Report: Rick Pitino, Dan Gilbert did not discuss Cavs’ HC position at all

Though it was previously reported that Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert discussed Cleveland’s head coaching position with Rick Pitino, that was reportedly completely untrue.

The Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching search is likely going to be a long one that is going to have many candidates. Now, another potential name was initially said to be added to a growing list of reported candidates, with that being longtime men’s college basketball coach, Rick Pitino.

According to outstanding veteran NBA reporter Peter Vecsey, now of Patreon, (and h/t Bleacher Report’s Megan Armstrong), Pitino and Cavs owner Dan Gilbert had discussed Cleveland’s open head coaching position.

Pitino is the head coach of Greek squad Panathinaikos B.C., which he led to a Greek Cup championship earlier this year, per the aforementioned Armstrong.

Nonetheless, this was fairly shocking news before, considering Pitino’s situation in his last coaching stint at Louisville ended abruptly and led to him reportedly being fired in 2017 due to an FBI investigation into “bribery and fraud in college basketball,” (again, h/t Armstrong).

Due to a 2015 recruiting scandal involving Pitino and the program, Louisville eventually had to vacate 123 wins, which included the school’s 2013 championship, per ESPN Stats & Info (and h/t Armstrong).

This made the news about Pitino and Gilbert reportedly discussing the head coaching position somewhat shocking, as was noted, and according to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, there is “zero truth” to that report.

Here’s what a Cavs’ team source said to Cleveland.com on the subject, per Fedor.

"“We are, respectfully, not interested in him at all. No conversations with him by Dan (Gilbert) or anyone else,” a source said."

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In the NCAA, though,Pitino really made his mark over a long and mostly successful coaching career that started way back in 1975-76 with a short stint with Hawaii, and he eventually did well with stops at Boston University, Providence, Kentucky and as was noted, Louisville, before the scandal/firing news, of course.

His lifetime men’s college basketball record is 770-271, per Sports Reference, and he did win two NCAA titles (one of which was vacated, as Armstrong touched on).

When it comes prior NBA head coaching experience, Pitino also was the head man of the New York Knicks from 1987-89, where he made the postseason both times, and he had a second NBA tenure with the Boston Celtics from 1997-2001, where it was, as Sam Quinn of 247 Sports said, a “complete and total disaster.”

Quinn would go on to touch on how Pitino’s style, which generally involves plenty of backcourt ball pressure, is easily beaten by NBA guards.

For the Cavs, who are coming off having the worst defensive rating this past season in the history of the league since that statistic was recorded (per Basketball Reference), that style probably isn’t a way to improve with even more dribble penetration by opponents likely being the result.

Quinn also highlighted how “hard-nosed coaches tend to struggle to get millionaires to buy-in to the degree that college kids do.”

From there, though, Quinn would essentially say that Pitino has improved since his last NBA coaching tenure, and is still well-respected for his longtime NCAA track record, and he would bring a brand name to the Cleveland Cavaliers if he was eventually named their head coach.

I really couldn’t see the organization as a whole, and namely general manager Koby Altman, backing Pitino as a real head coaching candidate, and the team totally shooting down that supposedly reported Gilbert-Pitino discussion cleared the air.

Pitino’s especially fiery style would not seem to work over an 82-game season, and hopefully in the near future, plus the postseason.

Along with that, he is 66 and that NCAA firing at Louisville does not exactly prove he is of the highest character, something Cleveland is reportedly very high on in their rebuilding process, and I don’t understand how his especially fiery style would work long-term for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ full-rebuild.

Cleveland and former head coach Larry Drew, who is 61, mutually parted ways last week (as was reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium), so hiring the 66-year-old Pitino would seem to be very counter-intuitive, wouldn’t it?

Drew, who was a stoic guy in-game, was credited with reportedly keeping the team fully-engaged despite a tough season last year (the team finished 19-63, which tied for the league’s second-worst record, per NBA.com), and I’m not sure Pitino’s style would do that in a potentially similar situation involving developing a ton of young players and losses eventually mounting.

It was definitely a relief to hear that the Cavs we’re not interested in hiring Pitino, after all.

As we’ve touched on, and as Fedor noted in the aforementioned report, Cleveland’s head coaching hiring process is going to be a long one, and there’s no reason it shouldn’t be.