Cleveland Cavaliers Hate John Beilein
According to an article in The Athletic, Cavs players are unhappy with Beilein and are starting to tune him out. They have "drowned out his voice" and do not like his college style of coaching. I can't say I'm surprised, but this is still sad to hear.
There are some damning quotes from players in this article as well.
“Our assistants are definitely more prepared for the NBA.”
"For instance, all of the team’s screens, cuts, and pivots are named after wild animals. A curl is a “polar bear” in Beilein’s system. 'You don’t go pro to do that kind of thing,”' one league source said."
"It’s already gotten to the point where players are looking past Beilein to his lead assistant, J.B. Bickerstaff, for guidance, those sources said."
"His players quickly grew frustrated with him for a number of reasons, all centered around the basic charge that he was not prepared for the speed, tempo, and rigor of NBA games and the schedule at large."
Full Article ($$$): https://theathletic.com/1438785/2019/12/06/guys-drowned-out-his-voice-cavaliers-players-unhappy-with-the-college-coaching-style-of-john-beilein/
December 6th, 2019 at 1:58 PM ^
This is, quite frankly, the reason (or one of the reasons) why I don't like the NBA. Players can just decide to not listen to coaches. And because it's a very player-centric league, that's just the way it goes.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:06 PM ^
You don't think that happens in college?
December 6th, 2019 at 3:18 PM ^
Not as much - the players are far more dependent on the coach/school at this point in their careers and there is nothing wrong with that. Status (and operational freedom) in any job field must be earned, and sports are no exception.
December 6th, 2019 at 8:08 PM ^
In an ideal world, sure.
As in the real world who gets rewarded for what in college sports is complicated by bad actors, power dynamics, cronyism, nepotism, etc. etc.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Sounds like when Flip Saunders was Pistons' coach. Chris Webber (as analyst during one game) said he knew that in the locker room at halftime, the team wasn't even listening to him.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
Shit players on shit teams always blame the coaching. I don't think this means anything about his NBA tenure.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
The NBA really doesn’t have any Bill Belichick type guys where their coaching and eye for players who fit their system is so is so amazing that you say “Wow! How the hell does he manage to do it regardless of who he has on the roster.”
You go down the list of most successful NBA coaches and there’s usually at least 2 all time greats who have been with them along the way.
Larry Brown’s stint with Detroit is the only exception that comes to my mind.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:33 PM ^
Yeah, imagine how good Bill Belichick would be with an all-time great on his roster.
December 6th, 2019 at 6:13 PM ^
Especially if it was at an important position. That would really be something.
December 6th, 2019 at 7:50 PM ^
Hate to tell you this, but TB12 didn’t exactly tear it up in the playoffs last season and is even worse this year, and yet the Pats are 10-2 and are defending champions.
Also see the year Brady was injured NE finished with an 11-5 record and Matt Cassel looked like an all pro.
Oh yeah, last I checked Brady has played exactly zero snaps on defense for his career. Please list off all the all time greats NE had had on defense over the last 20 years.
Yeah Brady is the GOAT but you’re insane if you think he hasn’t benefitted from playing for Belichick as much as the opposite is true
December 6th, 2019 at 2:08 PM ^
If the NBA is what he wanted I'm so happy for him. I just wish he had gone to a team with more talent.
Also these punks are too "cool" for wild animals? Lame.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:15 PM ^
My best guess is this isn’t the young guys like Sexton and Garland, but probably the LeBron holdovers like Tristan Thompson and Jordan Clarkson trying to cause a stir to get traded.
