Cleveland Cavaliers Collin Sexton (Photo by David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images)
With Larry Drew signing a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the rest of the season and potentially into next season, the coaching search won’t at least start for the Cavs until the offseason; No offense to Drew, but he’s not the right coach for this team going forward.
Larry Drew can be a good coach for veteran teams but he isn’t great at developing young players and his offensive schemes can be suspect at times. The Cleveland Cavaliers should try to hire a coach that’s a proven commodity when it comes to either player development, defensive excellence, or hopefully, both.
It’s going to take a while for the Cavs to rebuild and they should find a coach that’s willing to develop Collin Sexton, Cedi Osman, and whoever the Cavs take in this coming year’s draft. Those three players will be the focal point of the Cavs’ rebuild and it’s important for general manager Koby Altman to hire a coach that can take those players to the next level.
The biggest problem with Sexton and Osman is that they can be caught out of position defensively at times and that’s no excuse since they have the talent to be really consistent defenders on the perimeter. According to Basketball Reference, the Cavs are 30th in defensive efficiency as of right now. If they don’t hire the right coach they might have bad defenders for the entire rebuilding process.
#1: Frank Vogel
Photo by Chris Elise/Getty Images
Frank Vogel would be my top pick for the Cavs coaching job. He has the track record of developing young players and he’s a great defensive coach. I think he was dealt a bad hand in Orlando. He had a really bad roster that had way too many big men. He didn’t have a good point guard on that team and then-general manager Rob Hennigan was incompetent. This is the same guy that traded Victor Oladipo for Serge Ibaka.
His time in Orlando was miserable but he was instrumental in Aaron Gordon’s development and he took a big leap last year under Vogel. Gordon averaged 12.7 ppg in Vogel’s first season and he jumped to 17.6 ppg in Vogel’s last season. He still knows how to develop young players, and in particular, athletic wings that haven’t quite put it all together.
Vogel was one of the top coaches in the league when he was in Indiana. Indiana was the best defensive team in the league in 2013 and 2014 according to Basketball Reference. He made Paul George into a perennial All-Star and he made Roy Hibbert into one of the best defensive big men in the league. He led Indiana to two Eastern Conference Finals and they took Miami to 7 games in 2013. He’s the perfect fit for the Cavs in relation to their situation.
Vogel has shown you that he knows how to develop young players and that he can coach defense at a high level in the NBA. When he has the right roster around him he can take a team deep into the playoffs and he can make certain players into All-Stars. I think he’s the first guy the Cavs should call on April 10th.
