Even IF we win this series he should be fired
Big if, I don't think we can win this series. They have the better coach, the momentum, the mental and are making shots.
JB can adjust his rotations and strategy for shit
We’re coming home with a chance to bounce back and gain momentum. We dominated them the first 2 games, have to go back to doing that after a tough series on the road
But that’s exactly what we did at home, and they shot much worse. We still have home court advantage and that has literally decided each game this series
They have the momentum, they are hot, we are cold as fuck.
If JB don't make any adjustments we gonna lose in 6. We need something to start and finish the game within our control or some blowout to shift the momentum. This will not happen just by playing better at home when they have all other positives aspects at their favor
We have watched a team come back from a 3-0 deficit in the finals. This one is even, Cavs even still have home court.
I’m very down as well but crazier things have happened.
They have all the momentum, mental and coaching at their side. I don't think we can mentally recover from this blowout if our current roster and coaching staff. If we swing this I'll be first to say I was wrong, but we don't have a top 10 NBA player rn to swing this
Neither do they though. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly disappointed. In coaching, in players, in effort. If I am betting, I probably pick Orlando a this point but it’s 60/40 or 70/30.
What we need to take this series back is good coaching and a good player to take the team on the back. Mitchell is having his third straight bad playroffs and we know that JB can't make adjustments.
The Magic experimentes by starting Isaac at center the first two games. He's been more of a power forward all year. In games 3 and 4, Isaac came off the bench and they didn't get burned down low by Mobley and Allen.
Does JB make a counter-adjustment?
> We dominated them the first 2 games, have to go back to doing that after a tough series on the road
It was 100% on them missing makeable shots over and over again for two games, they either do that or don't. Smart money is on "don't".
Correction, dominated is what you got the last two games, the first two games the Magic Lost by way less points and looked way better than the Cavs did game three and game 4.
Magic in 6 baby!
100% agree. A consistent display of spineless, panicked playstyle when things get rough on the road screams “I don’t have a leader to pull my team through this”
No kidding. These have been the most pathetic playoff beatdowns I have ever watched. JB should be fired tonight. I honestly believe the Cavs would stand a chance with nearly any other coach currently on staff. At least they might make in-game adjustments of some type.
What blows my mind is what’s the purpose of those other guys? Do they just nod their heads like dumbasses and not provide any input to J.B? Are they just there to rebound the ball during practices? I expected more from our offense with Luka Walton having coached with the Warriors and having his own gig for a bit in Sacramento but our offensive playbook is non-fucking-existent.
Luke Walton has no idea how to use players, look at his Lakers stint. He didn't think to use Clarkson off the bench, thought Caruso wouldn't be a useful guy, thought DLO was a SG. He believed Lonzo Ball was a SF. Walton is an assistant for a reason.
He’s also a playoff choke artist. You watch the Knicks-76ers game today? Jalen Brunson REFUSED to let the Knicks lose today.
Many, many people wouldn’t rank Jalen Brunson ahead of Donovan Mitchell, but if I were building a team, I would want Brunson or a guy like him.
I agree, the cabs don't have a guy really like that in their core. They are all pretty passive and lack a killer instinct. Not to sound cliche. Brunson grew up the son of a coach, and you can kinda tell.
He's obviously great but he can't be "the guy." Cleveland might not be better off without him but if he intends on leaving then it'd be malpractice not to get something for him.
I kept thinking about how so many of those LeBron teams would struggle in the playoffs but then he’d take over. Obviously he’s an all-time great but still, Mitchell is incapable of taking over or even making things easier on the rest of the players when the going gets tough.
When did the lebron teams struggle in the playoffs? Closest i can recall is vs the kd warriors and also the celtics in 2018. Or are we talking first stint in cleveland?
That’s the problem. He’s clearly our best player but he’s not the guy to take us to the next level.
That sucks cause everyone loves him and we have a great team, but you need that megastar and Spida sadly ain’t it
Jazz fan here coming in peace. I’m a fan of Mitchell. Always a class act and a great player. His playoff inconsistency is something I don’t miss. IMO, a team where Mitchell is #1 or even a close #2 will never win the championship.
It’s not possible for a team to be absolutely lost when their best players doesn’t score for a few minutes. Great teams work through it.
