Will JAMES BORREGO be the next CAVS head coach? | Locked On Cavs Podcast

Will JAMES BORREGO be the next CAVS head coach? | Locked On Cavs Podcast

on today’s show is James bgo the top candidate for the Cavs job we talk about it on locked on Cavs you are locked on Cavs your daily Cleveland Cavaliers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day thanks for making lock on Cavs your first listen every day you can follow the show wherever you get your podcast be sure to leave us a fstar review on Apple Spotify wherever you listen the show is free and available on YouTube as well be sure to give us a like on today’s show subscribe to the lockon Cavs Channel Proud part of the lockd on podcast Network your team every day hello again everybody I’m Danny Cunningham you might know me from my time covering the Cleveland Cavaliers with Cleveland magazine 923 the fan or once upon a time at ESPN Cleveland on today’s show we’re talking about the coaching search that still ongoing for the Cavs we got some news today James bgo interviewing in person going to talk a little bit about that sounds like Kenny Atkinson might as well I think bgo is trending towards being the top candidate for the Cavs and a little bit later on in the show we’ll talk about why I don’t think that Lakers job opening matters at all when it comes to the Cavs job search but it was reported on Tuesday that James bgo and this was reported by Mark Stein that James bgo former Charlotte Hornets head coach current associate head coach with the New Orleans Pelicans would be in Cleveland to interview formally for the head coaching job with the Cavs I think that this is something that shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody I think if you’ve been following along if you’ve been reading some tea leaves I do think that this was this is something that has been part of the plan and I don’t think it’s connected to the Lakers not Landing Dan Hurley and the Cav speeding up their process but we’ll get into that later on in the show but I think that we’re starting to see this search maybe Trend a little bit towards James brego now let’s put together a timeline here so believe it was May 23rd they fired JB Bickerstaff the Cavs decided it was time to part ways they needed a new voice they needed a new set of eyes in that locker room immediately after that it was almost it might have been in Adrien Wow’s next tweet as he was one of the first ones to report the news of bicker staff’s firing that James bgo and Kenny Atkinson would be two candidates on the list for the Cavaliers and then of course we know Cav’s president of basketball operations kobby Alman said at his media availability the next day that the team wasn’t at a point where they had put together a list of any sort but those two names Kenny ainson and James Rego were the first two names that we heard and then once the Cavs took Memorial Day weekend as they said they were going to to kind of recharge and and get ready for this coaching search that’s now been going on for around two weeks once that happened the first two names that we heard that the Cavs had received permission to interview were James brgo and Kenny Atkinson so and then we get to the point now and of course there were other names that the Cavs had received permission to interview think Chris Quinn think Johnny Bryant Micah Nory David Adelman there have been a lot of names that have been connected one way or another to this Cav’s job but it makes sense to me that the the first two names that we’ve heard this entire time have been James brego and have been Kenny ainson and then we find out on Tuesday that the Cavs are meeting in person with James bgo again Mark Stein the one to support this longtime NBA Insider I think it makes a lot of sense and I do think that this is trending to bgo being the guy that is the top candidate for the Cavs I think if he were not we wouldn’t hear as much about him he wouldn’t be consistently the first one to go through this process and I do think that today is really the first time that we’ve publicly at least heard him mentioned ahead of Kenny Atkinson as far as doing something first right you think that first report it was both of them and then it was at the same time it was reported the Cavs had received permission to interview both of them it wasn’t a one in front of the other situation this is the first time where one of those two guys has done something first how much does that matter I’m not entirely sure I don’t know if it matters that James bgo is interviewing in person before Kenny Atkinson which I do believe it was reported by Brian Windhurst that Atkinson and the Cavs do plan to meet in person at some point this week how much does it matter bgo is first I don’t know I don’t but I do think that he is the guy just from reading some tea leaves I do think he is the guy that is at the top of their list and I think there are a number of reasons as to why he makes sense here in Cleveland because you look at his track record the Cavs at this point are in a position not necessarily to where they need to overcorrect for the way things were done in the past but whenever you have a defensive-minded head coach which I think it’s a very fair way to characterize JB bicker staff whenever you have a defensive-minded head coach and you’re ready to make a move make a change at that spot you know nine out of 10 