jbk1234 wrote:JonFromVA wrote:jbk1234 wrote:K. Love about to a second Cavs coach fired and he doesn't even play here anymore.
If JBB was just looking for someone who could deal with the physicality, he could have played Lopez - but he's not part of our core and this was always more about development and evaluation than finding a fix by playing guys who won't be on the team long-term.
I have a few issues with explaining away JBB's shortcomings as development and evaluation: (1) Why did we trade for Mitchell if we're still approaching this as a rebuild; (2) how long does JBB get to evaluate what's not working and adapt; (3) why do non-shooters get exponentially more minutes to evaluate; and (4) every playoff team plays guys in the playoffs who aren't necessarily part of the long-term plan. Mostly because winning is the goal.
The Mitchell trade was about establishing our core, and I think you'll find most contenders play their core in the playoffs. So, Thibs stuck with RJ Barrett even though he looked pretty shaky in the first couple games, and JBB stuck with Allen and Mobley even though they were getting pushed around throughout the series.
He could have used Lopez when one of those guys were sitting, but he preferred to go small. I actually feel pretty good about Isaac going in to next season because of how he played against the Knicks, but our problems were obviously far deeper than slowing down Brunson and Randle.
If this truly was all JBB's fault, the players will have him fired. If they buy in to that this is a process where making the playoffs is just the first step for all of them, they will stick with it and do what it takes to not repeat their errors.
We were well on our way to becoming a 50-win team before trading for Mitchell, so, our draft picks weren't going to be especially exciting. We can use them to help fill a hole now rather than take a gamble that we might be able to fill a bigger hole somewhere down the line. And even with the Mitchell trade, we'll be able to do that every other year starting in 2024.