According to Cavs fans, Love is too mellow a dude to really cause an issue.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^
The Cavs subreddit believes Love is one of the guys along with Clarkson. Theyre saying he hasn't been giving his all lately and this might be one of the reasons
Could make sense Love is one of them. He is a former all star whose been around for a while and Im sure Beiliens practices running over the fundamentals repeatedly could be mind numbing for him
December 6th, 2019 at 4:56 PM ^
The attitude of not being willing to run fundamentals repeatedly and/or not seeing the value in that mystifies me. It's important in so many different fields, like medicine, martial arts, music, and even the military. But maybe getting told you're the best and getting paid millions to play a game distorts one's view, IDK
December 6th, 2019 at 2:23 PM ^
Just give him time to field a smart roster that's not full of crybabies.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:24 PM ^
And yet, there are ten players IN the NBA BECAUSE of Beilein..... sounds like a bunch of immature brats.... losing is getting to them.... Beilein chose the wrong team... he needed to go to a team with more talent.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:56 PM ^
He should've taken that Pistons job.
December 7th, 2019 at 8:53 AM ^
JB was never offered the Pistons job.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:33 PM ^
I really do wish nothing but the best for JB. Hope he has massive success in Cleveland, and I have nothing but fond memories of his time here. But I can't say I'm at all surprised by this.
Granted, before I go any further it would be irresponsible of me not to say that this could be getting caused by some of the older guys or leftovers from the LeBron years. Beilein doesn't really have "his guys" yet minus the rookies, and he deserves the chance to build his team and see what he can come up with.
That being said, the man has only ever been a college coach in, what, four to five decades of coaching. Coaching 18-22 year olds is far different than coaching grown ass men earning a paycheck. I honestly was never sure that he was NBA material. I can't even imagine how bad it might've been if he'd been asked to come coach when LeBron was still around, given how many careers that guy has ended on his own.
I can't blame Beilein for wanting to test himself at the highest level of the game. You don't want to be looking back years later with any regrets, wondering if you should've given it a shot. He's one of only a few hundred men (maybe?) in the history of basketball who's earned the right coach at the NBA level. But still, I'd hate for his career to end on a really bad note. Hopefully this is just culture shock from guys who don't want to be there anymore after they can't ride LeBron's coattails.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:41 PM ^
The NBA sucks!
December 6th, 2019 at 2:42 PM ^
Not surprised at all. If he was tired of the college game, retirement would have been a better option.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
Should have just rode off into the sunset, at least he’s got that NBA money though✨✨
December 6th, 2019 at 2:47 PM ^
The NBA is more about babysitting than coaching.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:48 PM ^
The vast majority of NBA players are pampered, entitled, egotistical a-holes, so it's no surprise that a control freak like Beilien would have personality issues with them.
I loved Beilein as a coach here but it was no secret that he tried to manage every little detail of the program, and that was predictably going to be a rough transition when applied to the NBA. The stars have run that league for a long time, and coaches without a record of professional success are going to have a difficult time coming in and commanding the respect of them.
He'd have been a good fit as a replacement for someone like Popovich and the Spurs, or under Pat Riley with the Heat, teams with an already established culture of extreme detail, but not a place like Cleveland, which has been a shitshow since Gilbert bought it.
December 6th, 2019 at 7:57 PM ^
This is why I always thought Larry Bird was smart as hell when he took the Pacers coaching job. He knew they were a group of good/great players who were solid professionals like Reggie Miller, Rik Smits, Mark Jackson, Chris Mullin, Jalen Rose and Sam Perkins and he wasn’t going to have to do a lot of ego managing and motivating to get them to play winning ball.
A group like that would have been an ideal fit for JB.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:50 PM ^
Well, Beilein's first year at a job generally tends to be rocky (witness his 10-22 season here) but I'm afraid he won't be able to land "his recruits" now that he's in the pros. Oh well.
December 6th, 2019 at 2:53 PM ^
HE HATE BE(ilein)
December 6th, 2019 at 2:54 PM ^
Well Thompson’s play has notably improved this year under Beilein.
I take this article with a grain of salt. Most likely those frustrated and already tuning out Beilein are not players you really want to build a winning franchise around.
