Cavs: Charge HC experience will be invaluable for Dan Geriot

The Cleveland Cavaliers have made a few notable roster moves this offseason, via two trades. The first that jumps out was a sign-and-trade acquisition of Lauri Markkanen from the Chicago Bulls at the end of last month, and a few hours before the 2021 NBA Draft, the Cavaliers acquired Ricky Rubio via trade from the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Other moves, aside from training camp signings, included the team signing Kevin Pangos, formerly of the EuroLeague, and they most recently signed fellow former Bull, similarly to Markkanen, in Denzel Valentine.

Along with the roster moves, though, the Wine and Gold coaching staff will look a bit different this upcoming season.

The Cavs hired veteran assistant coach Sidney Lowe (who has had some head coaching experience also) in replacement of former assistant coach Lindsay Gottlieb, who left to head coach the USC women’s basketball program, for one.

Additionally, another change was made to the Cavaliers coaching staff, per a report on Tuesday from Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com. The Cavs/head coach J.B. Bickerstaff will be swapping Nate Reinking in at one of their assistant coaching spots, who has recently been the head coach of the Cavs G League affiliate, the now-Cleveland (formerly Canton) Charge, in for Dan Geriot. The 33-year-old Geriot will now be the Charge head coach.

As far as a bit of background on the 47-year-old Reinking, here was more, via Fedor.

"“Reinking, a former professional point guard and current head coach of the Great Britain National Team, was hired by Canton as an assistant for the 2013-14 season. He received a promotion to head coach a few years later, after Jordi Fernandez accepted a job with the Denver Nuggets as assistant coach. Reinking has been with the Charge ever since. This will be the Kent State alum’s first stint in the NBA.”"

I’d imagine that Reinking could help the development of the likes of Darius Garland and Collin Sexton, among others, for one. I’m not glossing over that, but this experience for Geriot should be huge, too, and that’s what came to mind for me upon this news.

I’m not discounting this Cavs move involving Reinking, but this Charge head coaching experience will be invaluable for Geriot.

As Fedor alluded to, Geriot has been with the Cavaliers since 2015, first as a video coordinator and player development coach, and was promoted to an assistant coach before 2018-19. Before receiving that promotion, he was “primarily working with frontcourt players,” and has been aiding the coaching staff in that assistant role since.

For him, being the Charge head coach should be invaluble experience, really, and I’d imagine that if Exhibit 10 training camp signings in Tacko Fall and/or Mitch Ballock eventually were to be waived, he could help further their development with the Charge. That’s also in relation to Brodric Thomas, who will be on a two-way deal again this next season with Cleveland, and one would assume will play the majority of his meaningful time with the Charge.

Granted, I could foresee Ballock, who hit 39.8 percent of his career three-point attempts in a four-year career at Creighton, being a solid candidate to receive the Cavaliers’ other two-way spot, for what it’s worth. But that’d still mostly involve him playing with the Charge, anyhow.

In any case, it’s again clear that for the likes of Geriot, being able to gain head coaching experience with the Charge should really pay off for him, in terms of gaining exposure to day-to-day and in-game responsibilities.

Now, per Fedor’s report, Geriot “will still work closely with the Cavs.” That was worth noting as well, obviously.

Overall, however, this swap could give Bickerstaff an assistant coach that should make a difference for Cleveland’s young guards, as Gottlieb seemingly did before, and again, for Geriot, this head coaching experience should invaluable with the Charge.

We’ll have to see as to what could potentially come down the road for him from there, though.