John Beilein is in advanced talks with the Cavaliers about parting ways, sources with knowledge of the situation tell The Athletic.
A resolution is expected by Wednesday, and sources with knowledge of the situation say Beilein is expected to walk away from the remainder of his contract, which was originally a four-year deal — with a team option for a fifth — worth about $4 million to 4.5 million per year.
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Beilein held a meeting with owner Dan Gilbert on Monday to discuss resolution options, sources said.
The Cavaliers will return from the All-Star break with their first practice on Wednesday, when many team officials and coaches expect to have the Beilein cloud behind them, sources said. They are widely expected to promote associate head coach J.B. Bickerstaff to replace Beilein. He would be the Cavs sixth coach in the past seven seasons.
Bickerstaff, 40, is in his first season as associate head coach, after spending two seasons as the head coach for the Memphis Grizzlies. He took over as interim head coach for the final 63 games of the 2017-18 season, and continued on for last season.
He spent five seasons with the Houston Rockets, from 2011-2016, and served as interim head coach in Houston early in the 2015-16 season. The Rockets finished with a 37-34 record that season, along with a playoff berth.
Bickerstaff began his NBA coaching career as an assistant in 2004 for the Charlotte Bobcats under his father, Bernie, and was the youngest assistant coach in the NBA at 24 at the time. Bickerstaff’s connection with his father is still present, as Bernie is a member of the Cavs’ organization as a senior basketball adviser. Bernie has been in the Cavs front office position since one season as an assistant coach during the 2013-14 season.
The Cavs coaching situation has been rocky since LeBron James left in the summer of 2018. Tyronn Lue was fired in 2018 after an 0-6 start. Then interim coach Larry Drew, who didn’t have a strong desire to coach, took over. And now Beilein after 54 games.
Several factors weighed on Beilein, including the team’s on- and off-court struggles and the personal toll that the details surrounding his son’s resignation at Niagara University have taken on him, league sources said.
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Beilein, 67, left Michigan last summer to sign the deal with Cavaliers. He spoke often about embracing the challenge ahead of him with the Cavs and adjusting to the NBA, but the fatigue of losing became apparent early.
Beilein spent more than 40 years coaching various levels of college basketball and the transition to the NBA proved difficult. The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Shams Charania first reported in December that players were not happy with how Beilein coached the team, specifically his focus on fundamentals, lengthy film sessions and a lack of offensive versatility, among other grievances.
There was an incident a week later, which was caught on the broadcast of a road game at San Antonio when Tristan Thompson appeared to yell at Beilein. It was addressed two days later at shootaround, saying they moved on from the exchange.
Then in January, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon and Shams Charania reported about Kevin Love’s blowup with general manager Koby Altman over the fine given to him after an incident in Toronto. Later that same day, during the Cavs game against the Thunder, his frustrations escalated again, which he addressed a few days later with the media.
And finally, Beilein had a slip of his own in a team-only meeting, calling the players “thugs,” which he later clarified and apologized as he intended to say “slugs.” Beilein apologized to the team, both individually and as a group, and to Altman.
Beilein had no answers on how to fix all of the continuous on-court issues. The Cavs entered the break 14-40, the worst team in the East and second-worst in the NBA.
— The Athletic’s Kelsey Russo contributed to this report.
(Photo: Kathryn Riley / Getty Images)