CLEVELAND — Sunday doesn’t mark J.B. Bickerstaff’s first return to Cleveland as Detroit Pistons head coach. But it is the first time he’s been in the building with the top-ranked team in the conference
that has been better than the Cleveland Cavaliers in every metric. In a year and a half, he’s turned a perennial loser into a team that could be representing the East in the NBA Finals.
The lessons he learned in Cleveland have helped him get this Pistons team to where they are now.
“Process,” Bickerstaff said. “I think that’s the thing that helped me most, especially that last year here in Cleveland. Not being results-driven, but process-driven.”
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Bickerstaff’s last season in Cleveland wasn’t 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.
Bickerstaff’s 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.
“That’s what helped me transform my career,” Bickerstaff said. “To be able to have that mindset that you can’t 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.”
This isn’t something that has come naturally to Bickerstaff, who’s known for being one of the most animated head coaches in the league.
“You see me, I’m still the same (during games),” Bickerstaff said. “When the games start, it is about competition, but it’s all the stuff that leads to the process. It’s what we do at shoot around, is what we do in our coaches meetings, it’s what we do in our individual development stuff. All that stuff is process.”
The Pistons have clearly bought into this. They’ve 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’s not difficult to see why they have an impressive 25-9 record.
And, it also helps that the Pistons have completely bought into his message.
“When the competition starts,” Bickerstaff said, “the shit starts.”
