{"id":516635,"date":"2026-01-04T19:23:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:23:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T19:23:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T19:23:14","slug":"former-cavs-head-coach-j-b-bickerstaff-reveals-biggest-lesson-learned-in-cleveland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/516635\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Cavs head coach J.B. Bickerstaff reveals biggest lesson learned in Cleveland"},"content":{"rendered":"

CLEVELAND \u2014 Sunday doesn\u2019t mark J.B. Bickerstaff\u2019s first return to Cleveland as Detroit Pistons<\/a> head coach. But it is the first time he\u2019s been in the building with the top-ranked team in the conference that has been better than the Cleveland Cavaliers<\/a> in every metric. In a year and a half, he\u2019s turned a perennial loser into a team that could be representing the East in the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

The lessons he learned in Cleveland have helped him get this Pistons team to where it is now.<\/p>\n

\u201cProcess,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cI think that\u2019s the thing that helped me most, especially that last year here in Cleveland. Not being results-driven, but process-driven.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff\u2019s last season in Cleveland wasn\u2019t a smooth ride. The team got off to an uneven 13-12 start, then Evan Mobley and Darius Garland both received injuries that kept them out for over a month in the middle of December. Instead of things taking a turn for the worse, the Cavs ended up winning 22 of their next 26 and rocketing back up the standings.<\/p>\n

Bickerstaff\u2019s ability to quickly remake how they played on both ends of the floor led to that. The process being correct allowed the results to follow.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what helped me transform my career,\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cTo be able to have that mindset that you can\u2019t get caught up in the results. Your focus has to be on doing the right things every single day. And if you do the right things and you have the right people with you, the results will be what you want them to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t something that has come naturally to Bickerstaff, who\u2019s known for being one of the most animated head coaches in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see me, I\u2019m still the same (during games),\u201d Bickerstaff said. \u201cWhen the games start, it is about competition, but it\u2019s all the stuff that leads to the process. It\u2019s what we do at shoot around, is what we do in our coaches\u2019 meetings, it\u2019s what we do in our individual development stuff. All that stuff is process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Pistons have clearly bought into this. They\u2019ve been one of the most consistent teams in terms of effort and defensive intensity over the last season and a half. Combine that with the emergence of Cade Cunningham as a legitimate All-NBA talent and outside MVP candidate, and it\u2019s not difficult to see why they have an impressive 25-9 record.<\/p>\n

And, it also helps that the Pistons have completely bought into his message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the competition starts,\u201d Bickerstaff said, \u201cthe shit starts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Sunday doesn\u2019t mark J.B. Bickerstaff\u2019s first return to Cleveland as Detroit Pistons head coach. But it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":516636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,296,188,3860,6,3101,297],"class_list":{"0":"post-516635","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-detroit","10":"tag-detroit-pistons","11":"tag-detroitpistons","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-nba-news","14":"tag-pistons"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115838465164308937","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=516635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/516635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/516636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=516635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=516635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=516635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}