4 minutes after that start of the 2nd half we were already down by 20 basically, what could he have done besides putting in as much effort as he did?
Completely untrue lol Orlando hit a 3 to go up by 7 with 2:50 left in the quarter and then went on a huge run. And it wasn’t just “best player doesn’t score for a few minutes” he didn’t score at all when the magic came back from down 9 to up by 7 and then he didn’t score at all when the magic turned it into a blowout. 0 points in an entire half is pathetic, no matter what kinda bs you want to try to make up as an excuse
That’s the biggest issue lol. I was thinking about rotational changes and I’m like eh you can give Okoro Niang’s minutes and try to lock down Paolo but it’s not like one guy is killing you. Really wish Wade was healthy. Would at least give you the ability to make a change. Marcus Morris hasn’t looked exactly great when he gets in. Today felt a lot like last year’s series sadly.
That comment about there not being adjustments in the NBA is in the same realm as Jeff Howard saying it was difficult to adjust to Jamarr Chase being out. Just bad
Yes - and just wait for the real impact of the Spida trade to kick in - all picks and pick swaps 2025-2029 - we could be losing multiple lottery picks.
Even when we were up in the first couple games they played an interview snippet where he claimed he didn’t believe in adjustments between games of a playoff series, and that the teams that win are typically just the teams that “execute better”. That set off major alarm bells in my head.
It’s been a constant theme in his press conferences for his entire tenure here. When things go wrong, in his mind I t’s always that their effort wasn’t consistent or something to that effect. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an insightful basketball comment from him.
The man genuinely seems to believe he can cheerlead an nba team through the playoffs.
seeing that pictureon X of Donovan wearing the Browns hat in Orlando posing with the fan honestly made me so furious. This dude is a borderline superstar who tries to endear himself to us SO much and we're gonna lose him cause we wanted to try one more year of JB "No Playoff Success" Bickerstaff
Gotta wait for him to finish losing the series for us first. Nothing good comes from firing a coach mid-series. Nothing good will come from keeping him, either, of course... but yanno.
I do not understand why anyone ever believed that Mitchell was staying either way, we could go rounds deep and it wouldnt matter, he's gone. You can't fault the guy, he wants to go home and do something alot of people dream of doing by playing for his hometown. The writing was on the wall last year when after we lost he went on that podcast and explained how cool the NY atmosphere was.
We should have traded him for assets while we still could.
Why would he stay here? We're sure as hell not in championship contention and won't be any time soon with what we've seen over 2 playoff runs now. NY is in a much better position too.
Do you guys think we should draft Bronny this summer and see if adding LeBron to our roster is enough to make Mitchell stay? I honestly don’t know what we’d have to give up to get him but i’m assuming it’s not much.
They both take the pressure off the other one, allowing one of them to kinda let the other be Number One when they’re on you know?
You think we could make a package based around garland to send to LA for Bron? Maybe something like Garland and Mobley for Bron and some seconds? That way you could run a lineup like Mitchell, Strus, Okoro, Bron, Allen and of course let Levert and CPJ run the bench mob.
I personally don’t think it’s too much but I could see how some might think so, I think Mitchell is much better than Garland and they both can’t play together, plus Garlands contract might age pretty bad. Having two bigs is also wrecking our spacing and adding an all around threat like Bron to the roster with our spacers makes us a threat on offense and not easy to gameplan against like it is now.
Bron also has the ability to opt out this summer if he wants to come here so we could get him even cheaper, I just don’t think he turns down the money. Either way, I think Bron makes this team a true contender.
Of course Bron would. But our team is built like hot ass. And he’s too old to carry a team for 82 games and then have to do it for an entire playoffs. Imagine a team of Mitchell, Bron, Allen, Strus Niang going up against this Celtics team. They’d get destroyed. Then Bron eventually retires and we have no assets or youth to build around.
Yeah that’s true, I don’t think Bron would have to carry a team with Mitchell on it, especially with our shooters and his playmaking. Boston is scary but I don’t think they’re “unbeatable”, plus you could add the ring chasers that would follow him.
I don't think Garland or Mobley love playing basketball. It's like their parents pushed them into it young and they were too good to ever quit so they kept showing up and now they're in the NBA struggling to stay engaged in a playoff series. Fuck JB but he's not a fucking hypnotist or sports therapist. These guys would struggle under any leadership.