times you’re going to go from a defensive minded guy who let’s give him credit the defense for the most part has been really good since the Cavs have been good but the offense hasn’t been where it’s needed to be so you’re going to go again nine out of 10 times pretty frequently go from a defensive minded guy to an offensive minded guy James brego fits that if you take a look and I do think it’s a fun exercise if you want to do this go and take a look at what some of those Charlotte teams did offensively under him because I don’t think that those rosters and Charlotte were all that talented I don’t think they I know kembell Walker was there for a little bit I know he had lamelo ball lamelo’s rookie year um which was bargo’s best year in Charlotte but those teams were really good offensively and yeah kembell was a great talent but specifically that last year he was there where he was essentially let go because the Hornets didn’t play any defense how much of that is on him I don’t know um but getting a really good offense out of a unit that is led by a young guard is a really really really difficult thing to do I want you to think back to Darius Garland’s first year his first year in Cleveland it was clear that he had Talent like I I thought okay one day this kid’s going to be a good NBA player I don’t know what his ceiling’s going to be I don’t know what his floor is going to be but I know he’s going to vastly improve from what he is year one because it’s a tough transition from going to you know in Garland’s case five college games at Vanderbilt before going to to the NBA and in lamelo Ball’s case a whole shorish Borg of experience at levels that I think are below playing at Vander vanderbelt and turning that into a top 10 unit offensively is a big Challenge and the fact that BGA was able to do that I do think bod’s really well for him as an offensive coach now that doesn’t mean he’s a coach that’s without question you know he’s not some Flawless coach there were issues If he if he weren’t a Flawless coach he would still be had coaching Charlotte right now and the Hornets probably would have had more success than they would I also do think with him it’s worth taking a look at what has happened in Charlotte since he left because that Situation’s been pretty bad the Hornets have not been a good basketball team since he left how much of that is on coaching how much of that is on injury you know I I don’t know I can’t tell that whole story I’m not there but I think it’s something that’s worth noting so when you lean into an offensive minded coach as if the Cavs hire bgo they would be doing here that gives me hope even if and later in the week we are going to talk a little bit about if if the Cavs do keep together this back court if they do keep together this back court bgo is actually a guy that I’ve got faith in because of his offensive track record that he can figure out that situation probably a little bit better than most other coaches that they’re looking at probably a little bit better than some of the other coaches that are on their list and I I think that is something that is absolutely you know worth considering as you go through this is what’s the offense going to look like if the Cavs higher bgo what’s Player Development going to look like if the Cavs hire bgo and that Player Development is something that we’re going to talk about coming up in just a bit but again doing it with a rookie guard that to me screams Player Development because no one comes into this league as a finished product absolutely no one but I do think right now the fact that James brego interviewed for the job on Tuesday according Mark Stein the first one to formally meet in person with the Cavs is probably a pretty good sign that he is the guy if he’s not number one on their list I have to think he’s 1B I I don’t know how he could be any lower than that on their list because everything has told me that we’ve seen all the information that’s been reported by the big news Breakers in the NBA that James brego is someone they’re really really high on um I expect that we’re going to hear more about this in the coming days so we will we will absolutely continue to talk about this situation but I think he is the guy that is if he’s not at the very top of the list he’s very much near the top of the list and that’s something to keep in mind let’s talk Henny ainson because he’s someone also rumored to be interviewing with the Cavs this week in person so we’re going to do that next right here on lock on Cavs this show is sponsored by better help if you are thinking of going to therapy give better help a try it is entirely online which is one of the the biggest things that makes 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Cavaliers on Tuesday according to markstein it sounds like according to Brian winhurst that Kenny Atkinson going to be interviewing formally for this Cav job as well which I do think again going back to just about everything I said about bgo I think a lot of that is applicable to Atkinson and there are reasons why and I’ve come around on brego the more digging I’ve done into his past history um as a coach and really just some of those teams in Charlotte I’ve come around to him more as a candidate where I wasn’t quite as high I think as a lot of people were on him at the start of this process I was more high on Kenny Atkinson and