toooskies wrote:jasonxxx102 wrote:I've been thinking about this for a while. Would love to get others perspectives on it.
I think the Cavs have outgrown JB. I give him huge credit to what he has built, the culture, the attitudes, really helping develop our young guys. He's been great so far.
I don't think his offense is going to be able to put the Cavs over the edge. It's too slow, too plain, too iso heavy. There's little to no ball movement and too often guys are having to chuck bad 3s late in the clock. Or having to rely on Mitchell to bail us out and bring the Cavs back late in games.
I doubt the Cavs move on from him even if they lose in the 1st round but I think the conversations need to start being had. Maybe I'm way off base here, and I know the Cavs have a top10 offense (which is kinda unbelievable because that doesn't at all match the eye test, just a testament to how good Mitchell is.) but I don't see how this team really scales.
First, take a moment and realize that JBB has coached one of the youngest teams in the league and had them play best-in-the-league defense. He's starting three guys on their rookie contracts and has the #1 defense.
I think we take a lot fewer shots late in the clock ever since we picked up the tempo on offense and got into our actions early in the clock. I think the issue was less on JBB than it was the team, and JBB recognized it and brought the team out of it. Good coaching job!
JBB has made hard rotation calls. He let Love struggle for a long time before benching him. Then he stuck to his guns. It wasn't an injury thing, it was a performance thing. He's repeatedly played a guy, done the evaluation of the guy in the role, and changed it when it wasn't working. That goes for LeVert winning the SF job then moving to the bench; going to Lamar at SF, then Okoro; restricting minutes of Okoro early, Lamar in the middle, and Love and Wade in the second half of the season when they've struggled before shaking things up.
Being flexible enough to play defenses with the personnel he has. Whether that was three seven footers last year or playing super-small when one of Allen or Mobley sits, and still running effective offense and defense.
JBB is running an offense very few other teams in the league can run. It generates the most dunks in the league. We have two great finishers in Allen and Mobley and JBB's offense takes advantage of that. We're a top 10 offense (and may rise as we finish with a soft schedule) and the top defense.
What exactly are you expecting JBB to do? Championship coach Ty Lue has been starting Morris through 65 games and seeing a severe decline in his play and several similar-tier players ready to take his spot from the bench. Championship coach Steve Kerr is barely over .500 with the defending champions who have the highest payroll in basketball.
I love the job JBB has done and continues to do. He doesn't overreact to a few bad games but is honest after a few.
He runs unique offenses, tries lots of things with different lineups, and usually gives guys chances to succeed when they're deserving of them. Somehow he's gotten Garland, Mobley, Allen, Mitchell, and Okoro to all be playing the best basketball of their careers. He's gotten LeVert to be playing the most unselfish basketball of his career. Getting Rubio up to speed was necessary for the postseason and he navigated that about as well as you could expect.
The Cavs have a top 10 offense because Allen, Okoro, Mitchell, Mobley, and Garland are all really efficient shooters. They're all at 59% TS or better. (Note that I ordered them above from highest to lowest TS% efficiency-- an Okoro shot is one of the offense's better shots!) Because they're all very good basketball players, but also because they all are great at setting up teammates. Then we have LeVert and Rubio off the bench who also are really efficient at setting up teammates, and LeVert in particular has bought into setting up teammates rather than getting his own. Very good coaching.
And ultimately, we've hit an awesome balance between developing young players while still emphasizing winning. Mobley has the leeway to shoot 3s even though they're not going in right now. Okoro and Stevens are walking the path of becoming 3-and-D guys and you see their year-over-year progress. Vets like Lopez and Neto and Green aren't simply given minutes because they're veterans, but they can produce when called upon.
The hardest issue is balancing Mitchell and Garland in the offense and they're both playing well with each other. Mitchell's biggest problem is doing too much when he's out there without Garland. I feel like Garland and Mitchell are playing off of each other much better than at the beginning of the season and that's a credit to both them and the team.
Notice how the vibes have shifted since Love was bought out-- if anything they got better! Despite the veteran "leader" leaving the team for purely selfish reasons! 10-5 since then, despite missing Allen for a handful of those games.
Cavs are definitely surpassing expectations for the second consecutive year (we just cashed in the "over" on team wins for 2022-23 with six games to play). Replacing the coach is crazy.
Let's at least wait to see how he coaches in a playoff series before we declare he can't coach in a playoff series.