John Beilein officially resigned as head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday. Beilein was first named to the position on May 13, 2019 after spending the previous 12 seasons as head coach of the men’s basketball team at the University of Michigan. Cavs General Manager Koby Altman announced that Beilein will be reassigned to a different role within the organization.
Replacing the Cavaliers coach who went 14-40 so far this season is J.B. Bickerstaff will now step into the head coaching role immediately. He will become the ninth different head coach since LeBron James was first drafted by Cleveland in 2003. Bickerstaff is also the Cavs fifth different coach under the ownership of Dan Gilbert since LeBron returned to the franchise for the 2014-15 campaign.
OFFICIAL: John Beilein resigns as #Cavs head coach.
— Cleveland Cavaliers (@cavs) February 19, 2020
The Cavs recent run on head coaches includes Tyronn Lue who won the city’s first championship since 1964 when Cleveland secured the NBA championship in 2016. He is the only coach in franchise history to ever win a title for the Cavaliers despite only being employed by the team for less than three seasons. This is now the third time that Bickerstaff has been an interim head coach for an NBA team. He could very well be the long-term answer for Gilbert and company heading into next season depending on how the players respond to him over the final 28 games of the year.
If you remove the LeBron James years from Dan Gilbert’s ownership of the Cavaliers which began in 2005, the franchise is among the worst in the NBA on a consistent basis. During those five full seasons that Gilbert has owned the team without LeBron entering this year, the Cavs have won an average of 24 games. With less than 30 regular-season contests remaining, you can expect the Cavaliers to fall short of those 24 wins once again during Gilbert’s sixth season without James on the roster.
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