INDEPENDENCE, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – Over four and a half seasons J.B. Bickerstaff helped turn the Cavaliers from a lottery team into a perennial playoff contender.
It wasn’t enough to bring Bickerstaff back for a fifth full season.
“It's not something that he did specifically,” Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said Friday morning. “I think for us, it's with this group, finding someone with a new approach, someone with a different voice, a fresh set of eyes to help us move forward. And we've accomplished a lot in the last few years getting to a conference semifinals and we don't want to be complacent.”
Under Bickerstaff, the Cavs went 170-159 in the regular season, including a 22-win season his first year. Cleveland won no less than 44 games in the three others.
Bickerstaff, who took over for John Beilein as the interim head coach midway through the 2019-2020 season and was named the full-time head coach after that campaign, is under contract through the 2026-2027 season.
Altman denied the accuracy of the list of candidates that surfaced shortly after Bickerstaff’s dismissal which included former Nets head coach and current Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson, former Nets head coach and current Pelicans assistant James Borrego, Timberwolves assistant Micah Nori, Nuggets assistant David Adelman and Bucks assistant Dave Joerger.
“I'd be lying to you if I said I've already dove into a list of people and criteria,” Altman said. “We're going to take the weekend, decompress, come back Tuesday and really sit down with the staff and go over those questions. It's a massive undertaking.”
Once Altman finds Bickerstaff’s replacement, the No. 1 roster priority becomes getting Donovan Mitchell to commit to a long-team contract extension. The team can offer four more years and nearly $208 million after the NBA Finals.
“I'll say that my exit interview with him was really good in that he was talking about the future and how excited he was about the team, the organization,” Altman said. “This is a player that has had two of the best years of his career here, has had a lot of success here, understands the infrastructure, I think has a lot of trust in what we're doing and understands that our goal is to win a championship. And again, when we're talking to him about the future here, getting his feedback, it's all about how do we make this thing better? How do we achieve this together? How do we win in the future? And so I take those as very positive things from his own words. He says he's happy here, he likes it here. And so he's always been very genuine.”
Altman also dismissed talk of significant roster changes to the core four of Mitchell, Darius Garland, Evan Mobley and Jarett Allen.
“I don't see why we should,” Altman said.
“I don't see a big major sweeping changes. I just don't, like I said, more data speaks to this works than it doesn't. You can't win 99 games over the [last two] regular season[s], make it to a conference semis and be like, this doesn't work… I have a lot of excitement for the future for this group and belief in this group.”
As for arguments about how the four fit on the floor together, Altman also believes that narrative is inaccurate despite the fact the team played it’s best basketball with one star big and one star guard on the floor this past season.
“I think that's overblown,” Altman said.
“When you look at some of the most successful teams over the past decade that had real success in the playoffs, they've had a long run at this thing going back to Golden State that's been together for 12 years with their core, we look at Milwaukee that's been together almost 11 years. When you look at Giannis and Khris Middleton and their run together, right? That's 11 years, Boston, I want to say seven years together and they're still knocking at the door, right for that championship. But that's been a core that's been together for seven years, had a lot of success together. Obviously Denver, when you look at Jokic and Jamal Murray for eight years. We're just in year two of this iteration and we got to a conference semis. We're not content with that, but there's a lot of runway left.”
Altman also revealed that Jarrett Allen’s rib contusion that kept him off the floor for the final nine games of the playoffs was more serious than reported.
“I've never had a broken rib, but I've had several people reach out to me about how much it hurts,” Altman said. “You can't drive to work, you can't sleep, you can't tie your sneakers. To give you some insight to what Jared did, I mean Jared tried to give it a go. I mean to the last day and a half, he was trying to go up and down on this floor and do some real basketball moves. It's hard to play basketball if you can't raise your arms over your head. I know there was speculation of more stuff he could have done. It's impossible to play through what he was playing through.”
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