Cavs: Reported hiring of J.B. Bickerstaff as associate HC is sensible

The Cleveland Cavaliers reportedly hired J.B. Bickerstaff as their associate head coach on Sunday, which gives new head coach John Beilein an experienced top assistant to rely on in his first (and hopefully only) coaching endeavor in the NBA.

The Cleveland Cavaliers seem to have their first choice candidate as their new head coach in former Michigan head coach John Beilein, who general manager Koby Altman has often reportedly called the team’s “culture driver,” as we’ve touched on. It’s been reported throughout this week that with Beilein’s lack of experience at the NBA level, that Cleveland will try to surround him with coaches that have extensive NBA assistant coaching experience.

They played into that narrative on Sunday, as Cleveland reportedly hired former Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies head coach J.B. Bickerstaff, who previously interviewed for Cleveland’s head coaching position, as the team’s associate head coach, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

While I didn’t want to see the Cavs hire Bickerstaff to be the team’s head coach due to a seemingly lack of success, a lead assistant role makes sense, considering Bickerstaff does have extensive NBA coaching experience, as an assistant in particular, and it fits what Beilein and Altman (as Wojnarowski said) wanted for a lead assistant coach that should make the NBA transition easier for Beilein.

Bickerstaff has been in the NBA since the 2004-2005 season, where he’s been an assistant with the Charlotte Hornets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Houston Rockets, where he was the team’s head coach for 71 games after taking over for Kevin McHale in Houston after just 11 games in the 2015-2016 season and went 37-34 (per Basketball Reference).

After that, he was the associate head coach for the Grizzlies for two seasons, and then took over as their head coach for the last two seasons, going 48-97 in that span.

His track record as a head coach doesn’t seem too stellar, but Mike Conley‘s injury issues didn’t help on the Grizz, and several other teams being interested in Bickerstaff for their lead assistant/associate head coaching role can’t be a bad thing, anyway.

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Hopefully Bickerstaff can help improve Cleveland’s historically bad defense (as that’s reportedly his focus) and aid Beilein in developing young players such as Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, Ante Zizic and potentially the Cleveland Cavaliers’ two selections in the 2019 NBA Draft. With having a lead assistant (and not head coaching) role, that may be easier for Bickerstaff, who “hit it off” with Beilein on Wednesday morning, per Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (who also noted how Bickerstaff will receive a long-term deal).

Having a long-time NBA assistant as Beilein’s second-in-command fits what Altman and the Cleveland Cavaliers have reportedly wanted to do, and I would imagine that the 40-year-old Bickerstaff will be able to further relate to younger players, and though Beilein has reportedly always been able to do that, it doesn’t hurt to have a younger guy relay the head coach’s message in a different way on occasion.

As a side note, Bernie Bickerstaff, J.B.’s father, is a senior advisor with the Cavs, and was a longtime NBA assistant and head coach as well, (h/t Amico Hoops’ founder Sam Amico, and site contributor Colton Jones).

According to Fedor’s sources in regards to the rest of Beilein’s potential coaching staff, the Cavaliers have some “holdover assistants that they really value and have talked to Beilein about already.”

However, based on what Fedor said after that, it seems that it’s unclear as to whether or not Beilein will want to retain those holdover assistants, so we’ll see. Moreover, as was emphasized, having Bickerstaff as Beilein’s long-term associate head coach is a sensible move, based on the experience Bickerstaff has in the NBA.