A lot of interesting sports stuff is going on in the greatest State of the world lately. Of course, I’m talking about Ohio! From the Indians’ fan base not trusting ownership to keep any of their stars, to Joe Burrow saying he does not want to play the Bengals, to the Myles Garret reinstatement fallout in Cleveland; and now, the Cleveland Cavaliers have parted ways with their newly hired head coach, John Beilein. How new is he? Well, this summer he signed a five year deal to coach the team and barely made it through half the season. It is also reported that Beilein will stay with the organization in some capacity, but coach is not one.
If by some chance you are a Cavalier fan or from the state of Ohio, thank you for coming to the site, but you aren’t going to like the rest of this. Beilein is not without fault as to why this experiment failed. It has been known that he referred to his players as thugs during a film session which rubbed a great number of players the wrong way. I mean he even said during the All Star break that he was not sure he would rejoin the team after the break. Once that quote gets leaked, how can you come back? What choice do the Cavs have?
Usually when someone gets fired this early into a contract, coaching a team that is 14-40, the immediate gut reaction from the public is that he is a terrible coach. That is not necessarily the case for Beilein. He was a fantastic college coach for West Virginia and Michigan; known for being a great teacher of the game and innovative offensively. You would think that he would be a good coach for a young NBA rebuilding team.
The problem is the Cavs do not have a roster that gives him that opportunity. They still have Tristan Thompson and Kevin Love who were just not about being taught from Beilein. It was imperative for Beilein to get those two vets on his side, instead they got fed up and made it very much aware. Once the young guys on the team realize the vets who have won a championship, they lose interest in the coach as well; it’s all over from there. Also, the Cavs leading assist man is Darius Garland with 3.8 assists per game. That is putrid! Imagine playing for a shit team that doesn’t even move the ball! It’s safe to say the experiment just was not working.
Since the 2013-2014 season, the Cavs have now had 6 head coaches if you count Bickerstaff who will be filling in for the rest of the season. Six! They won a championship and still the number is six. Beilein, you may not have done yourself any favors, but it certainly feels like it was destined to fail.
