Cavs: 3 focus areas for J.B. Bickerstaff for rest of 2019-20

J.B. Bickerstaff’s tenure as Cleveland Cavaliers head coach is now under way, and a few focus areas stick out to me with what I’d like to see from his squad the rest of the 2019-20 season.

To quickly recap, John Beilein is no longer the head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. He left that role on Tuesday, and per a team press release on Wednesday, Beilein was reportedly re-assigned to an unspecified role with Cleveland, and with how his tenure went as the head coach, I’m less than thrilled about that.

For the head coaching role now, and not just in an interim role, in stepped prior associate head coach, J.B. Bickerstaff., which is a sensible move, as Bickerstaff has previously has been the lead man for the Houston Rockets and Memphis Grizzlies.

Bickerstaff is greatly respected by the Cavs’ players, and his ability to connect with them is what stands out, whereas Beilein reportedly did not make an effort to do that whatsoever.

Alright, so looking at the rest of this season, a few focus areas jump out to me with what I’d like to see from the Cavs with Bickerstaff taking over.

The first of those is in relation to keeping a good thing going.

Focus area #1 for Bickerstaff: Keeping up the better ball movement

Despite the Cavaliers only being 2-8 in their last 10 games and 14-40 overall, they have been moving the ball much better lately. Darius Garland and Collin Sexton have had an uptick in terms of playmaking splits in that stretch, with 4.9 and 4.2 assists per outing, per NBA.com, and under Bickerstaff, if that trend continues, it will show growth for both of those young guards.

Additionally, though he’s been off as a three-point shooter in that span, hitting only 29.2 percent from there, Cedi Osman‘s provided more of a secondary playmaking lift with 3.5 dimes per outing in those last 10 games, and that’s a positive sign.

I’d prefer to see Osman keep getting chances to drive-and-kick more under Bickerstaff, and lead the way on the break following outlet passes from the likes of Kevin Love and feasibly Andre Drummond after defensive rebounds.

Along with those young perimeter pieces, Love and Drummond could give some solid inside-out playmaking for Bickerstaff, too, and we’re also seeing more from Larry Nance Jr. in that realm lately.

Nance is one of Cleveland’s better passers, and when he’s in the game, Bickerstaff should utilize him a bunch in the middle of the offense. That allows him to hit the likes of Tristan Thompson as a roller, Kevin Porter Jr., Alfonzo McKinnie (in hoping his reported plantar fasciitis injury isn’t nagging) and Osman as cutters and also spray out to shooters, such as Love and Porter.

Moreover, while turnovers do continue to be an issue with so many youngsters playing big minutes, Cleveland is eighth in assists per game in the their last 10 games, according to NBA.com. That’s much, much better than on the season, in which the Cavs are just 25th in assists per outing, and the Cavs’ offensive rating is better in that span, too, at 110.0 as compared to the rest of the year at 106.3.

For Bickerstaff, he needs to make it a priority for this better ball movement to keep up the rest of the way, as it leads to much more sustainable offense and by and large, better shot selection.

Moving on, the second focus area for Bickerstaff for the rest of this season is on the defensive end.