Why J.B. Bickerstaff's firing by the Cavs was inevitable | No Cap Room

Yahoo Sports NBA writers Jake Fischer and Dan Devine discuss Cleveland's decision to can its head coach after five seasons. Hear the full conversation on “No Cap Room” - part of the “Ball Don’t Lie” podcast - and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

Video transcript

I think this has been kind of had a feeling of inevitability since December, that Cleveland would be parting ways with head coach JB Bickerstaff, which I'm just gonna say from the jump.

It always felt weird to me that the Cavs kind of intentionally fumbled the last game of the regular season in order to get into the four or five preferable matchup to advance in the postseason to then fire the coach that would have taken them further than they have ever gone without lebron in two decades because it has seemed clear through the Intel channels around the league that Baker staff was not someone that Donovan Mitchell and other players were behind.

And that is a key ingredient to Cleveland's off-season as the entire league will wait to see if Donovan agrees to a contract extension, he becomes eligible to sign, which is roughly four years, 200 billion give or take 1 71 59 record 5, 17 win percentage over four plus seasons and they've gotten better every year.

So this is clearly not a and I'm sorry to just point the finger where it seems obviously to be pointed like this is not a, this guy didn't get us far enough situation.

What was your initial thoughts here on Bickerstaff being dismissed?

You know, there's a little bit of damned if you do, damned if you don't.

You're right that they've gotten better year over year under JB Bicker staff.

He gets fired after a season where he only had his core guys, Donovan Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jared Allen together for 32 of their 94 total games.

Um You know, they still win 48 games, they still get a top four seed, uh and they still win a playoff series, but I think it's reasonable to look at their offense and the, the way that their team performed and say it should be better than this.

The, the, the some, the, the talent did not surpass the sum of its parts if you're not getting what you need to get out of the players, if the players aren't listening, right?

If the message is falling on deaf ears, if they don't have confidence in what you're presenting to them, and the message isn't gonna get across and somebody else needs to be delivering, uh whether the message is dramatically different or not.

And so it remains to be seen who will be able to get more out of that structure.

But if the, if job one is keep Donovan Mitchell, keep him happy and if a new offensive voice and structure is needed, um you know, that, that, that JB bicker staff winds up being the, the cost of doing business for that.

And it's like, it's an ugly bit of business but, you know, uh, you can, it's, it's not the first time that's happened.