I thought it would be helpful to scour the interwebs and find articles and information regarding our new HC.

Here is his transaction record:
November 18, 2015: Appointed Head Coach by the Houston Rockets.
November 27, 2017: Appointed Interim Head Coach by the Memphis Grizzlies.
May 1, 2018: Hired as Head Coach by the Memphis Grizzlies.
April 11, 2019: Fired as Head Coach by the Memphis Grizzlies.
February 19, 2020: Appointed Head Coach by the Cleveland Cavaliers.
(Source: https://www.basketball-reference.com/coaches/bickejb01c.html )

In CLE (5 Seasons) he went 170 and 159, (.517 winning %)
In the playoffs that dropped to 6 and 11 (.353 winning %)

According to this article his original offensive system (2021) was "predicated on a ton of ball movement and body movement", which they got away from when Mitchell joined and they wanted to move back to that.

Notably “It’s going to be asking everybody to be a little more dynamic, to be a little harder to find. When you’re chasing an elite player like Donovan, he’s got the advantage automatically. Now he’s just got to make the play.”

According to this article Bickerstaff ran a shallow 8 man rotation early in the season and was forced into 10-11 man rotation with injuries to Mobley/Garland.

I'm not going to cite it, because almost every article that I read highlighted and were positive about JB's defensive schemes. This Twitter/X post of Coaches Corner highlights a brief snippet of Coach Bickerstaff's Defensive philosophy.

According to this article it was rebounding that was at the core of Cleveland's win streak in December. In November they were 19th in Offensive rebounding % (27.7) and 21st in overall rebounding % (49.7), but in December they rose to 6th in OREB% (32.2) and 8th overall (51.3)

That article cites Tristan Thompson increased minutes as the reasoning for this. As well as Allen's stellar play.

In November they averaged 14 second chance points (20th) and 17.9 second chance points (1st) in December.

So what does any of this mean?

According to the articles I read (some of which I didn't share/cite) it was the offensive system that was the problem. Which only became a problem after the Mitchell trade. Before that it seemed that it was less of an issue with Lauri.

Defensively no problem. Every article I found was high, or at least neutral on his Defensive philosophy.

Also, he found a way for his players to generate more rebounds, especially when Mobley and Garland were injured. That's not nothing.

So what should we as fans expect. Good Defense, and a high movement (both ball and bodies) Offense. And great rebounding.

Hopefully. If any of you are like me, I am very meh on this hire. But I am trying to find some positives and dialogue about it.

Uhhhhhhh???? Shams?

We are going after him. Would be a great get. The combo of he and duren would be among the best. Complements duren as his strengths offsets some of duren’s weaknesses. Duren is still so young and will grow a lot more but in the meantime we need the help! Let’s get him!

https://www.si.com/nba/pistons/news/detroit-pistons-tied-to-knicks-big-man-ahead-of-free-agency-01j1nb9jr82x

It looks like the relationship in GSW is broken https://x.com/johnhollinger/status/1806711512716955767

Pros

• Still in his prime at 29
• Shot 39% from 3 in '22 and '23. Even shot 35% in '24
• Athletic and a good wing defender.

Cons

• 3 years left on contract at 26, 28, and 30M
• Had personal issues he was dealing with this past year. Who knows if he'll continue to have those?

Maybe it's a hot take, but even receiving just 1 FRP is enough for me. More wing players, he doesn't really have health issues. By the time his contract is in the last year, hopefully Ausar and Holland are developed and ready to start.

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4427677/2023/04/19/cavaliers-junkyard-dog-chain/

I found this article while reading up on our new HC.

Here is the interesting tidbit. There is more and I would encourage you to go and read the full article.

"When Bickerstaff took over as interim head coach in early 2020, he began to instill a defense-first approach. The 2019-20 season was eventually cut short, but the players gravitated toward that idea. That approach, combined with that underdog mentality, has shifted the culture in Cleveland. Bickerstaff wanted to find a way to celebrate this, to honor his team’s commitment to doing the little things that have taken them to the next level.