maybe some of that’s because I watched so much more that Brooklyn team right if you’re listening to this there’s a good chance you’ve been a Cavs fan for more than just the last handful of years and you remember watching that 2018 Nets team that Kenny ainson was the head coach of and the Cavs had that Nets pick through the Kyrie Irving trade and Kenny ainson really got a lot out of that team to where they won so many games that the Cavs ended up with Colin seon instead of I don’t know uh that Luca dantri guy that went in that draft number three overall so I I know that we as Cavs fans are probably just a little bit more familiar with ainson and I certainly was someone that was more familiar with ainson but there are a lot of things to like about burgo I do still think there are a lot of things to like about Kenny Atkinson as well though I really do I think that he is going to be a really good head coach somewhere if it’s in Cleveland I think he’d be a great fit if it’s somewhere else I think he will be a great fit at a certain point as well you know you think back to his history aside from coaching in Brooklyn he’s been an assistant with the Clippers he’s been an assistant with Golden State under Steve Kerr for the last handful of years actually was offered the Charlotte Hornets job I believe after James bgo got fired um and turn them down decide you know what this is not a good situation don’t want to be there and I respect that a lot because there are only 30 of these jobs in the world so to be offered one and say I’m not going to take this job just for the sake of taking it I think that’s a really good thing and actually something that I like when you talk about him as a head coaching candidates that he doesn’t just want to take a job to take a job if he’s going to take a job such as this one it’s going to be because it’s the right fit for him and it’s a good situation and I think that’s something that it just matters a little bit aside from that with Atkinson I like what he does offensively I think he’s gotten the most out of his teams it can be at times a little difficult I think to look past some of the stuff at the end in Brooklyn with the way that you know it ended with Kyrie Irving with Kevin dur the fact that he couldn’t or didn’t and I don’t know how much of this is even fair but the Superstar experience didn’t go well for him right when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving arrived things went South pretty quick for Kenny and I don’t think it’s all his fault I’m sure he’s not blameless in that but I certainly don’t think it’s all his fault by any stretch of the imagination but if you look at what he was able to do with some of those earlier teams he has been someone that’s been able to develop players what he was able to get out of d’el Russell who I I don’t think is all that good what he was able to get out of Caris LT despite Caris dealing with some pretty significant injuries um you know you think back to Carris when he was on that Brooklyn team before Durant and Kyrie got there uh dislocated his ankle went through some pretty serious uh physical stuff and was still able to be a good basketball player helped to develop Jarrett Allen obviously who we know very very well here in Cleveland so the player development stuff for him I think speaks pretty well and I wonder if he could be someone that is because of his background offensively as a coach because of the situation he’s been in the last several years I wonder if he is more I I believe that Kenny ainson is more ready right now for a head coaching job than he’s ever been and this might be the best situation for him that he could be in um that I just think is something that is worth bringing up so to see if and hey maybe the interview with James bgo goes so well for the Cavs that they don’t need to do other interviews that they decide hey this is our guy we want to go after him and if that’s the case go after him like that is what should be done here because if you find the guy if you find the guy that you want to be the head coach and you’ve got him in your building you don’t want to let him leave all the time you don’t want to let especially considering there is another opening there’s one more opening maybe you don’t want to let him leave but I don’t think either of these guys are bad options I I truly don’t I I think that you should be happy as a Cavs fan if either one of these guys are hired because I think both of them maybe in a little bit different ways but I think both of them pretty well fit the mold for what you want in the next head coach of the caps and I think that is at the end of the day these names don’t matter so much as does this coach fit a particular mold that the Cavs are looking for and I think the answer with both of these guys with both James brego and Kenny ainson I think that answer is yes I really do what I will be interested to see because it’s clear with everything that’s come out the order of things have come out I think it’s clear these have been and are the top two guys I will be very interested if more than just James brego and Kenny ainson end up with in-person interviews with the Cavs that is something that I will be very very interested to see because it could it could be a situation especially when you consider some of the other names on this list it could be a situation where you are interviewing that