Two Seconds After The Cavs Season Ended, A Hit Piece on JB Bickerstaff Dropped That Details The Apparent Disaster In The Cleveland Locker Room
Sheeeeeesh. The Cavs lost a game tonight, which in turn ended the series, which in turn ended their season, and fifteen minutes later a million word hit piece on the head coach drops? Diabolical. What if they would've won tonight? Would it drop on Friday after Game 6? Or what if they'd have lost Game 7 vs. the Magic? Was this ready a few weeks ago....? Something tells me it was, as this was quite the orchestrated attack.
Here's a couple of the more interesting excerpts from the article, which if you're interested you should definitely read the entire thing:
After the game, Cavs president Koby Altman walked into the coach’s office and admonished head coach J.B. Bickerstaff in front of his entire staff for playing Mitchell such heavy minutes, multiple sources briefed on the interaction told The Athletic.
So apparently in the midst of Darius Garland and Evan Mobley being sidelined with injuries this Winter, JB played Donovan Mitchell 45 minutes, and Kody Altman marched his ass into the coach's office and ripped him a new one. That's basically the crux of this entire hit piece. The Cavs know that Donovan is a star in this league, and if he goes, they don't have one. So all things should be catered towards making Donovan Mitchell happy. And having him play 45 minutes, which then sidelined him 4 straight games, was NOT the way to do so. And from there, it appears everything unraveled.
In trying to do everything they can to persuade Mitchell to accept a four-year, $208.5 million contract extension this summer, the Cavs need their star player to feel comfortable with the long-term direction of the franchise, which includes the coach. Multiple league sources have said, for months, that Mitchell did not have great confidence in Bickerstaff, and he was not alone. Several players questioned Bickerstaff’s strategies, game management, practice habits and accountability measures, privately and publicly, throughout the season.
So what are we even doing here….? The franchise clearly chose Donovan as the one to keep happy, and he seems to be joined by the rest of the players in questioning every single thing that JB had his fingerprint on, so why are we dropping this hit piece? Fire his ass like you want to and move on. I don't understand the point of this article admonishing him if we all know what's coming.
That's what I picked up on from the JB parts of the article, but it was more the intricacies of the roster construction moving forward that I was most intrigued by.
There are also questions of fit on the roster to work through, such as whether Allen and Mobley, two non-shooting bigs, can co-exist in the same starting unit, and whether Garland can thrive playing alongside Mitchell as two smaller guards who need the ball.
Uhhhh….ya think? Anyone with two eyes can see that. All 4 of them, individually, are very good players. But Allen and Mobley's inability to shoot makes them tough to play together when you have a goal of making it past the second round, and that's just small potatoes compared to the drop in production we've seen from Darius Garland since giving him a billion dollars to give his numbers to Donovan. And it sounds like if Donovan is staying, Rich Paul is going to make sure Darius Garland is leaving.
Should Mitchell decide to stay long term, sources briefed on the matter say Garland’s representation, Klutch Sports CEO Rich Paul, would have a conversation with Cavs officials on potentially finding a new home for the one-time All-Star.
What a fucking disaster this franchise is right now. And I'm not even saying any of it is wrong, but the fact that before the players even got out of the showers after our season ended, this article came out ripping apart the coach and saying that if we keep priority A, priority B is leaving. By the way….Darius Garland, if you're going to make us choose, then you can start packing your bags right now. Not to mention the fact that our 2nd best player all year, who missed 8 straight games to end the season, is apparently a pussy. Says so in the article!
Allen missed his eighth consecutive game due to what the team said was a rib bruise. Allen’s extended absence, which stretched more than two weeks, caused frustration toward him in at least some corners of the organization with teammates and staff members who felt he could have done more to try and play.
What kind of fucking mess is this? Who is putting out this shit? I would understand it is the entire point of this article was to smear JB so when we fire him in the coming days that no one cries unfair, but on who's agenda is it to kill the coach AND the team? Who is feeding this information that would conspire against JB Bickerstaff but also leak that Jarrett Allen's teammates thought he was soft down the stretch?
Bottom line, I thought this team was in a tough spot moving into the off-season, but this article makes it sound like a full on disaster. I didn't even mention the part where it says Evan Mobley's agent tried to get Cleveland not to draft him and we took him anyways!!! What a dumpster fire that's been withheld from us, and now we've got quite the situation on our hands. Me personally, I think I would fire JB, offer Donovan an extension, pending acceptance trade Darius, and keep Mobley / Allen together. What do I think will ultimately happen though? Fire JB, trade Donovan because he doesn't want to stay, keep Darius, Mobley, and Allen…..and then start the Bronny James to Cleveland rumors in the first round. LeBron doesn't come this year, but he finishes his career with his son here.
* If this franchise hasn't burnt to the ground yet.