Early in the 2021-22 season, Mark “Cobra” Cashman — the Cavs’ director of team operations — reached out to Shelly Cayette-Weston, the executive vice president and chief commercial officer of the Cavaliers, about potential corporate partnerships for the Cavs’ idea. This led to a discussion about a potential collaboration with the jewelry brand Jared and The Jared Foundry — the company’s custom design studio.

Then began the design process of creating what would become the initial Junkyard Dog Chain. The Cavs had seen other examples of chains in college football, such as the University of Miami’s turnover chain. That served as a point of reference when imagining the concept.

The initial chain is made up of 14k yellow gold and 1,702 natural garnets. On the back, the pendant is etched with elements specific to Cleveland and the Cavs, such as the ‘216’ area code, the JYD (Junkyard Dog) acronym, Cavaliers logos throughout franchise history, the phrase “Let ’em know,” 2016 champs, as well as their five core values: details, toughness, together, compete and 1 more. 

“It was a combination of things where we wanted to make sure that the Cavaliers logo was a central focus of the piece,” Bickerstaff told The Athletic. “But we also wanted to make sure that the symbolism behind it was included. And that’s how, like on the back side of it, those different pieces that are a part of it, were all things that the guys believed in and bought in, and we valued and thought were important. And so we found a way to kind of mesh it and put it all together.”

I hope he and Langdon can come up with something that fits the Pistons History and gets the same type of buy in from the players. "Bad Boys" gold chain would be dope.

The more I am reading about JB the more I like it. Still a lot to dislike (the offensive system, or lack there of), but he got buy in from players, established a culture, and is a defensive minded coach. This seems like a step in the right direction.

NOOOOOOO TO BEN SIMMONS. Cam Johnson and DFS I am more than fine with, trust me. You know Brooklyn is going to be stingy with their picks because they’re in a full rebuild. If it’s 2 first round picks unprotected then MAYBE. I do not want Ben Simmons period. If you’re going to absorb bad contracts and a bad player, then Ben Simmons is quite literally the epitome of that. He’s unplayable.

I haven't seen any news that states whether Ausar is working out again... he's not active on social, no news since he got shut down, they drafted a duplicative player to him. Is anyone else worried?

We have 50M left in cap space. Not only is Detroit not a FA destination in the first place, but the rotation is already getting bloated (as it stands today):

Cade

Ivey

Thompson

Holland

Duren

Stewart

Fontecchio

Hardaway

Sasser

That's already 9 players; unless you're Monty Williams, you don't play more than 10 on a given night. I'd guess Holland and Sasser would get the least amount of playing time out of these. Trajan could still trade people away of course.

So I wouldn't expect 3 more "legit" players amongst the 50M signed as Free Agents. And why would FAs come here if they know they might not get as much playing time with the young guys also needing playing time? It might be just 2 guys Trajan absorbs for cap space making 25M each.

This was never the summer to be a big FA player in the first place. Apart from that, even championship teams in recent years haven't signed big FA - Boston, Denver, Milwaukee. None of these teams' major players were signed in FA.

We need someone like him to make the lineups make sense and allow these young guys develop properly.

full season of fontecchio, thj, ivey, and ron holland is an upgrade alone. on top of whoever they sign tonight, hopefully a shooter like tyus jones. ausar can be our defensive specialist. and lets not act like our schedule last year wasn't extremely tough. pistons played all the top teams back to back early on and had plenty of unlucky injuries to start us off. and as we all know monty was giving all the playing time to killian, knox, livers, malachi, fournier, etc...l i get they wanted to raise killians stock for the deadline but at some point those 4th quarter rotations were the worst i ever seen in history...and we even brought in danilla gallinari who was playing great for us and whatd they do cut him right away? lmao

When does the protections on our draft pick that’s owed to the Knicks change to a 2nd round draft pick? I think it’s soon

I don't know if I am in love with the Pistons grabbing their 3rd straight recently fired coach, but re-tread coaches can and have had success in this league.