Heading into Tuesday night’s draft lottery, the Cleveland Cavaliers took a serious step in establishing organizational direction, signing Michigan head coach John Beilein to a five-year contract to lead the team, as first reported by ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The move comes as something of a surprise, but certainly doesn’t lack for serious calculation. The Cavs had primarily been linked to younger, highly regarded assistant coaches around the league. General manager Koby Altman and ownership opted for what is more or less the opposite of that.
Beilein, 66, leaves behind an 829–468 record at the college level, with his most prominent stops at West Virginia, where he coached Cavaliers assistant GM and former Mountaineer Mike Gansey, and at Michigan, where he took the Wolverines to two Final Fours.