John Beilein and Cleveland Did Not Work

I know that I have talked a ton about John Beilein on this site ever since he shockingly took the Cavs job last summer, but I have to talk about him yet again. Look, I made it very, very clear that I didn’t think he would make it the full five years of his contract, but for him to resign fifty-four games into the first season of his contract, during All Star break, is as shocking as him taking the job.

The Cavs job is clearly a wasteland. Hell, they fired a coach that took them to the Finals in his first season. They have had, I believe, six coaches in the past seven seasons. If I’m being totally honest, I don’t know who the coach was before Beilein took this job in the summer. In fact, besides David Blatt and Tyron Lue, I cannot name one other coach except for Beilein. But, this seemed like a good hire got them at the time, and man did it deteriorate much faster than anyone expected.

When Beilein was hired there was support all over the place. Apparently Cleveland did their homework and found a guy that is good at rebuilds. He was also considered a guy that could coax the best out of guys that may not be the greatest. I even thought they would give him time to build the roster his way. Then a bunch of wild stuff happened. His son resigned from Niagara University before coaching a single game. The Cavs, as expected, started very, very slow. In fact, they sit at 14-40 as I write this today. Then we have Kevin Love throwing fits during games. Look no further than him yelling at Collin Sexton to pass, getting the pass, chucking the ball at Cedi Osmann and then yelling at the whole team right before halftime. We also have Tristan Thompson coming to Beilein’s defense after the Love thing, then one night later, the two of them are caught on camera yelling at each other. Then we have anonymous players questioning his tactics to media and teammates. Then we have the “slugs/thugs” thing. Then we have a report a few days ago claiming that Beilein was “miserable”. And then the reports came out during All Star weekend that the two sides were coming to a decision for him to resign. Oh, and in the midst of all of this they kept Love and Thompson during the trade deadline, and inexplicably traded for Andre Drummond, who I am a fan of, he just doesn’t fit on this god awful Cavs team. Then yesterday Beilen announced he was stepping down.

This, I guess, was doomed from the start. Some guys aren’t pro head coaches. They don’t have the mindset. They’re used to being the judge, juror and executioner. They are the end all be all. Beilein was used to this way. He coached college for, pretty much, his entire career. Then, in his mid 60’s, he decides its time to try the NBA. I don’t fault him, but his ways are not conducive to professional basketball players. He’s too rah rah, too focused on fundamentals, too entrenched in getting time to develop. That doesn’t happen in the NBA for many reasons. Kevin Love doesn’t need to work on passing and rebounding. He’s already proven he can do that. Collin Sexton and Darius Garland are way too young, and have never been told that they need work. Cedi Osman is a vet, why would he listen to a career college coach. Andre Drummond is an All Star and a great low post guy. Why would he want to sit around and watch game tape for hours on end? And that Cavs front office is a total mess. They’ve proven multiple times that, sans LeBron, they’re a garbage NBA team. It has happened twice now.

I’m sure Beilein will have his pick of college jobs, some that may not even be open yet. I’ve already heard that schools like Indiana, Northwestern and Vanderbilt, all with coaches, are interested. But this NBA experiment has been an unmitigated disaster, and it will be one thing that’s always mentioned now. I mean, he couldn’t even get through one season. That is rough stuff. This is one of the predictions I got right that I wished I would be wrong. I’m still a little stunned he already gave up.

What a rough, downer half a season for Beilein. This is a stain on an otherwise stainless coaching career.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing, the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast, and the greatest basketball writer on the internet.

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