Why Did The Cavaliers Decide To Dismiss J.B. Bickerstaff?

Koby Altman shined some light on the team's decision to part ways with J.B. Bickerstaff at his end-of-season press conference.

Koby Altman meets with the media for his end of season press conference / Spencer German

Cavaliers president of basketball operations Koby Altman was strategic in the way he talked about recently dismissed head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. In a role built on relationship building an end-of-season just wasn't the platform to mud sling.

"[A] tremendously difficult decision," said Altman of the decision dismiss Bickerstaff after five season. "Not going to go into sort of any shortcomings or negatives about J.B.. It's not something that he did specifically. I think for us it's with this group, finding someone with a new approach, someone with a different voice, a fresh set of eyes to help us move forward. We've accomplished a lot in the last few years getting to a conference semifinals and we don't want to be complacent. We don't want to be content with that ... it's not one singular thing that JB did wrong. It's how do we continue to move this thing forward because we don't think we're far off"

Reacting To Koby Altman's End Of Season Press Conference https://t.co/ADGbBuInxI

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Bickerstaff came to Cleveland in 2019 as an assistant and associate head coach under former Michigan head man John Beilein. That hire went south pretty quickly though and by February of 2020, Beilein announced his resignation from the role, passing the torch off to Bickerstaff in the process. He didn't look back, taking over a young roster and methodically shaping it into a top four team in the east over each of the last two season.

Under Bickerstaff's guidance the Cavaliers made incremental progress in terms of postseason success. Finding it's way out of LeBron James' shadow to become a play-in team, then a playoff team in back-to-back years, advancing to the eastern conference semifinals this season. It's fair to say the franchise is in a much better place as Bickerstaff leaves than it was when he took over.

"I think it's undeniable the amount of success he's had with us," said Altman. "Pushing us from a rebuild to where we are now. What makes this even more difficult is he was an incredible partner and personally a friend of mine. We love him as a human being and so that makes it even more difficult."

Grateful as the organization may be for Bickerstaff's successes, that progress is also why Altman and company felt it was time to go in a different direction.

May 11, 2024; Cleveland, Ohio, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J. B. Bickerstaff reacts in the / David Richard-USA TODAY Sports

The added presence of star guard Donovan Mitchell – who Altman made a blockbuster trade to acquire prior to the 2022-23 campaign – has accelerated the clock on this Cavs team. There are massive expectations now. Cleveland is in win-now mode. That added sense of urgency was at least part of the reason for letting go of Bickerstaff.

"When you speak to the urgency, it went into the decision to dismiss J.B.," Altman admitted. "It's part of it. It's not being complacent. It's not saying, you know what, we know we're going to get back here next year, so let's just roll it out again. We know that we have a 22-year-old Evan who's going to continue to get better, so we got time at this thing. That's not the task at hand. The task is looking at every part of our organization and having that urgency.

"it's a major decision to let go of your head coach. It is, after a half decade with him. It's a major massive undertaking to do a coaching search and we're going to embark on that and find the right leader to help push us forward."

Altman downplayed the notion that Mitchell had any influence on his decision to move on from Bickerstaff. However, he also shared that he does find value in player input.

#Cavs president Koby Altman says they're going to take time to figure out what characteristics they're looking for in their next HC pic.twitter.com/j8VInq3VGQ

— 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝙶𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚊𝚗 (@Spencito_) May 24, 2024

And so an in depth coaching search awaits the Wine and Gold in the weeks ahead. While names like Kenny Atkinson, James Borrego and even J.J. Redick have already been linked to Cleveland, the team's top executive said he and his staff will take the holiday weekend to catch their breathe before reconvening next week.

When they return to Independence on Tuesday they'll start figuring out what traits they're looking for in the team's next head coach. During a critical inflection point for the franchise, it's a decision Altman vowed they won't rush.