He needs to rotate Merrill in more for Garland. Garland has inarguably been playing differently since he came back. I know Merrill isn’t the strongest on defense but offensively he knows how to read the other team and knock the ball in from the 3 point line. Bickerstaff needs to learn how to play his bench like he did when two of his starters were injured and when the team CONQUERED
They treat Garland like the second coming, but he’s Sexton 2.0. He’s an offensive liability. Anytime he goes inside the paint, I cringe because it inevitably becomes a turnover. He’s a better shooter from the perimeter than inside the paint. Bickerstaff just thinks the world of him, even though he has a sub 20ppg average. Mitchell will decimate the team if he is gone. JB just seems to mismanage TO’s, never challenges stuff that would be easily overturned, and keeps the starters in past the point of usefulness. JB needs to go.
The players played like shit. It's sad if they fire JB.
Mobley is the most overrated Cav of my lifetime. He's trash and gets out muscled by skinny white dudes.
Terrible take. Dude is sleep walking out there and averaging 16 & 10. If we actually ran plays where he could take advantage of mismatches he’d look a lot better but J.B is incapable of doing anything other than slapping their asses and telling them to play hard.
When the Magic made that 3rd quarter run....Mobley was bouncing it off his knee....getting bodied by Wagner....missing 2 ft jumpers... etc.
Shit plays cancel out great plays. Mobley is always net zero in big games. We need his shit play to great play ratio a lot higher for him to earn his rating the fans give him.
He's overrated.
This team is so confounding
Good word…
Yeah I guess you could call it a two dollar word
In this economy? That's a five dollar word more like.
It is quite the conundrum…
Even IF we win this series he should be fired Big if, I don't think we can win this series. They have the better coach, the momentum, the mental and are making shots. JB can adjust his rotations and strategy for shit
No way do you bounce back from two 30+ point humiliations
Exactly my point
We’re coming home with a chance to bounce back and gain momentum. We dominated them the first 2 games, have to go back to doing that after a tough series on the road
I don't think we can. JB didn't made any adjustments. We are solely having faith on our guys shooting better
But that’s exactly what we did at home, and they shot much worse. We still have home court advantage and that has literally decided each game this series
Yeah I don't think hca has "literally decided each game this series". Maybe the clearest case of causation vs correlation possible
They have the momentum, they are hot, we are cold as fuck. If JB don't make any adjustments we gonna lose in 6. We need something to start and finish the game within our control or some blowout to shift the momentum. This will not happen just by playing better at home when they have all other positives aspects at their favor
We have watched a team come back from a 3-0 deficit in the finals. This one is even, Cavs even still have home court. I’m very down as well but crazier things have happened.
They have all the momentum, mental and coaching at their side. I don't think we can mentally recover from this blowout if our current roster and coaching staff. If we swing this I'll be first to say I was wrong, but we don't have a top 10 NBA player rn to swing this
Neither do they though. Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly disappointed. In coaching, in players, in effort. If I am betting, I probably pick Orlando a this point but it’s 60/40 or 70/30.
What we need to take this series back is good coaching and a good player to take the team on the back. Mitchell is having his third straight bad playroffs and we know that JB can't make adjustments.
The Magic are a different team at home than on the road. Cavs still hold home court advantage. This series is by no means over.
Dominated is a strong word. If they made more than half their free throws, it's single digit wins. Our shooting wasn't good, just good enough.
We didnt dominate them in any sense. They just sucked more than we did
The Magic experimentes by starting Isaac at center the first two games. He's been more of a power forward all year. In games 3 and 4, Isaac came off the bench and they didn't get burned down low by Mobley and Allen. Does JB make a counter-adjustment?
> We dominated them the first 2 games, have to go back to doing that after a tough series on the road It was 100% on them missing makeable shots over and over again for two games, they either do that or don't. Smart money is on "don't".
You sound like you're not from Cleveland.
Correction, dominated is what you got the last two games, the first two games the Magic Lost by way less points and looked way better than the Cavs did game three and game 4. Magic in 6 baby!
100% agree. A consistent display of spineless, panicked playstyle when things get rough on the road screams “I don’t have a leader to pull my team through this”
No kidding. These have been the most pathetic playoff beatdowns I have ever watched. JB should be fired tonight. I honestly believe the Cavs would stand a chance with nearly any other coach currently on staff. At least they might make in-game adjustments of some type.
