gear in him he’s just been in a bad team and a bad situation yeah I I would love I would I think we’re honestly at the point now where I would almost welcome in an era of coach trades because there’s a bunch of guys who I think are good coaches or interesting coaches who are coaching the wrong team and who comes to mind for you well I would love to see papovich coaching like a team of guys who are like Olympic level basketball players just to see is he lost his fastball or is he just like wasting the last few years of his career coaching guys who were like you know obviously Wy but not great players right or at least not well I believe he did give up the chance to literally coach a team of Olympic level basketball players this summer right didn’t he give up that spot to CER to coach Team USA yeah but I would like to like I don’t think they wanted him in France there’s just too much wine I I don’t know if they trusted him he’s gonna go the wagon I would like to see what would happen if papovich coached the Lakers I know that that would be like Darth Vader coaching you know like for the for the the the force or whatever but like I I just I just would like to see what would like what would he do with LeBron and AD you know and the same thing goes for like Quin SN I think his talents are kind of wasted in Atlanta I think it would be cool to see him like coaching a different team yeah like tibs did a good job in New York but at the same time the entire team got injured by the end of it as we were all joking about man that’s a lot of minutes on these guys and then now some of it is like Brunson breaks his hand like that’s a fluke but right yeah you know o and Obi playing 41 minutes a game and then getting hurt I think was pretty easy to predict he’s not Cal Ripken w [Music]

The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Rob Mahoney discuss the Cavaliers’ firing of J.B. Bickerstaff and the head-coaching situation around the league.

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