The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly agreed to a deal with former University of Michigan head coach John Beilein to become the team’s next head coach, and it seemed that he fit what Cleveland was looking for in a “culture driver” to lead them in their rebuild.
The rebuild in likely the next few years for the Cleveland Cavaliers will be mostly predicated on the steady development of young players getting a considerable minutes-share. Key young pieces such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman and Ante Zizic project to be a big part of that sort of thing, along with at least one of the team’s two first-round draft picks in the 2019 NBA Draft.
For Cleveland in the near future, though, their young pieces will need to be developed over time by the next head coach, and according to a number of reports since Cleveland reportedly mutually parted ways with former head coach Larry Drew (who went 19-57 last season, per Basketball Reference), it seemed (as our own Corey Casey detailed) that the Cavs were looking for a younger, would-be-first-time head coach (at the NBA level at least) to help bring young players along and create a winning culture.
Well, that some of that sort of approach was to be the case, at the least when it comes to NBA head coaching experience, as the Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly agreed with former University of Michigan head coach John Beilein for him to be the franchise’s next head coach, according to reports from ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on Monday.
Talks escalated over the weekend, with a deal reached on Sunday, league sources tell ESPN. Beilein informed his administration on Monday morning of his decision to make leap to NBA, and is telling his players now. https://t.co/qH749G3c3d
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) May 13, 2019
As Wojnarowski noted, a deal was reached on Sunday, and Beilein relayed the news to Michigan’s administration and his former players. Beilein was also linked to the Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons’ head coaching vacancies last offseason, too, per Wojnarowski.
Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman and others in Cleveland’s front office also reportedly interviewed Denver Nuggets assistant coaches Wes Unseld Jr. and Jordi Fernandez, in addition to Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool and Magic assistant coach Steve Hetzel on Saturday for the team’s head coaching position, according to Wojnarowski.
Cleveland was also supposedly going to interview Portland assistant coach Nate Tibbetts at some point after the Blazers-Nuggets series ended, too, as Wojnarowski hit on.
Nonetheless, it seems as if those were just procedural interviews due to permission reportedly received, and according to the Akron Beacon Journal’s Marla Ridenour, it seems as though one of the previously interviewed candidates may be hired as Cleveland’s associate head coach under Beilein, anyhow.
So what seems to pop when it comes to the Beilein fit for the Cavaliers in the near future?
It has to be his ability to get good production out of young players, which should be a plus for a Cleveland team that will likely be focused on developing young pieces in the coming years and probably adding more future draft assets.
Wojnarowski in his report touched on how the former Michigan head coach (who is the winningest in that program’s history by the way, per Sports Reference) has done it all at the collegiate level, and should fit what Cleveland has been looking for in its head coaching search in terms of a candidate being able to lead them in their rebuild and setting the right example.
"“The Cavaliers have been using the term “culture driver” internally when discussing the possibility of hiring Beilein, sources said. He’s considered one of the elite offensive tacticians and teachers in basketball, a coach who has never been an assistant and climbed almost every level of basketball — coaching high school, junior college, Division III, II and I. The final step in an odyssey that’s brought him an 829-468 college record has been the NBA, and now Beilein makes the leap.He led Michigan to two Final Fours and four Big Ten tournament and regular-season titles in his 12-year run in Ann Arbor.”"
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That’s encouraging to hear in regards to how Beilein has had clear success at every level he has been a head coach at, and Wojnarowski would highlight how Beilein has long been admired by Cavs owner Dan Gilbert, and that Beilein’s “value system” is something Cleveland wants to implement in its organization, too.
In addition, as Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor demonstrated, Beilein has molded players who were not exactly marquee recruits into first-round draft picks, such as Tim Hardaway Jr., Moritz Wagner and Mitch McGary, and has willingly accepted use of analytics to drive success.
I would imagine that Beilein and his new staff (which Wojnarowski noted will seemingly have tons of NBA assistant coaching experience) will try to implement more ball and man movement in his offensive sets than Cleveland seemed to have last year (as they were second-last in assists per game, per NBA.com) as his teams have had in his years leading them, and having a pick-and-pop threat the likes of Kevin Love should help out Beilein tremendously early on in his head coaching efforts with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Of course, Love remaining relatively healthy is a big if in that department, though.
Along with that, even with the 2019 NBA Draft lottery on May 14 (of which Wojnarowski said Beilein will be in attendance), and Cleveland having a 14.0% chance of landing the top overall pick (per Tankathon) and essentially the rights to draft Duke phenom Zion Williamson, it’s clearly not going to be easy for the 66-year-old Beilein to turn things around really quickly.
Gilbert obviously has not had much patience when it comes to head coaches and front office personnel, so Beilein will need to have players fully bought into his system very quickly.
I would imagine he would implement his system right away, which is largely based on the Princeton offense, which emphasizes motion off the ball paired with dribble hand-offs on the wing for guards and bigs that can do some secondary playmaking, such as Larry Nance Jr. (who had a career-high 3.2 assists per game and an assist rate of 17.8% last season, per Basketball Reference), Love and potentially, Williamson, who has displayed very good passing feel both in the halfcourt and in transition to go along with his interior scoring presence.
Another potential piece the Cavs could try to have in their near-future rebuild is former Michigan wing Ignas Brazdeikis (who they could feasibly draft with their second 2019 first-rounder), who had 14.8 points on 53.1% effective field goal shooting (including a 39.2% clip from three-point range, per Sports Reference) and 5.4 rebounds per game in one season in Ann Arbor.
Brazdeikis could be a quality rotational scorer on the perimeter because of sheer craftiness and solid cutting prowess, and due to good feel on the defensive end, too, could be a plus bench player for the Cavs and his ability could be maximized due to familiarity with Beilein from last year, for the record.
Moreover, I am a bit concerned that at the end of Beilein’s five-year contract, he is going to be 71, if that works out, and although you would think he should be able to connect with young players given his collegiate background, will veteran NBA players be totally bought in?
That I’m not so sure about for the long-term, but once again, it appears that Beilein is going to set the right example from a character standpoint, and it seems as though the Cavs are fully behind him.
As Wojnarowski hit on, Altman seems to have great respect for Beilein’s work, and Cavs assistant general manager Mike Gansey is close with Beilein, given that Gansey played for him at West Virginia (and advanced to the Elite Eight).
So time will tell if this is the right fit, and whether or not Beilein’s style will work. At the very least, Altman’s tenure as GM will be tied to this head coaching hire in the coming years.