2 key areas of concern about Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff

Concern No. 2: Not playing key bench players enough

If you start digging into the data, you’ll see that Bickerstaff has been running his starters into the ground and there won’t be much left if he keeps this strategy up. Recently, he’s been playing mostly essentially a seven-man rotation. That rotation includes Caris LeVert and Cedi Osman. It used to include Dean Wade and at times Lamar Stevens as well but they’ve both fallen out of favor with the head coach.

I believe an eight or nine-man rotation is much better and would relieve the starters of the pressure to score buckets. Some fans at this point will suggest that the bench of the Cavs isn’t very good. But that bench isn’t playing as well because they aren’t being given the time on the court to gel.

Dean Wade is an excellent case study of where Bickerstaff has a real problem in recognizing what’s working and what’s not with his team. Wade is a great defender for the Cavs and when he sees more than 20 minutes of playing time the team usually wins. They are 15-5 this season when Wade went over the 20-minute mark, and only 6-5 when he played less than 20 minutes.

Stevens brings energy and effort with every possession. He had 15 games before mid-January where he played for more than 20 minutes a game. But in the last 15 games, he hasn’t played more than 20 minutes in a single game.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what players like Wade and Stevens can help with, but it seems like Bickerstaff can’t see the value of some of his players.