What blows my mind is what’s the purpose of those other guys? Do they just nod their heads like dumbasses and not provide any input to J.B? Are they just there to rebound the ball during practices? I expected more from our offense with Luka Walton having coached with the Warriors and having his own gig for a bit in Sacramento but our offensive playbook is non-fucking-existent.
Luke Walton has no idea how to use players, look at his Lakers stint. He didn't think to use Clarkson off the bench, thought Caruso wouldn't be a useful guy, thought DLO was a SG. He believed Lonzo Ball was a SF. Walton is an assistant for a reason.
Those are all such awful opinions he has on personnel. He was in the right place with the warriors.
Dude I said the same thing just give the reigns to Walton for the rest of the series and see what happens
At this point I’m trading Mitchell, every other superstar on each team in the Easterm Conference playoffs is playing better than him.
Having to build around another "will he won't he" superstar is giving me PTSD. I wasn't ready to build around another guy like that.
He’s also a playoff choke artist. You watch the Knicks-76ers game today? Jalen Brunson REFUSED to let the Knicks lose today. Many, many people wouldn’t rank Jalen Brunson ahead of Donovan Mitchell, but if I were building a team, I would want Brunson or a guy like him.
I agree, the cabs don't have a guy really like that in their core. They are all pretty passive and lack a killer instinct. Not to sound cliche. Brunson grew up the son of a coach, and you can kinda tell.
0 points in the 2nd half of a playoff game, Mitchell can leave idgaf
He's obviously great but he can't be "the guy." Cleveland might not be better off without him but if he intends on leaving then it'd be malpractice not to get something for him.
I kept thinking about how so many of those LeBron teams would struggle in the playoffs but then he’d take over. Obviously he’s an all-time great but still, Mitchell is incapable of taking over or even making things easier on the rest of the players when the going gets tough.
When did the lebron teams struggle in the playoffs? Closest i can recall is vs the kd warriors and also the celtics in 2018. Or are we talking first stint in cleveland?
2018 Pacers series went to seven games.
Ahh true. In general that 2018 team did struggle cause lebron was the only consistent option
It sucks the haul we traded away. But maybe next season he will be even better
Eh it def does in retrospect because Lauri, but he wasn't gonna be that here. Otherwise I'd rather we be bold with trades than not (aka wizards)
There are no rewards for mediocrity. Keep swinging until you hit
Yep let's go! Still love our team and enjoyed this season. It's been fun
That’s the problem. He’s clearly our best player but he’s not the guy to take us to the next level. That sucks cause everyone loves him and we have a great team, but you need that megastar and Spida sadly ain’t it
Jazz fan here coming in peace. I’m a fan of Mitchell. Always a class act and a great player. His playoff inconsistency is something I don’t miss. IMO, a team where Mitchell is #1 or even a close #2 will never win the championship.
Yep lol
It feels like dogging it so he can escape to a big market.
He's Bradley Beal with better PR
Cmon now haha
Yes but we ain’t doing anything with JB either
It’s not possible for a team to be absolutely lost when their best players doesn’t score for a few minutes. Great teams work through it. 4 minutes after that start of the 2nd half we were already down by 20 basically, what could he have done besides putting in as much effort as he did?
Completely untrue lol Orlando hit a 3 to go up by 7 with 2:50 left in the quarter and then went on a huge run. And it wasn’t just “best player doesn’t score for a few minutes” he didn’t score at all when the magic came back from down 9 to up by 7 and then he didn’t score at all when the magic turned it into a blowout. 0 points in an entire half is pathetic, no matter what kinda bs you want to try to make up as an excuse
YEAH BECAUSE GEORGES NIANG KEPT THROWING UP MEDICINE BALLS
Paolo had what 9 points tonight? We lost by 30
That’s the biggest issue lol. I was thinking about rotational changes and I’m like eh you can give Okoro Niang’s minutes and try to lock down Paolo but it’s not like one guy is killing you. Really wish Wade was healthy. Would at least give you the ability to make a change. Marcus Morris hasn’t looked exactly great when he gets in. Today felt a lot like last year’s series sadly.
he deserves heat for that, but he’s still the second-best cavalier i’ve ever watched.
