The Pistons head coach is rightfully focused on his own team.
Detroit Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff downplayed going against his former team when they faced off in the Cleveland Cavaliers home opener. He stayed with that strategy the second time around as well.
“We’re here to play a game,” Bickerstaff said before Monday’s matchup. “We play 82 of them, and our guys try to go out and give them the best they got every single night. So that’s where our focus is. … Our focus has been on our improvement.”
According to Bickerstaff, any narrative about this being a revenge game is manufactured.
“I don’t think happiness gets clicks,” Bickerstaff said matter of factly. “I think that’s where we are. So everybody’s looking for a story. But, you know, I mean, we don’t have a story.”
It’d be easy to see why there could be animosity between Bickerstaff and his former team—or at least their front office. The Cavs took a step forward every year, but he was still let go at the end of last season.
In hindsight, it’s difficult to be critical of the move as Keny Atkinson has the Cavs atop the conference. That said, there’s no guarantee that Bickerstaff wouldn’t have had this team playing well too even if their playing style would’ve undoubtedly been different.
Any ill will doesn’t seem to extend to any players on the team.
“I have great relationships with these guys over in that locker room,” Bickerstaff said. “I have no hate towards them. I’m happy for them. We try to embrace people’s successes.
“You think about it, there’s 450 guys in the NBA. There’s 30 head coaches in the NBA. If you’re trying to find a way to bring negativity to people who have made you know it to that point and against those odds, then there’s something wrong with you.”
One person who has no animosity toward Bickerstaff is Atkinson. He’s consistently gone out of his way to praise Bickerstaff whenever he can.
“He’s a heck of a coach,” Atkinson said. “He’s done a great, great job with the Pistons. They keep improving.”
The Pistons already have nine more wins this season compared with the previous one and we’re only just over halfway through this season. The rise and improvement that they’ve shown isn’t too different than what Bickerstaff did in Cleveland.
“He’s a big part [of the Cavs’ improvement],” Atkinson said of Bickerstaff. “I just think he built a really good foundation.”
Even if things didn’t end great, setting the stage for this current Cavs run is something Bickerstaff can look back on proudly.
“I take pride in the job that we did here,” Bickerstaff said. “The staff did a lot, sacrificed a lot, put a lot of time in to help players become better players. Help the team understand what it took to win. So we always take pride in the job. That’s the purpose of doing the job, right?
“You don’t do the job looking for anything. But you know, you hold yourself to a standard, and I thought our staff did a great job of holding ourselves to that standard, and contributed to getting this team to where it needed to be, continuing to get better every year.”