Report: Cavaliers Almost Fired JB Bickerstaff Earlier In Season

According to NBA insider Brian Windhorst of ESPN, the Cleveland Cavaliers almost fired head coach JB Bickerstaff earlier in the season.

The Cavaliers began the season 13-12 and Bickerstaff was on the hot seat. 

“Guys, he almost got fired,” Windhorst said on his podcast. “Say what you want. They can debate about it and you could debate the word almost and they can deny it or whatever. JB Bickerstaff was on a hot bleep seat. And if he had had a bad few days at the wrong time, he’d have probably gotten fired.”

The Cavaliers may have lost to the Philadelphia 76ers tonight (2/12), but they are one of the hottest teams in the NBA. They are 17-2 over their last 19 games and look like legitimate title contenders with Donovan Mitchell leading the way. 

The Cavaliers are 16th in the NBA in points per game and second in points per game allowed. They have the fifth-best net rating in the league and an elite scorer and playmaker in Mitchell, who is averaging 28.2 points and 6.3 assists. 

Cleveland won 51 games last season but lost to the New York Knicks in the first round of the 2023 playoffs in five games. The players are extremely hungry to go on a deep postseason run this year and the Cavaliers’ front office is fully behind Bickerstaff.

The Cavaliers went 11-2 in January. Bickerstaff was named the Eastern Conference Coach of the Month. 

The Cavaliers haven’t won a playoff series since 2018. They reached the NBA Finals that year behind franchise legend LeBron James.

It will be fascinating to see how far Cleveland goes in the 2024 postseason. The team is on a great roll right now, they will undoubtedly be under pressure to make the conference finals given how the 2023 playoffs went.