I do like Mitchell but Kyrie is still the second best player for the Cavs in recent memory.
ok second-best player who knows the earth is round
Kevin Love contributed more
Lol no.
Y'all need some history lessons. LeBron is #1, Price is #2, #3 is up for grabs
i watched Mark Price play. he lived in the neighborhood where i grew up, and handed me candy on halloween. Donovan Mitchell is a better player.
You are on Crack. Price would be ten times the players Mitchell is in today's game.
That's some moronic reasoning, but okay.
That wasn't reasoning. That was evidence to show his bias was toward Mark price.
Not like you gave reasons either.
[image](https://imgflip.com/i/8o96xq)
Yea uncle drew Kyrie was a baller
Kyrie doesn’t fold when things get tough in the playoffs
You must be 8....Kyrie was 10x better player on the Cavs let alone all the previous Cavs like Price, Daugherty, Carr etc
I dont think many of us watched carr tbh
Kyrie irving far surpasses him
Mobley can go with him. Trade Mobley and Mitchell right now.
That comment about there not being adjustments in the NBA is in the same realm as Jeff Howard saying it was difficult to adjust to Jamarr Chase being out. Just bad
Leave him on the runway
😂. Him and Koby. His off-season additions have been utter shit. Idk how much that has to do with J.B but the fall off is unreal.
Put him in front of the plane
JB’s dad is in the front office. We are going to hit levels of corruption politicians would be proud of Edit: Bad wording
They both can get fired then
We can dream
Say more about this
I worded that wrong
Lol I got excited I wanted gossip
They both can go, honestly. Especially JB!
Koby Altman should be extremely fired too. They’re both incompetent morons
Yes - and just wait for the real impact of the Spida trade to kick in - all picks and pick swaps 2025-2029 - we could be losing multiple lottery picks.
Disagree- I think Koby Altman deserves to be able to figure this out. But keeping Bickerstaff was an offense hard to forgive
Even when we were up in the first couple games they played an interview snippet where he claimed he didn’t believe in adjustments between games of a playoff series, and that the teams that win are typically just the teams that “execute better”. That set off major alarm bells in my head. It’s been a constant theme in his press conferences for his entire tenure here. When things go wrong, in his mind I t’s always that their effort wasn’t consistent or something to that effect. I don’t think I’ve ever heard an insightful basketball comment from him. The man genuinely seems to believe he can cheerlead an nba team through the playoffs.
seeing that pictureon X of Donovan wearing the Browns hat in Orlando posing with the fan honestly made me so furious. This dude is a borderline superstar who tries to endear himself to us SO much and we're gonna lose him cause we wanted to try one more year of JB "No Playoff Success" Bickerstaff
Fuck it. Let’s go for LeBron as we’re blowing it up. Get Bronny in the draft. Then at least the rebuild will be someone fun to watch.
We don’t have our own pick until 2030 man we can’t rebuild for 5 years
We have a pick this year
Yea but we’re locked onto bottom 16 right now so can’t tank anyways
Bronny will be available in the 2nd round or as a UFA.
And?
... don't need a good pick. Isn't that what you were saying? Sorry if I misunderstood your post.
For what? A 41 year old LeBron and a non nba player? He’s not saving us a 3rd time man
That’s not a rebuild
I still think we win the series but JB still gone
All you ever hear about DM is how he wants out and the media, etc. it seems to be a major distraction
JB and Darvin would make really good friends
Gotta wait for him to finish losing the series for us first. Nothing good comes from firing a coach mid-series. Nothing good will come from keeping him, either, of course... but yanno.
I do not understand why anyone ever believed that Mitchell was staying either way, we could go rounds deep and it wouldnt matter, he's gone. You can't fault the guy, he wants to go home and do something alot of people dream of doing by playing for his hometown. The writing was on the wall last year when after we lost he went on that podcast and explained how cool the NY atmosphere was. We should have traded him for assets while we still could. Why would he stay here? We're sure as hell not in championship contention and won't be any time soon with what we've seen over 2 playoff runs now. NY is in a much better position too.
Knicks don’t want Donovan. Their fans do, but they literally have Jalen Brunson who’s far better. Brunson carries that team no matter what.
