J.B. Bickerstaff played a significant role in turning around the Cleveland Cavaliers and incrementally improving the team annually, yet it still wasn't enough to keep his job as head coach.
Oftentimes if a team doesn't reach its ultimate goal within a certain time period, the front office will act immediately. Sometimes, it's as soon as the night of a season finale. In other situations, it will come the morning after.
Bickerstaff clearly connected with his players and always came to their defense publicly, whether it was being in officials' ears or in the press conference room. It's hard to call into question his principles on the defensive end of the floor as well, empowering the likes ofin concert with perimeter teammates allowed to be extra aggressive on the ball.
If one wants to make mention of the constant injuries plaguing the Cavs, it might not be off base to suggest that Bickerstaff's minute distribution could have played a role. Recall a moment on Feb. 28 wherefrom going 38 minutes for Cleveland in an emotional win over Dallas at home. Mitchell missed the next seven games and 13 of the next 15.It wasn't just Mitchell, though. Mobley had to miss a huge chunk of the campaign due to a knee problem.
He clarified later that, although the wine-and-gold had plenty of capable bodies, there were so many like-sized smaller players on the roster. The first moment this season where it seemed Bickerstaff could be in trouble was on the road against the Detroit Pistons in the first game of December. Trailing for most of that game and coming off a lowly defeat to the listless Portland Trail Blazers, the Cavs ended up rallying despite it being in less-than-enthusiastic fashion vs.
Max Strus says the Cavs are "lucky" that they are tied with the Magic in the series: "Gotta restart and try to figure out a way to get the next one."A lot has happened over the course of Bickerstaff's head coaching career in Cleveland, including talent-stacking moves from Altman that brought in Mitchell, Allen, Mobley, LeVert and Strus into the picture via trade, the NBA Draft or free agency.
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