person to be the head coach but it also could be a situation to where hey we think we’re going to hire somebody else but we would love for you to be our lead assistant that’s something that it could be that situation and there’s not necessarily harm in doing that when you get the chance to interview somebody to have somebody in your building to see how they mesh that could be how staffs start to start to build and that just could be something to keep an eye on but you know I do think that the top two guys in this search are Kenny ainson and James brego right now I think brego is probably a little bit higher in terms of the preference for the Cavs than Atkinson is I think part of that is because he’s the first one to get an interview but I I don’t think it would be wise to write off Kenny ainson I don’t there’s one more opening in the NBA there’s one more head coaching job left we all know who it is it’s the Los Angeles Lakers right how could you forget about that it feels like that job has been opened forever it doesn’t matter when it comes to the Cavs opening though and I’ll tell you why right here on lockdown Cavs summertime time means baseball the NBA finals and so much more and you know what you can bet on that with FanDuel FanDuel is the place to go because right now new customers get $200 in bonus bets when you hit on any $5 bet that wins you hit on a $5 bet $200 in bonus bets in your account if you are a new customer to FanDuel there’s a lot to bet on right now NBA Finals the long shot pick I like I know game three tonight Mavs Celtics Drew holiday Finals MVP plus 600 on FanDuel those are some pretty good odds for a guy that’s had a great start to this series if the series if it were a best of three and it was the first of two wins Drew holiday might be the MVP I don’t know I don’t know I know it’s not Jason Tatum but it might be Drew holiday you can get him at plus 600 I think that’s a pretty good long shot bet to place if you’re looking uh to spice up your NBA Finals experience but like I said $200 in free bets if you go to FanDuel go to c.com slocked on NBA you get 200 bucks that you can use from everything from Finals MVP to who’s going to hit a home run baseball that night $200 in bonus Bets with a winning $5 bet when you visit fanduel.com locked on NBA and you can start adding big wins to your summer bucket list FanDuel America’s number one sports book so the Los Angeles Lakers have been looking for head coach for longer than the Cleveland Cavaliers have been looking for a head coach we know they fired Darin ham after they lost in five games to the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs they have had a what I think has been a pretty tumultuous search for them because they go from it was reported by the athletic that JJ reck’s the guy that they’re going to hire JJ reck he’s going to be the next coach of the Lakers uh he and LeBron going to have the podcast together and and be you know in the same organization how awesome would that be so much drama well then they pivot to Dan Hurley the head coach of the Connecticut men’s basketball team back-to-back national champions I don’t watch a ton of college basketball but I think that Dan Hurley obviously does a great job well Hurley decides to turn them down so now they’re in a position where you wonder okay well does the fact that the Lakers still don’t have their guy and they’re the Lakers right they’re in Los Angeles a glamour Market one of the historic franchises in the NBA they have a lot of things that not a lot of franchises can say I don’t think that means the Cavs need to speed things up I don’t I’ve thought about this and maybe it could be something that does force them to speed it up but I don’t think they need to and I don’t think they need to because this Cav’s job is such a better job than the Lakers job I don’t think it’s close so let’s list out why the Lakers yeah it’s La it’s the Lakers the glitz the Glam LeBron Anthony Davis all that stuff you know what it’s not it’s not a solid place to coach right now there’s not a lot of stability in that organization right now when you take a look at it you know Frank vulgo won a title back in 2020 how much longer did he last Darin ham two years Western Conference Finals playoffs loss against the defending champ and I get it’s not all the results there’s so much more that goes into this than just the results at the end of the day but there’s not a lot of stability for a coach there there’s not and then you take a look at that’s a Western Conference Team while right now the Eastern Conference has the best team in basketball in Boston like they’re most likely going to win two of their next however many games that they’re going to play and Hoist the Larry O’Brien trophy other than that how many teams are there that you can definitively say in the Eastern Conference that team’s going to be better than the Cavs next year and there’s a lot of questions that need to be answered about the Cavs and a lot of other teams in this conference don’t get me wrong but you can you can say right now yeah Boston’s probably going to be better than everyone in else else in the East again next year who’s going to be number two you can’t point that out for sure you can’t now let’s go over to the last what’s the pathway for the Lakers to be I’m not even going to say the number two team in the conference but even a top