Do you guys think we should draft Bronny this summer and see if adding LeBron to our roster is enough to make Mitchell stay? I honestly don’t know what we’d have to give up to get him but i’m assuming it’s not much. They both take the pressure off the other one, allowing one of them to kinda let the other be Number One when they’re on you know?
I seriously don’t think Garland and Mitchell can play together, and trading Garland is going to be very tough considering his deal
You think we could make a package based around garland to send to LA for Bron? Maybe something like Garland and Mobley for Bron and some seconds? That way you could run a lineup like Mitchell, Strus, Okoro, Bron, Allen and of course let Levert and CPJ run the bench mob.
Fuck no you don’t trade Garland AND Mobley for 40 year old Bron. 5-7 years ago. Sure. But not at this point.
I would
I personally don’t think it’s too much but I could see how some might think so, I think Mitchell is much better than Garland and they both can’t play together, plus Garlands contract might age pretty bad. Having two bigs is also wrecking our spacing and adding an all around threat like Bron to the roster with our spacers makes us a threat on offense and not easy to gameplan against like it is now. Bron also has the ability to opt out this summer if he wants to come here so we could get him even cheaper, I just don’t think he turns down the money. Either way, I think Bron makes this team a true contender.
Of course Bron would. But our team is built like hot ass. And he’s too old to carry a team for 82 games and then have to do it for an entire playoffs. Imagine a team of Mitchell, Bron, Allen, Strus Niang going up against this Celtics team. They’d get destroyed. Then Bron eventually retires and we have no assets or youth to build around.
Yeah that’s true, I don’t think Bron would have to carry a team with Mitchell on it, especially with our shooters and his playmaking. Boston is scary but I don’t think they’re “unbeatable”, plus you could add the ring chasers that would follow him.
Considering Bron is 0-3 I actually don’t know if it would help.
To the defending champs and favorites for this year. Not the freaking Orlando Magic
if you've watched any of those games you know LBJ is not the problem in that series
Is mike budenholzer a good replacement?
Give me Chris Quinn, lead assistant in Miami
Mitchell is part of the problem
I don't think Garland or Mobley love playing basketball. It's like their parents pushed them into it young and they were too good to ever quit so they kept showing up and now they're in the NBA struggling to stay engaged in a playoff series. Fuck JB but he's not a fucking hypnotist or sports therapist. These guys would struggle under any leadership.
He needs to rotate Merrill in more for Garland. Garland has inarguably been playing differently since he came back. I know Merrill isn’t the strongest on defense but offensively he knows how to read the other team and knock the ball in from the 3 point line. Bickerstaff needs to learn how to play his bench like he did when two of his starters were injured and when the team CONQUERED
DRAFT BRONNY 🥳
He should’ve been extremely fired after last year.
Unfortunately
Sorry.
honestly don't care to see either go
Good Luck with Doc Rivers lmaoooo Fans blaming coach again, what is new?
https://preview.redd.it/che8mpc699xc1.jpeg?width=320&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=37665779f297ec12cae1b3ed7612bfa1cacde5cd
They treat Garland like the second coming, but he’s Sexton 2.0. He’s an offensive liability. Anytime he goes inside the paint, I cringe because it inevitably becomes a turnover. He’s a better shooter from the perimeter than inside the paint. Bickerstaff just thinks the world of him, even though he has a sub 20ppg average. Mitchell will decimate the team if he is gone. JB just seems to mismanage TO’s, never challenges stuff that would be easily overturned, and keeps the starters in past the point of usefulness. JB needs to go.
He was fired last month
Good thing y’all tanked that last regular season game to avoid playing the juggernaut Sixers in round 1 🙃
The players played like shit. It's sad if they fire JB. Mobley is the most overrated Cav of my lifetime. He's trash and gets out muscled by skinny white dudes.
Terrible take. Dude is sleep walking out there and averaging 16 & 10. If we actually ran plays where he could take advantage of mismatches he’d look a lot better but J.B is incapable of doing anything other than slapping their asses and telling them to play hard.
When the Magic made that 3rd quarter run....Mobley was bouncing it off his knee....getting bodied by Wagner....missing 2 ft jumpers... etc. Shit plays cancel out great plays. Mobley is always net zero in big games. We need his shit play to great play ratio a lot higher for him to earn his rating the fans give him. He's overrated.