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John-Blair Bickerstaff: Currently The 6th Longest Tenured Head Coach

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Has JBB Turned the Corner?

  • Yes

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No

    Votes: 9 37.5%
  • The Playoffs are the True Test

    Votes: 11 45.8%
  • Injuries forced his hand, but he learned from it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • People are way too hard on him

    Votes: 1 4.2%
  • He needs to play CPJ more

    Votes: 3 12.5%
  • What's not to like?

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Jim Chones' wall-to-wall counseling session with JBB worked

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    24
You are bordering on insanity for not realizing it. This coach is inept. Wouldn't let him coach in the Adriatic league.
I'm somewhere in between the both of you on this.
Cavs personnel (at present) leaves nearly NO margin for error, and JBB made a lot of them in the 2nd half.
The first two times Lauri got caught switched on to Trae should have been a time out and substitution immediately.
Not finding a way to get Mobley post-ups going when Capela was out was a mistake.
Not finding a way to get Kevin Love some minutes in the 2nd half was a mistake.

JBB tightened up that rotation for this game, perhaps trying to reduce errors. But it didn't help.

There needs to be an offensive coordinator. Lowe ain't the guy for this. I lowkey wish Ty Lue was still the coach. HE would have won this.
 
I thought our game plan in the first half was great. In the second half, Trae went off, Lauri stop hitting his shots, and Garland pressed. If Garland's going to have a bad game, the Cavs aren't going to win, at least not as presently constructed. Scheming against a guy with Trae's range after he gets going is tough. If you meet him out at the logo, then he still has 12-15 feet where he can hit a 3 point shot after he gets by you. The Hawks have an embarrassment of riches in terms of players besides Trae who can stretch the floor. They actually played better after Capela went down IMO.

Jarret Allen played one-handed last night which really impacted impacted him. Our rebounding was hurt overall. Also, there was some rust in terms of timing. There were times when he overcommitted on the double against Trae, there were times he committed too late, or too early, and as a result, left himself too far away from the paint or in no-man's land. Mobley didn't rotate out into the paint to meet Trae as quickly as needed. This isn't a seven game series, it's a one and done. We're a young team, some lessons are going to be learned the hard way, and that's why it's important for young teams to lock up the sixth seed so that they get a seven game series.

I was almost relieved we didn't win because because I don't like players playing hurt and if we had another four or five games against a guy like Bam, Allen could've done some long-term damage to that finger.
 
Yes, Stevens is physical which is why he's better when the officials are allowing the game to be played physically. Better still if the opposing team isn't already in the bonus. But if the officials aren't allowing for that, the other team is in the bonus, and Durant's getting superstar treatment from the officials, then four of the six points Durant ends up scoring in those seven minutes are at the line.

This is a good point. How the officials are calling a game can have a major impact on which players are best suited to be on the court.
 
Cavs should have won this one. This coach continues to actively hurt his team. It's sad to see.

Honestly, I wanted the Cavs to win this one and they should have. The insane crowd and the players deserved it. But this coach man... what the fuck. Get a fucking good coach and watch this team explode.

I am not a JBB apologist, but I dont see this as his fault. He finally had a semi healthy team and he started who we all wanted. He didnt have a real backup guard except the corpse of Rondo, he kept Okoro's minutes to a min, sure he didnt play Love a ton, but Love was getting torched on D.

The playoff like environment exposes our holes. Trae just was insane making 35 footer after 35 footer in the 2nd half. No one can guard that. We need wings and a backup pg and a guard that can score from the bench.

We have an offseason, this team over performed, lets not burn the building down.
 
I am not a JBB apologist, but I dont see this as his fault. He finally had a semi healthy team and he started who we all wanted. He didnt have a real backup guard except the corpse of Rondo, he kept Okoro's minutes to a min, sure he didnt play Love a ton, but Love was getting torched on D.

The playoff like environment exposes our holes. Trae just was insane making 35 footer after 35 footer in the 2nd half. No one can guard that. We need wings and a backup pg and a guard that can score from the bench.

We have an offseason, this team over performed, lets not burn the building down.
I just think the more talented, AND better coached team won. We don't have an answer for Trae Young when he's hot but few teams do. You have to dominate in other ways and above all else, score on all of your own possessions, to beat him. We failed on both counts.

