“Responding with a sense of urgency is always the ante to play.“
“The inches we need are everywhere around us.“
“Obsessed with finding a better way.“
One line stood out above the rest in Koby Altman’s statement regarding the departure of J.B. Bickerstaff from the Cleveland Cavaliers coaching staff on Thursday. The Cavs’ President of Basketball Operations made the announcement to the media after Bickerstaff’s undermanned team exited the playoffs with honor (unlike the year prior), losing in five games to the heavily favored, and much healthier, Boston Celtics.
“The NBA is a unique business that sometimes requires aggressive risk-taking to move a franchise forward and ultimately compete for championships.” – Koby Altman
While the decision to relieve Bickerstaff of his duties has been met with criticism nationally, locally it didn’t come as a surprise.
Why? Because contrary to popular belief, the Cavaliers have established a well-known culture in the 19 years Dan Gilbert has owned the team, one centered around making bold moves.
You see, those three quotes at the top of this piece—they are not some random words thrown together. They’re actually three of Gilbert’s 19 “Isms”, his branded business philosophies that have guided his career to the tune of making him the fifth most wealthy team sports owner on earth, with a net worth of over $26 Billion (with a capital B). There was a time when Gilbert would give new employees of any of his businesses a pamphlet that covered his “Isms”. The three quotes selected here would point to the logical conclusion that Bickerstaff, while productive and well liked, was not long for his assignment.
One cannot ignore how J.B. resurrected this franchise from the doldrums of the NBA. The Cavaliers literally improved every year that the Denver native was at the helm, so moving on from him appears curious on the surface. But consider this—during Gilbert’s tenure as principal owner, the Cavs:
- Traded their best remaining player following LeBron James’ exit in 2010 for Baron Davis and a 1st round pick in a salary dump move for the Clippers.
- Drafted an injury-prone guard who only played 11 collegiate games with the #1 overall pick.
- Deliberately left a vacancy at small forward during their post-LeBron rebuild.
- Traded a talented wing player on his rookie deal they selected #1 overall for a veteran big who could’ve opted out and left via free agency after one year.
- Fired their head coach, who had Cleveland sitting atop the Eastern Conference and had already taken them to the NBA Finals, after just a season and a half on the job, and replaced him with an inexperienced rookie head coach.
- Held onto a lottery pick at the risk of seeing the greatest player in team history walk out the door a second time.
- Traded the farm for an All-NBA player knowing they’d be faced with the prospect of convincing him to stay in Cleveland after just two seasons.
Forget Melo staring a hole into Rihanna’s soul, Gilbert’s Cavs have taken “risk it all” to a whole other stratosphere. But a funny thing happened on the way to trashing Cleveland’s decision-making…
- That pick the Cavs got back for trading Mo Williams and absorbing Baron Davis’ contract was unprotected…and it won the lottery.
- They used that pick to draft Kyrie Irving, arguably the second-best player in franchise history.
- After four years, LeBron was able to slot back in seamlessly at small forward following his exodus to Miami.
- Their decision to trade Andrew Wiggins for Kevin Love fast-tracked the franchise and helped them reach four consecutive NBA Finals. After one season in Cleveland, Love resigned for five years.
- Firing David Blatt midseason and hiring Tyronn Lue proved to be the final puzzle piece that helped the Cavs win their only championship in 54 years.
- Though LeBron left again (which he likely would’ve done regardless), the Cavs used that lottery pick they hoarded on Collin Sexton, who was later flipped to Utah in a trade for Donovan Mitchell, who is also arguably the second-best player in franchise history.
- Mitchell has led the Cavs to their two best non-LeBron campaigns in 30 years.
Being aggressive is nothing new to the Cavaliers. It’s in their DNA, though they don’t have a fun catchphrase like “Heat Culture” that calls attention to it. But this philosophy has led to Cleveland being quite possibly the most successful NBA franchise of the last decade outside of the Bay Area.
Sure, there are a number of risky moves the Cavs have made that haven’t panned out (the mega deadline deal in 2008, the comic sans letter, drafting Anthony Bennett, firing/rehiring/refiring Mike Brown and the John Beilein episode come to mind), and it’s possible that the Mitchell trade vaults to the front of this line in just a few weeks. It’s also possible the Bickerstaff firing was done to appease Mitchell. And if this decision helps keep the Cleveland Spida in wine & gold, it was probably the correct one.
Popularity be dammed—knowing the Cavs, internally, they’ll probably welcome the criticism with open arms.
“Ignore the noise”—that’s another “Ism”.