Cavs upcoming team workouts should be invaluable for J.B. Bickerstaff

The Cleveland Cavaliers begin their upcoming team workouts this week, which should be productive for player development and help in terms of team chemistry.

As us Cleveland Cavaliers fans are well-aware of, the squad has not been in game action for quite some time now. Cleveland’s last game pre-then-novel coronavirus-induced hiatus was on March 10, in what was a close loss to the Chicago Bulls.

From there, the Wine and Gold, unfortunately for their sake, were not a squad invited to Orlando for the 2019-20 NBA season’s restart. On the plus side, though, the Cavaliers did seem to be building some momentum post-All-Star break in what would be leading into the hiatus.

In that span, the squad, which finished out with a 19-46 record, was a more respectable 5-6. It was a nice initial span of results after which J.B. Bickerstaff took over the Cavs head coaching reigns. And it would’ve been nice to see how what would’ve been more of a closing portion of the now-past season would’ve turned out, but that didn’t play out, due to COVID-19 concerns.

Now, it was just 11 games, and the team could’ve been galvanized, to an extent, by a mid-season head coaching change. But the club did seem considerably more engaged, and they were playing well, all things considered, and were sixth in the league in assist rate and 10th in effective field goal shooting rate in that span.

So even while we still have a ways before the next NBA season, which will begin no earlier than Christmas Day (Dec. 25), per a report from Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium, the Wine and Gold having in-market bubble team workouts this week is a plus.

There were individual workouts during this past week with COVID-19/social distancing protocols at the club’s Cleveland Clinic practice facility, too, and players have seemingly been having those for some time.

Moreover, for Bickerstaff, these upcoming Cleveland Cavaliers team workouts should be invaluable.

According to a team press release from Cavs.com’s Courtney Payton on Sunday, the Cavs upcoming downtown team bubble workouts will play out from Sep. 23-30. This time, which will involve six sessions, should be especially meaningful for youngsters such as Collin Sexton, Darius Garland and Kevin Porter Jr., for instance, from a player development perspective.

It’s encouraging to know, per Payton’s release, that Dylan Windler, who of course did not appear in 2019-20, is “healthy,” and will be a participant as well.

So swinging back, though, to me, these upcoming Cleveland Cavaliers team bubble workouts should be invaluable for Bickerstaff, who will be able to lead group practices, seemingly, once again. That hasn’t been the case for so long, and that should be a positive once again, for player development and also in regards to the leadership/team-bonding aspect.

It should be productive for Bickerstaff and Cleveland’s coaching staff to be able to see plenty of the group in some 5-on-5 work, which should likely begin on what was then “next Tuesday,” so one would assume the 22nd, per Payton.

That will be limited to one hour per day, but that should still be meaningful for Bickerstaff and the Cavs staff/organization to get more intel on the young pieces in scrimmaging action. Plus, more on some Canton Charge (the Cavs G-League affiliate) call-ups in terms of for the team’s bubble workouts won’t hurt, either.

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Now, for reference, Tristan Thompson and Matthew Dellavedova, who are both expiring and will be unrestricted free agents, aren’t going to be attending, which is understandable.

It’s a bit unfortunate for Bickerstaff and company that Andre Drummond, who is reportedly highly likely to pick up his $28.8 million player option for next season, won’t be attending due to a personal matter, per a report from Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor, though.

But Fedor did note how Drummond has, per a source, been “pretty engaged” in team Zoom meetings, etc. and participated recently in a pre-bubble-type set of individual workouts, which was good to know.

Now, it is a surprise that Cedi Osman, per Payton, won’t be attending these and is still overseas, of which I’d imagine is in his native Turkey. Albeit these workouts, along with shooting sessions in the evening aside from those, are voluntary.

Anyway, for Bickerstaff in general, again factoring in the team-bonding/chemistry element, too, these upcoming Cleveland Cavaliers team bubble workouts should be invaluable.

Adding to that, it’s really good to know from a leadership/team chemistry aspect, in particular, that Kevin Love will be attending these. It’s evident that Love is clearly a huge fan of Bickerstaff and seems to have a great relationship with him, and that echoes that sentiment.

From an on and off-floor perspective, these team workouts should allow J.B. Bickerstaff to get most of the group together. And for a player like Garland, who had ups and downs as a rookie, but should benefit from an extended offseason and should come into next season ready to roll/completely healthy, these should help player development-wise.

You’d have to think it’ll be very impactful for J.B. and company to have much of the group together for the first time for workouts, let alone some scrimmaging, in what’s been so long due to COVID-19.