I think that a masterful job from the head coach could have beat them. We don't have that guy. We have to have better talent than the other team to win because our head coach isn't going to outcoach anybody. But those head coaches don't grow on trees. I've said all along that JBB either needs to improve, or he needs to accept a high level assistant to manage the tactical aspects of the game. If JBB doesn't either improve or if he's too proud and stubborn to accept help, then he will need to be replaced.

That doesn't change the fact that the other team had the best player on the floor last night. Our only chance was to play pretty much the same way we did defensively, but we needed to score more. We had too many shot clock violations and too many poor shot attempts ending up in empty, non-scoring possessions. Coaching and scheme definitely could have helped but there was also a lack of awareness and adjustment by the players. Nobody at this level should ever lack complete awareness of the shot clock.

I loved JA's contribution and heart but he was clearly impaired and that put DG in a bind, sort of having JA but not really having him. I think JA should have played fewer minutes especially after Capella went down.

Bottom line, we were the underdogs for a reason, and those reasons proved out and the expected result is what we got.
 
I just think the more talented, AND better coached team won. We don't have an answer for Trae Young when he's hot but few teams do. You have to dominate in other ways and above all else, score on all of your own possessions, to beat him. We failed on both counts.

I think that a masterful job from the head coach could have beat them. We don't have that guy. We have to have better talent than the other team to win because our head coach isn't going to outcoach anybody. But those head coaches don't grow on trees. I've said all along that JBB either needs to improve, or he needs to accept a high level assistant to manage the tactical aspects of the game. If JBB doesn't either improve or if he's too proud and stubborn to accept help, then he will need to be replaced.

That doesn't change the fact that the other team had the best player on the floor last night. Our only chance was to play pretty much the same way we did defensively, but we needed to score more. We had too many shot clock violations and too many poor shot attempts ending up in empty, non-scoring possessions. Coaching and scheme definitely could have helped but there was also a lack of awareness and adjustment by the players. Nobody at this level should ever lack complete awareness of the shot clock.

I loved JA's contribution and heart but he was clearly impaired and that put DG in a bind, sort of having JA but not really having him. I think JA should have played fewer minutes especially after Capella went down.

Bottom line, we were the underdogs for a reason, and those reasons proved out and the expected result is what we got.
I agree on the coaching take here but I disagree on the talent issue. Trae was the best player in the game last night, but Garland and Mobley were the next two up. Atlanta's second best guy (Hunter) is around LeVert's level and their third best guy (Huerter) is lower than that. Even with 50% of Allen, I think we had the most talent on the floor last night, especially after they lost Capela.
 
I agree on the coaching take here but I disagree on the talent issue. Trae was the best player in the game last night, but Garland and Mobley were the next two up. Atlanta's second best guy (Hunter) is around LeVert's level and their third best guy (Huerter) is lower than that. Even with 50% of Allen, I think we had the most talent on the floor last night, especially after they lost Capela.
But the Hawks were able to negate DG and effectively shut down our offense for meaningful stretches of the game. Mobley is awesome but he needs either a facilitator or he needs plays where he gets the ball in position to attack. It's asking too much of him to expect him to attack a defense off the dribble at this point of his development. JA's effort was nice but after he banged his finger he became a liability. Lauri was the only player who played at playoff level and intensity last night and pretty much the rest of our roster fell short in various ways.

So with Trae being Trae, and the rest of their roster just playing within their normal roles, I'd have to say their effective talent level surpassed ours. Maybe if some of our guys stepped up to meet the challenge more, or if they were put into better positions to succeed by coaching adjustments, our effective talent could have won out. But we haven't really played that way since the All-star break and there's no reason to think we could pull it all together in one game after being so hobbled over the past several months. Atlanta could sustain and play without key guys because Trae makes it possible, and the Cavs simply don't have that player who can overcome such obstacles.
 
But the Hawks were able to negate DG and effectively shut down our offense for meaningful stretches of the game. Mobley is awesome but he needs either a facilitator or he needs plays where he gets the ball in position to attack. It's asking too much of him to expect him to attack a defense off the dribble at this point of his development. JA's effort was nice but after he banged his finger he became a liability. Lauri was the only player who played at playoff level and intensity last night and pretty much the rest of our roster fell short in various ways.

