Cleveland Cavaliers head coach John Beilein is officially leaving the Cavs organization after just half a season, according to Adrian Wojnarowski of ESPN.
As reported earlier, JB Bickerstaff will take over as full-time head coach — not on an interim basis.
The hiring of Beilein during the 2019 offseason was fairly surprising, as the 67-year-old had a terrific gig with the University of Michigan men’s basketball team and was fresh from the the title game in 2017 where they lost to Villanova.
With a bevy of young talent on the Cavs’ roster — including three first-round selections in the 2019 NBA Draft — the idea was that Beilein’s brilliant coaching in the college ranks would translate well to a young team learning the ropes in the NBA.
As with many good ideas, the reality ended up far from the sunny expectations. Though the Cavs started the season 2-2, things went downhill fast as their record hovered around “worst-in-the-league” territory throughout the first few months of the season.
Many of their losses were enormous shellackings, including a 143-101 loss to Dallas in November and, more recently, a 133-92 drubbing at the hands of the Clippers roughly a week before the All-Star game.
Heading into the All-Star break, the Cavs have a 14-40 record, putting them dead last in the Eastern Conference and ahead of only the lowly Golden State Warriors record-wise.
Throughout the entire 2019-20 campaign, Beilein has seemed somewhat uncomfortable on the sidelines, which was typified by his “thugs/slugs” verbal miscue in early January when the head coach reportedly said his players were playing “like a bunch of thugs.”
This fiasco, coupled with the Cavs’ listless play all season and the lack of buy-in from big-name players on the roster such as Kevin Love, eventually spelled doom for John Beilein.