The Cleveland Cavaliers are reportedly going to be interviewing two assistant coaches on the Portland Trail Blazers for their head coaching position.
The Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching search is likely to be a long one that is far from over, as we’ve touched on a number of times since the team mutually parted ways with former head coach Larry Drew (as was then reported by Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium).
According to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, at this point, the Cavaliers have interviewed Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley and Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard, and from there, Fedor did go on to mention a number of other potential candidates for Cleveland’s head coaching position, which included two current assistant coaches on the Portland Trail Blazers, in Nate Tibbetts and David Vanterpool.
Furthermore, on Tuesday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Cavs received permission from Portland to interview both Tibbetts and Vanterpool for the team’s head coaching position.
Cleveland has received permission to interview Portland assistants Nate Tibbetts and David Vanterpool for franchise's head coaching job, league sources tell ESPN.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) April 23, 2019
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The 41-year-old Tibbetts was previously an assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers from 2011-2013, and according to Fear The Sword’s Chris Manning, is “well-respected around the league” and “has a background in player development, dating back to his coaching in the G-League.”
Manning would also say how Vanterpool has been given “a lot of credit” for player development in Portland and for how the Blazers have been a good squad in recent years, and would go on to say how Vanterpool is “as respected as they come.”
Both Tibbetts and Vanterpool have been assistants with Portland since 2013-14 (per Basketball Reference), and have seemed to help the franchise in a considerable way, as the team has made the postseason in a tougher Western Conference every season since that time.
With the Cleveland Cavaliers likely going to be in a full-rebuild for a few years while pieces such as Cedi Osman, Collin Sexton, Ante Zizic and probably several others have their growing pains, candidates such as Tibbetts and Vanterpool would make sense as Cleveland’s next head coach, as Manning and KJG’s own Corey Casey recently illustrated.
Being able to interview these two Portland assistant coaches can’t hurt Cleveland Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman and company in their search.