four team in the conference like yeah they’ve got a lot of talent but let’s let’s take a look at this so Dallas is in the finals they’re going to be running it back next year I I don’t see a ton of avenues for their team to look drastically different and since this team has been assembled after the trade deadline they’ve been one of the best in basketball do you think Oklahoma City is going anywhere I don’t I mean maybe they take a little bit of a step back but they’re still going to be really good Minnesota they’ve got some questions but overall they’re really talented I’m not sure they’re going to break things up Denver yeah they you know didn’t work out for them in the playoffs this year they’re still going to be really good and they still have the Lakers number like you can just go on and on and on and just down this list the Clippers if they’re healthy they’re in a better situation right now I don’t see the road map for the Lakers to be competitive for a conference title I see that Ro yeah the Cavs might have a bigger obstacle at the end when the Conference Finals arrive in Boston than anyone the Lakers could see in the Western Conference Finals but the road map to getting there I think is so much so much more clear in the Eastern Conference I think that matters and then you take a look at the stability Factor yeah there have been a couple of guys that the Cavs have hired in the last decade yeah last decade starting this Summer that didn’t work out David blat was not a good idea was not a good fit and to be fair to him he was hired to coach a team that was drastically different than the team he ended up coaching but then tyoo was around for quite a while Ty leaves John beine that was a bad idea didn’t work out very bad higher but then JB bicker staff takes over JB when he was relieved of his duties two weeks ago he was I believe the fifth or sixth longest tenur head coach in basketball there’s a lot of change in the NBA head coaching spots but the Cavs have actually been a relatively stable organization as far as head coaches go in the last decade yes they’ve had four two of them were a disaster but the two that were even remotely good and I’m talking four full-time head coaches I’m not talking the voice of the team Larry Drew but the two that were remotely good stuck around for a while this is a situation where because I do believe that to be true I think that this Cavs organization is willing to put forth just about everything that they need to to put a coach and a roster in a position to be successful when you add all that stuff up I think that this Cavs opening is such a better job opening right now than the Lakers is and I haven’t even mentioned LeBron yet because you might think well yeah have to mention LeBron one he is the greatest player ever or maybe you don’t think that I do maybe you don’t and that’s true but it’s really really difficult to be the head coach of a team that has a superstar on it that is not what he once was and LeBron is still great LeBron is still one of the best players in basketball but he’s also going to be 40 in December he’s also somebody that is clearly not what what he once was he’s still great but he’s not the guy that he once was that can be a a difficult delicate situation to manage I don’t know that it will be with LeBron but if I’m a coach that’s looking for a job right now that’s in consideration for both of these jobs I’m going with the younger team I’m going with the team that has a I think a clearer path to competitiveness and that’s the Cavs and it’s not close it’s not on tomorrow’s show Bleacher Report Greg schwarts planning on joining us going to uh play a do a little exercise who says no right we’re going to put together a bunch of Trades talk through them try and come up with who says no to those trades so that’ll be on tomorrow’s locked on Cavs thank you again for making locked on Cavs your first listen every day you can find me on Twitter at real D Cunningham be sure find the show on Apple Spotify wherever you get your podcast subscribe give us a festar review watch the video on YouTube you can see my face it’s great you can you can watch my facial expressions and how I talk with my hands sometimes as we go through this episode give it a thumbs up subscribe hit that notification bell too so you know when a new episode of Locked on Cavs is going up on YouTube do those things help us to grow the show very very much appreciated also it’s a little ways out um but sometime next week I want to do another mailbag I really liked how last week’s mailbag went so so we’re going to do another one at some point next week so start dropping questions in the comments I know I haven’t responded to a ton of comments lately um I still do read them I haven’t had as much time as I would like to to really go through and interact with you guys but I promise I will be doing more of that um as soon as I can but I want to do another mailbag coming up on next week uh right here on lock on Cav so stick with us find us every day make us your first listen YouTube Apple Spotify wherever you get your podcast and I will talk to you tomorrow for [Music]

On Wednesday’s Locked On Cavs, Danny Cunningham (@RealDCunningham) of Cleveland Magazine and 92.3 The Fan discusses James Borrego interviewing with the Cavaliers for the head coaching position.

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