Beilein will have to adjust some, as will the players. Those that refuse to do so will be shown the door one way or another
December 6th, 2019 at 3:03 PM ^
Maybe he can come back as an assistant on Juwan's staff
December 6th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
This is a poor headline. SOME Cavs players dislike Beilien. Probably guys like Clarkson who has always been a douchebag. Nonetheless, the Cavs better root out these players before stuff like this grows into a cancer
The Cavs fans love Beilien and are mostly siding with him on this. This Cavs roster is a turnover prone team so they cant get mad when he tries to run drills on the fundamentals.
And theyre mad there isn't enough iso-ball LOL. What player on their roster thinks theyre good enough to consistently run iso. Not a single one of them is.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
He’s old. He wanted to give the pros a shot before he retired. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out. At least he won’t retire from the game with a huge what if...
December 6th, 2019 at 3:19 PM ^
So a bunch of no-name players won't put their name to their quotes?
December 6th, 2019 at 3:25 PM ^
This article has been coming for awhile now. There have been rumblings for weeks of players rolling their eyes at what they consider to be the childish way Beilein is trying to coach them.
Kind of like when your wife is mad at you, then quizzes you as to why she's mad, and you feel like your head is going to explode.
It's very sad to hear, but he still has time to adjust. Part of me thinks, well, some of you deserve to be coached like this.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:28 PM ^
I’m going to go ahead and side with Jb. F the NBA.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:30 PM ^
No subs for you!!
December 6th, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
I'd be mad, too, if I lived in Cleveland.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:33 PM ^
Good point. It's a rough city. But to be honest it's basically a parallel to Detroit. There are shitty parts and pretty cool parts. But in general Cleveland is a miserable city.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
When JB was hired by the Cavs, it made no sense. It's as if he were hired to tank.
Why would an NBA team hire a 66 year old coach, with a slow system, who had trouble relating to (recruiting and keeping) young, athletic ballers?
Luckily they didn't, but the Cavs would have been better off hiring Juwan Howard.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:41 PM ^
Nothing good comes from moving to Ohio
December 6th, 2019 at 4:32 PM ^
Tell that to Josh Alabi. Yeesh.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:46 PM ^
I recall his early years at Michigan and seeing EKpe Udoh transfer. And I’m not sure Manny Harris was a big fan either. The problem is the NBA is about the talent more than X’s and O’s.
December 6th, 2019 at 3:55 PM ^
NBA is a players league. College is a coaches league. Players have ALL the power in the NBA. Unless you have Pat Riley or Phil Jackson gravitas and rings, you will have to adapt to your talent, not the other way around.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:01 PM ^
i read the article. your last quote regarding speed, tempo, etc in the op was not about JB. it was about their previous coach, blatt in his first year 2014.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:03 PM ^
The Cavalier players need to watch, The Fish That Saved Pittsburg. It was Meadowlark Lemon's finest work.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:05 PM ^
Maybe they should dump the malcontents off the roster and give Coach Beilein carte blanche to go to the G League and find the hidden gems to replace them. Get the hungry, undervalued guys and mold them into a team like he did at Michigan every year.
Can you imagine an NBA team full of scrappers actually playing tough defense like Michigan did last year?
December 6th, 2019 at 5:20 PM ^
I'm sure that will work. ??
December 6th, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^
I stand 100% behind John Beilein. Everybody won here. JB gets an opportunity for a new challenge and Howard looks to be motivated and ambitious.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:14 PM ^
Bummer to hear this but I think 99% of UM fans saw this coming. Its not a good fit. He is an elite college coach.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:26 PM ^
Sad. He was a great coach for us, and we should have won at least one Championship -- the block was clean and Luke hancock should have fouled out -- in his time here.
I don't miss the auto-bench though. Dumbest thing ever.
December 6th, 2019 at 4:28 PM ^
I hope he succeeds but this looks like when Saban went to the NFL. There are just styles of coaching that work in the NCAA and styles that work in the pros. So far, at least, the system doesn't seem to be working. It might be the coaching system, it might be the players, it might be both. But this stinks to hear.