CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers and first-year NBA coach John Beilein could part ways as early as today.
Reports surfaced Sunday night that Beilein and the Cavaliers have had discussions about him stepping away from the team with 28 games remaining in the 2019-2020 regular season, and NBA Insiders Adrian Wojnarowski and Brian Windhorst further elaborated on a timetable for his future in Cleveland.
According to Wojnarowski and Windhorst, a decision on Beilein’s future could come down in the next 24-48 hours.
“Beilein was expected to speak with Cavaliers general manager Koby Altman again about his future as soon as Monday, league sources said,” ESPN.com reported.
“Cleveland ownership and management were determined to see through a difficult start with Beilein, but it has become increasingly apparent to the front office and the coach that the partnership is headed to an inevitable split, league sources said.”
Currently, the Cavaliers are 14-40 (.259 winning percentage), 9.5 games out of the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference standings. Coming out of the NBA All-Star Game break, the Cavaliers have the worst record in the Eastern Conference.
The Cavaliers are 2.5 games behind the Golden State Warriors for the worst record in the entire NBA, just two seasons after the franchises met in The Finals for the fourth consecutive year.
Beilein was an unexpected hire of the Cavaliers this past offseason after spending in his nearly three-decade college coaching career.
While leading the University of Michigan Wolverines for 12 years, Beilein posted a 278-150 record with nine winning seasons, three 30-win campaigns, two Big Ten Conference Tournament championships, two conference regular-season titles and nine NCAA Tournament appearances.
Overall, Beilein had a 571-325 career record (.637 winning percentage) in his 27-year career at the NCAA Division I level, and his rate of winning was equally impressive in the NCAA Tournament.
Beilein guided his teams to a 26-13 record and twice took the Wolverines to the Final Four.
During the 2018 NCAA Tournament, Beilein’s Wolverines defeated Florida State in the West Regional Final and Loyola-Chicago in the national semifinals before falling to the vaunted Villanova Wildcats in the NCAA Championship Game.
In addition to the NCAA Tournament appearances, Beilein guided West Virginia to the 2007 NIT (National Invitational Tournament) Championship.