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NBA: Grading first-year head coaches for the 2019-20 season

By Michael Saenz

New York Knicks Interim head coach Mike Miller (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
New York Knicks Interim head coach Mike Miller (Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images) /
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NBA Cleveland Cavaliers J.B. Bickerstaff (Photo by Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images) /

J.B. Bickerstaff, Cleveland Cavaliers

You could make the argument that we didn’t see enough of a sample size to truly grade J.B. Bickerstaff, but in the short time, he was the head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers he showed some promise with the team. I’m not sure if that should equate to him being the long-term answer for the team, but good thing that’s not something I have to decide.

With that said, Bickerstaff was 5-6 during his 11 games as the head coach of the Cavs before the NBA entered a hiatus. Before Bickerstaff took over, under John Beilein, the Cavs’ had an NBA-worts -8.8 net rating. In the 11 games after Bickerstaff took over, the Cavs improved to having a -3.2 net rating (quite the improvement, which was ranked 22nd in the NBA.

Cleveland was clearly not the worst team in the league anymore and you can’t help but wonder if Beilein was really one of the big reasons why the team struggled to start the year. Under Bickerstaff, the Cavs also had three big wins heading into the hiatus – over the Miami Heat, Philadelphia 76ers, and Denver Nuggets.

Grade: C+ 

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