NBA Exec: Cavaliers Could Fire JB Bickerstaff If Team Underwhelms In 2024 Playoffs

An NBA exec told Hoops Wire that the Cleveland Cavaliers could fire head coach JB Bickerstaff if the team underwhelms in the 2024 playoffs. 

The Cavaliers are not finishing the season strong. They are only 3-7 in their last 10 games and blew a 26-point lead on Sunday (4/7) against the Los Angeles Clippers. 

Bickerstaff is 168-158 in the regular season and 1-4 in the playoffs as head coach of the Cavaliers. He’s under contract through the 2026-27 season.

“JB could get fired if the Cavs don’t make it to the conference finals,” the NBA exec told Hoops Wire. “He was almost fired earlier in the season before the team got its act together. There are people inside that organization who can’t fathom how a team with Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland is so poor at scoring the ball.

“JB is 100% on the hot seat and he knows it.”

The Cavaliers are 46-33 on the season. They are in fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings. 

Cleveland is 20th in the NBA in points per game, seventh in points per game allowed and 14th in net rating. 

The Cavaliers lost to the New York Knicks in the first round of the 2023 playoffs despite having home-court advantage.

If the regular season ended today, Cleveland would face New York again in the 2024 postseason, but the Knicks would have home-court advantage.

The Cavaliers haven’t won a playoff series since 2018 when LeBron James was still on the team.  

Mitchell can sign an extension for up to four years and about $200 million this offseason. The 27-year-old has a player option worth $37 million for the 2025-26 season.

Mitchell can become an unrestricted free agent in the summer of 2025 if he declines that player option. He recently told NBA reporters he would “handle” his future with the Cavaliers when the time is appropriate. 

“I think the biggest thing for me, as I said before to you earlier, I mean obviously you have to ask the question, but my focus is I got a lot of things to focus on outside of that right now,” Mitchell said, via The Athletic. “I’ve got to focus on myself, getting back for this group, focus on us getting over this stretch, continuing to be ready when it comes time.

“So, I’ll handle that when it comes, and I understand you gotta ask that question and I’ll give you the same answer.”