Cavs: J.B. Bickerstaff’s four-year contract extension sends right message

It was reported on Tuesday that the Cleveland Cavaliers and head coach J.B. Bickerstaff agreed on a multi-year contract extension, which is going to be for four years, and this move sends the right message.

I’d think that most fans of the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the organization, including the players, would acknowledge that the team is playing much better since the All-Star break.

In that span, the squad is 5-5, and they won back-to-back games in a hard-fought manner over the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs on a Saturday/Sunday back-to-back over the weekend.

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What stands out from Cleveland’s recent stretch, really, is the team’s improved play since prior associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff took over as head coach, which was after prior head coach John Beilein stepped down, and has since been re-assigned to an unspecified role within the organization.

Clearly, since Bickerstaff has taken over, the Wine and Gold are playing with more consistent all-out effort, especially on the defensive end of the floor as rotators, and that’s even including Kevin Love, and that’s been great to see.

Plus, and I’ll give some credit to Beilein for preaching this, the ball movement has continued to be very good post-All-Star under Bickerstaff, as it was in the last stretch of contests with Beilein still at the helm.

In 10 games with Bickerstaff leading the way, the Cleveland Cavaliers are seventh in assist rate, according to NBA.com. While turnovers are still a problem, as Cleveland has had the second-highest turnover rate in that span, with so many in and out of the lineup combined with young pieces playing big minutes, that’s been understandable and the Cavs’ ball movement has been a huge positive.

Fortunately, after Cleveland owner Dan Gilbert and general manager Koby Altman fell flat on their face with the Beilein hire that flamed out sooner than anyone could’ve imagined, the Cavaliers and Bickerstaff reportedly agreed on a multi-year contract extension, as was first reported by Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski then first reported that the contract extension is for four years and will run through the 2023-24 campaign.

This contract extension sends the right message to the Cavs’ players, and to Bickerstaff, who as Russo essentially hit on, has a deep connection with Altman and Bickerstaff’s father, Bernie Bickerstaff, has a key advisory role within the organization.

Now, I won’t gloss over the fact that in not even two NBA seasons yet with them, Collin Sexton is on his fourth head coach (which Sexton himself has had no control over). With Gilbert being the owner of the club, the Cleveland Cavaliers have clearly been anything but a model of stability.

This contract extension, which the team and J.B. made official Tuesday evening, that the Cavs and Bickerstaff reportedly agreed upon does send the right message to the coaching staff, Bickerstaff and to the players, such as Sexton, Darius Garland, and others, though, that the organization is going to give Bickerstaff his time.

Not including this post-All-Star stretch, that means Bickerstaff needs to have three full seasons to prove he can be the right head coach to bring the team back to relevance in the Eastern Conference.

At this point, it appears he could be that guy with how Sexton has shown growth even since Bickerstaff’s taken over, as evidenced by Sexton being nominated for the Eastern Conference Player of the Week for this past week, along with Bickerstaff’s willingness to experiment with lineups, such as even putting Larry Nance Jr. at the 3 in some instances, which has yielded great results.

However, I know the sample size is just 10 games. I also completely get that with Gilbert’s ownership, Cavs fans never truly know how long a head coach has, nor do the players.

Nonetheless, with the way that the now-41-year-old Bickerstaff (as of Tuesday) has been able to connect with players, including veterans such as Kevin Love, who he goes way back with, and is seemingly maximizing his players’ skill sets thus far, such as with Nance being used as a playmaker more consistently, I’m of the firm belief that this is the correct move by the Cavaliers.

Bickerstaff did an admirable job with pretty minimal talent last season as the head coach of the Memphis Grizzlies. They improved their record by 18 games in his second season there (after which he was fired, which was a pretty raw deal) and he did not have the likes of Ja Morant and Brandon Clarke this past season to work with, either.

Granted, I wasn’t a Bickerstaff believer as a potential head coaching candidate during Cleveland’s last head coaching search, but he’s definitely changed my tune. Along with that, with Bickerstaff reportedly eventually going to take over for Beilein, anyway, this move in J.B. being locked up long-term sends the right message that the Cleveland Cavaliers are trying to establish some stability.

For the further development of Sexton, Garland, Kevin Porter Jr., feasibly Cedi Osman and Dylan Windler, who won’t play at all in his rookie year due to a stress reaction in his left leg, Bickerstaff hopefully being around long-term will enable the young pieces to gradually grow in coming years.

I also am glad, albeit he’s a good coach and did not a heck of a job rebuilding the Brooklyn Nets, that Cleveland is not going to pursue Kenny Atkinson for their head coaching job, as that would be yet another head coach for Sexton, Osman and company and that could stunt their development.

The Cavs desperately need to develop a winning culture in coming years molded by stressing work ethic, accountability and unselfish play, and Bickerstaff preaches all three, and again, does a terrific job of relating to players, which the 67-year-old Beilein and mostly college coach, did not do whatsoever.

Handing the keys to J.B. for the foreseeable future sends the right message that Cleveland wants to stop the coaching carousel from continuously spinning, and it’ll be up to Altman and company to make quality draft picks for Bickerstaff to work with, too.