So with Trae being Trae, and the rest of their roster just playing within their normal roles, I'd have to say their effective talent level surpassed ours. Maybe if some of our guys stepped up to meet the challenge more, or if they were put into better positions to succeed by coaching adjustments, our effective talent could have won out. But we haven't really played that way since the All-star break and there's no reason to think we could pull it all together in one game after being so hobbled over the past several months. Atlanta could sustain and play without key guys because Trae makes it possible, and the Cavs simply don't have that player who can overcome such obstacles.
I can agree with all of this. The Cavs had a better team on paper, but when it came time to it, Atlanta's role players gave a median performance and ours wilted. That was enough for Trae to overcome the difference.

I think Garland has a gear or two that he is developing that will let him carry an offense the way Trae did for Atl all year. We know Sexton has it already and I suspect Mobley does too. I think what hasn't been talked about as much here is how badly our D fell apart without Allen on the backline. He has been amazing all year.
 
One thing I'm not sure JBB should be given credit for, but I'll do it anyway: for a brief moment before that Lauri-switch-on-Trae debacle, the Cavs were actually defending the perimeter without doing their usual help-at-all-costs BS. That's when they were keeping that Hawks run at bay. Which is a miracle considering how their defense is toilet without the Allen/Mobley combo being available. Because JBB is not a "low margin of error" coach Cavs personnel matters so much when it comes to wins and losses.

This offseason is a critical one. Even if they had won that game, I would have some of these same observations. Had them in the regular season.
 
One thing I'm not sure JBB should be given credit for, but I'll do it anyway: for a brief moment before that Lauri-switch-on-Trae debacle, the Cavs were actually defending the perimeter without doing their usual help-at-all-costs BS.

Why are people so enraged at that switch? If you're going to overreact to the Hawks getting a favorable switch for Trae, you're going to be overreacting a hell of a lot. Hunting for those exact mismatches is like 90% of their offense.

Also, let's not kid ourselves. Young cannot be contained by any one guy. I thought we already went through this same thing with Kyrie. It's pure fantasy to think that someone like Lamar Stevens could just come in and put he clamps on one of the best 1-on-1 ballhandlers in the world. Not gonna happen.

Defending superstars is a 5 man job, and you need an actual strategy for it.
 
Why are people so enraged at that switch? If you're going to overreact to the Hawks getting a favorable switch for Trae, you're going to be overreacting a hell of a lot. Hunting for those exact mismatches is like 90% of their offense.

Also, let's not kid ourselves. Young cannot be contained by any one guy. I thought we already went through this same thing with Kyrie. It's pure fantasy to think that someone like Lamar Stevens could just come in and put he clamps on one of the best 1-on-1 ballhandlers in the world. Not gonna happen.

Defending superstars is a 5 man job, and you need an actual strategy for it.
Nobody on the planet thinks Lamar could check Trae. He could have done a better job against KD than Lauri. He could have scored against guys like Huerter and he could defend the other Hawks well on the perimeter.
 
They needed Mobley to be more assertive last night when Garland was floundering. A real coach would have told Garland to get him the ball or would have told Mobley to go get it, but we don't have one of those. I'm not going to blame the kid, he's a rookie. But it's something he needs to learn going forward if he's going to max out his potential.
 
They needed Mobley to be more assertive last night when Garland was floundering. A real coach would have told Garland to get him the ball or would have told Mobley to go get it, but we don't have one of those. I'm not going to blame the kid, he's a rookie. But it's something he needs to learn going forward if he's going to max out his potential.

Yeah right as soon as Capela went down I was shocked we didn’t take advantage of our huge size advantage, more evidence that JBB cannot adjust,
 

Honestly, even though JBB made good things happen with this young group of players he still made equal amount of bad decisions during the season to not warrant him being in discussion for coach of the year.
 

Honestly, even though JBB made good things happen with this young group of players he still made equal amount of bad decisions during the season to not warrant him being in discussion for coach of the year.
in fairness to JBB, COTY is an insanely loaded field this year with tons of good candidates from Frank Vogel to Taylor Jenkins.
 

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