Former Cavs HC Bill Fitch’s start from scratch efforts why he’s in 2019 Basketball HOF class

Bill Fitch was the first head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and he would go on to lead them and a bunch of other NBA teams to the postseason even though it was via the start from scratch way, and he’s now a part of the 2019 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class because of that.

The Cleveland Cavaliers‘ inaugural season was in 1970-71, when the expansion team would only go 15-67, and they would have a few more very rough seasons following.

They would gradually turn things around, though, thanks to players such as Austin Carr, Bingo Smith and later on, Jim Chones and Dick Snyder, but a good amount of credit for the Cavs eventually making the postseason three straight seasons (1975-76, 1976-77 and 1977-78) was Cleveland’s first head coach, Bill Fitch.

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As was also displayed later on in his NBA head coaching career, along with at stops at colleges such as Bowling Green and Minnesota, was that Fitch would be more than willing to take rebuilding situations head on, and in the NBA, especially, he would succeed, and being in rebuilding scenarios a few times, let alone a bunch of them, is not something I would imagine most head coaches (or assistants, too) would be willing to participate in.

Of course, when it comes to Fitch’s story with the Cleveland Cavaliers, the key was him being the head coach of the “Miracle of Richfield” squad in that first playoff season of 1975-76.

In that run, the Cavaliers would beat the Washington Bullets in seven games and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals, and would again, make two more postseason appearances under Fitch (as illustrated by Basketball Reference). Fitch truly turned the Cavs around from the ground up.

At first glance, given that Fitch had just a .460 winning percentage, one may think he wasn’t deserving of Basketball Hall of Fame consideration, but current Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle (a former player and mostly assistant coach for Fitch on the then-New Jersey Nets) hit on why Fitch is absolutely a Hall of Famer (courtesy of the Akron Beacon Journal‘s Marla Ridenour), and it’s due to that Fitch took five different teams to the postseason (the Cavs, the Celtics, the Rockets, the Nets and Los Angeles Clippers) with him playing a big role in turning them all around.

Here’s a bit on what Carlisle had to say in regards to Fitch’s candidacy in February, back when Fitch wasn’t yet announced as one of the members of the Basketball Hall of Fame 2019 class, again, per Ridenour.

"“The really compelling thing about his case, which doesn’t show up at face value, is that the average winning percentage of teams he took over was 27 percent.” Carlisle said. “His career mark ended up being 46 percent. To really understand what he did, it’s not just a matter of looking at his record, you’ve got to look at the win differential. That’s really the big key.Many of the great coaches in history, if they had the choice, were unwilling to take over teams where they knew there was going to be a lot of losing and stuff like that. And Bill consistently took on those challenges and he was a master. I think only him and Larry Brown have taken five teams from lottery to significantly higher heights and of course Larry is in the Hall of Fame.”"

While leading the Celtics, Fitch, with the help of Larry Bird, Robert Parish and others, though, would win the NBA championship in 1980-81, and would also take over the Rockets in 1983-84, where they won just 29 games, but just two years later, would win the Western Conference in the 1985-86 season (per Basketball Reference).

Additonally, Fitch, who was a two-time NBA Coach of the Year, always adapted his teams to take advantage of their strengths after initial rebuilds, whether that be predicated on often playing uptempo, prioritizing man and ball movement, such as was often the case when Fitch when was the head coach of the Boston Celtics, or getting bigs the ball frequently in the post (such as was the case with the Houston Rockets) to control tempo, it again proved that Fitch could get his squads to compete with the best of them with thanks to varying styles.

So again, the former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach was more than willing to start from scratch, as Carlisle highlighted, and that’s why he’s a member of the 2019 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class, which is being honored in the enshrinement festivities in Springfield, Massachusetts September 5-7 (per an NBA.com official release).

Though Fitch (87), who is not able to make the trip to Springfield for medical reasons (per Masslive.com’s John Karalis) and has to remain at his home in the Houston, Texas area, his presence will still be felt and welcomed at the Hall, due to his presenter, Larry Bird, detailing what Fitch did for him, and so many others, as his old ball coach.

Karalis noting that Fitch also was one of the first to adopt video in scouting and breaking down talent also plays right into what made Fitch turn his clubs into winners over time, too, and with the way teams are so advanced in their scouting breakdowns now, I found that particularly interesting.

So congratulations to Bill, and again, he’ll always be remembered for what he did in helping turn the Cleveland Cavaliers into a postseason team.