Pressure Cooker: 3 Cavaliers that need to do well in Knicks series

The Cav with the most pressure on them: Coach J.B Bickerstaff

The pressure cooker will be at its maximum with the Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. I will be talking about this pressure on the coach at greater length in a pending article on King James Gospel in the coming days. However, for now, I’ll begin and end with the fact that Bickerstaff has only been in one playoff series, back when he coached the Houston Rockets in the 2015-16 season. His team lost that series to the Golden State Warriors, albeit a far better team.

In a recent story this week, it was reported that Bickerstaff was seeking playoff advice from the Cleveland Guardians manager Terry Francona and while that’s a good move by the coach on one hand, on the other hand, Francona doesn’t coach basketball and that doesn’t exactly scream of a confident coach going into his first playoff series in some time.

I’ve written plenty over the season that I don’t believe Bickerstaff is the head coach of this Cavs squad that is going to get them to an NBA Finals series, and for that matter, win one. I just don’t think he has the ability to come up with enough creative coaching plays and use his players in the most productive ways. I believe this team’s record and getting to this point are more reflective of the team making the trade for Donovan Mitchell and having players like Darius Garland and Evan Mobley naturally improving as they play in the NBA.

Bickerstaff’s team lost three of four games to the Knicks in the regular season and that probably would have been all four games if it weren’t for Donovan Mitchell bailing his team out in the fourth quarter of the first game between the two foes.

Tom Thibodeau is the head coach of the Knicks and he has coached in 61 playoff games and has a 25-36 record. That’s not a great mark and in his last two playoff series, one with the Minnesota Timberwolves and one with these Knicks as recently as the 2020-21 season, he’s lost them 4-1.

Still Thibodeau has the experience that Bickerstaff doesn’t have. Bickerstaff will have to coach like he never has in his past for his team to have a real chance at moving on in these playoffs. That pressure will mount if the Cavaliers can’t take advantage of home court in Game 1. I’m cheering for Bickerstaff but I am a realist in knowing that hoping for something to change isn’t necessarily enough.

With that said, if his players can play well, that might be enough to get this team to the next series. Let’s keep hoping!