J.B. Bickerstaff Reaches Career Milestone As An NBA Head Coach
The Cleveland Cavaliers closed out their four-game road trip with a commanding 120-104 win over Charlotte. They're heading home with a 3-1 record after a win against the Heat and two wins over the Hornets.
A pretty nice stretch of basketball that ended with a big accomplishment for their head coach. J.B. Bickerstaff collected his 200th career win as a head coach on Tuesday night with a win against the Hornets.
Bickerstaff's journey as an NBA coach has spanned almost 20 years, but he's finally finding the success that he sought.
J.B. started his NBA coaching career with the Hornets as an assistant from 2004-2008. This makes his milestone-setting win coming in Charlotte a full circle moment. From there he moved on to Minnesota where he was also an assistant coach.
The third team that the aspiring manager went to was the Houston Rockets where Bickerstaff would finally get his shot at the team's main leader during the 2015-2016 season. He served as the team's head coach for 71 games and won 37 games during that season. However, this stint was short-lived
Bickerstaff then moved on to the Memphis Grizzles where he would get a chance once again at being a head coach from 2017-2019. This was during Memphis' years of the rebuild so J.B. only won a total of 48 games over those two seasons.
That brings him to Cleveland!
Mar 12, 2023; Charlotte, North Carolina, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J.B. Bickerstaff gives instructions to his team during the first half against the Charlotte Hornets at Spectrum Center. Mandatory Credit: Brian Westerholt-USA TODAY Sports
J.B. joined the coaching staff as the assistant head coach under John Beilein. When that situation went south fast and Beilein left the team after the All-Star break, Bickerstaff took over as the team's interim coach and later being given the full head coach title
Since then, Cleveland has gone from a rebuilding nightmare to an Eastern Conference contender in just three and a half seasons. A lot of this has to do with the coaching job that Bickerstaff has done.
Since Bickerstaff took over, he's won 115 games as the Cavs' head coach, including the victory on Tuesday.
This milestone is well deserved after the journey Bickerstaff has been on. However, I would guess he has bigger aspirations for his career and players than this milestone.
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