Why J.B. Bickerstaff Believes Cavaliers Still Have Work To Do Before NBA Season Starts
Two games into the preseason and a little over halfway through training camp, the Cleveland Cavaliers are not where they want to be yet. We’ve seen flashes of the changes within the offense and the effort has been promising, but it appears that there’s still something amiss.
Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff touched on the subject after the team’s 108-105 loss to the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.
“It’s on us as coaches and them as players, but we’re learning each other right now,” Bickerstaff said. “When you introduce new personnel, as a coaching staff, you can watch as much film as you want to but you have to get around guys and get a close-up view and put them on the floor and put them in situations against other teams and learn the tweaks that you need to make.
“At training camp here so far, about a week in and asking people to learn and pick up brand new things at NBA speed is not easy. Those things will take some time, but it’s on us to figure out how we make it easier for them so that we can get good at it and be the team we want to be.”
Oct 10, 2023; Atlanta, Georgia, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach J. B. Bickerstaff on the sidelines against the Atlanta Hawks during the first half at State Farm Arena.
Dale Zanine-USA TODAY Sports
Bickerstaff went into detail about being sharper on the defensive end, an area that Cleveland’s rarely had mishaps. While acknowledging Jarrett Allen’s absence as the interior anchor, guarding penetration and drives into the paint are points of emphasis for Bickerstaff.
“[We’re] not far away from where we want to be, but expect some guys to take time to figure out all the small things,” Bickerstaff said. “That’s the difficult thing. You want to rush it. But there are so many small things that make such a big difference and in a week’s time it’s difficult to pick up all those things. We will keep plugging and keep getting better.”
Delving further into the subject, Bickerstaff defined what he meant by the small things.
“We're teaching nuances of what we do on both sides of the ball. And with the added pieces, we're teaching new things to a lot of people on the offensive end of the floor,” Bickerstaff said. “Last year, we played a ton of pick-and-roll. We were elite in the pick-and-roll and we don't want to lose that. But at this moment, we're trying to implement some things where we're little more dynamic and harder to guard, and so that our pick-and-roll players get the ball off movement.
"So now as the season progresses and (opponents) want to just [hone] in on one thing, there's options and ways out of it to make it more difficult for them to do that. The NBA, with the level of talent and skill, the difference is like *this much*. So every single day, we’ve got to continue to get that much better. And then, you’ve got to be able to go out and do it against live competition. So again, there's bumps in that, and how well you are able to handle adversity so you can be as good as you want to be at the times you need to be at your best."
Luckily for Bickerstaff and his Cavs, there are 12 days until the season opener in Brooklyn to work out the kinks.
They'll have their next crack at it on Monday night against Maccabi Ra'anana at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.
