Report: Cavs given permission to meet with Wes Unseld Jr. for HC job
By Dan Gilinsky
The Cleveland Cavaliers were reportedly given permission to meet with Denver Nuggets assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. for the team’s head coaching position.
There will be no stone left unturned when it comes to the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching search, as we’ve often detailed over the last few weeks here at KJG.
Thus far, Cleveland has reportedly interviewed three candidates for the head coaching position, with the first two names being Dallas Mavericks assistant coach Jamahl Mosley and Miami Heat assistant coach Juwan Howard (as reported by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor), and most recently, former Memphis Grizzlies former head coach J.B. Bickerstaff (as reported by the Associated Press’ Tom Withers).
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Along with that, it was reported by the New York Times’ Marc Stein that Mosley “is among the candidates Cleveland has already interviewed who is expected to advance to the next round in the Cavaliers’ search,” (per his league sources).
We’ve touched on how it was reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski that Cleveland was given permission to interview Portland Trail Blazers assistant coaches David Vanterpool and Nate Tibbetts, too.
Additionally, it was reported by The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Tony Jones were given permission to interview Utah Jazz assistant coach Alex Jensen, who already interviewed with the Grizzlies for their head coaching job, this week, too, per The Athletic’s Omari Sankofa, (subscription required) by the way, and Cleveland is reportedly going to carry out that interview with Jensen on Friday, according to a report from Fedor on Thursday.
Now, you can add another name to the set interview list in the near future.
On Thursday, it was reported by Wojnarowski that Cleveland has been given permission to interview Denver Nuggets assistant coach Wes Unseld Jr. for the team’s head coaching position (of which was confirmed by Withers).
Unseld, who is the son of NBA legend and Hall of Famer Wes Unseld, has been an assistant coach in the NBA since the 2005-2006 season; he’s worked with the Washington Wizards, Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic and has been with Denver since 2015-2016 (per Basketball Reference).
According to Fedor, Unseld appears to have (just like it seems Denver Nuggets assistant coach Jordi Fernandez along with Jensen and Mosley have), the player development expertise Cleveland is reportedly putting a high value on in their head coaching search.
Here’s a bit from Fedor on what appears to make Unseld a strong candidate for the Cleveland Cavaliers’ head coaching position, too.
"“Unseld is the lead assistant for Mike Malone’s Nuggets, who are tied 1-1 with the Portland Trail Blazers in the Western Conference semifinals. Unseld, an assistant coach on Denver’s staff since the 2015-16 season, is considered the architect of the Nuggets’ top-10 defense and has been instrumental in the development of the Nuggets’ promising young core.”"
Fedor would also note how Unseld “coached the Rising Stars Challenge during NBA All-Star Weekend in February.”
With the Cleveland Cavaliers having the worst defensive rating in NBA history in 2018-19 since that metric has been recorded by Basketball Reference, taking a long, hard look at Unseld would seem to be a sound move for Cleveland general manager Koby Altman and the organization.
As was detailed before here at KJG, when it comes to Bickerstaff potentially as Cleveland’s next head coach, I’ll take a hard pass, even though he (per Fedor) “told Sirius XM NBA Radio that he likes Cleveland’s future.”
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The search is still in the early stages it appears, though, and I would bet there’s still more names that will be added to the list of possible interviews, given that Cleveland’s next head coach will hopefully have a profound effect on young key pieces such as Cedi Osman, Collin Sexton and Ante Zizic, along with potentially the team’s two draft picks next month.