The Cleveland Cavaliers are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. The Cavaliers play in the Central Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team joined the NBA in 1970 as an expansion team and won their first Eastern Conference championship in 2007. The Cavaliers have played their home games at Rocket Arena, formerly known as Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, Quicken Loans Arena, and Gund Arena, since 1994. The Cavaliers are owned by Dan Gilbert, with Koby Altman as their general manager. American R&B-pop singer Usher Raymond is a minority owner.
There have been 24 head coaches for the Cavaliers franchise. The current head coach is Kenny Atkinson. The franchise's first head coach was Bill Fitch, who coached for nine seasons. Fitch is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season games coached (738); Lenny Wilkens is the franchise's all-time leader for the most regular-season game wins (316); Mike Brown is the franchise's all-time leader for the most playoff games coached (71) and the most playoff game wins (42). Atkinson has the highest regular-season winning percentage (.707) and David Blatt has the highest playoff winning percentage (.700). Tyronn Lue is the only coach to lead the Cavaliers to an NBA championship, in 2016. Chuck Daly, Wilkens and Fitch have been elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as head coaches, partly due to their work with the Cavaliers. Fitch, Daly and Wilkens were also named as 3 of the top 10 coaches in NBA history. Fitch, Brown, and Atkinson are the only Cavaliers coaches to have won the NBA Coach of the Year Award.
Key
GCGames coachedWWinsLLossesWin%Winning percentage#Number of coaches*Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the CavaliersElected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach
Coaches Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the . + # Name Term GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements ReferenceRegular seasonPlayoffs1–738304434.41218711.389 NBA Coach of the YearOne of the top 10 coaches in NBA history2823745.451————3712546.352————4*Musselman was fired 71 games into the 1980–81 season. Delaney served as interim head coach for the remaining eleven games and the first fifteen games of the 1981–82 season.26719.269————5Delaney was fired fifteen games into the 1981–82 season. Kloppenburg served as interim head coach for three games before being fired.303.000————6Kloppenburg was fired after serving as interim head coach for three games in the 1981–82 season. Daly served as head coach for 41 games before being fired.41932.220————One of the top 10 coaches in NBA history—Daly was fired after serving as head coach for 41 games in the 1981–82 season. Musselman served as head coach for the remaining fifteen games.23221.087————7–16451113.311————8–1496188.409413.2509Karl was fired 67 games into the 1985–86 season. Littles served as interim head coach for the remaining fifteen games.15411.267————10–574316258.551411823.439One of the top 10 coaches in NBA history11–460248212.53914212.14312–16462102.378————13–1243787.298————14Lucas was fired 42 games into the 2002–03 season. Smart served as interim head coach for the remaining forty games.40931.225————15–1466977.473————16Silas was fired 64 games into the 2004–05 season. Malone served as interim head coach for the remaining eighteen games.18810.444————17–410272138.663714229.592Eastern Conference championship (2007) NBA Coach of the Year18–23064166.278———— —823349.402————19*–113834020146Eastern Conference championship (2015)20Blatt was fired 41 games into the 2015–16 season. Lue served as head coach for the remaining 41 games.–21112883614120NBA championship (2016)Three Eastern Conference championships (2016–2018)2016 ESPY Award for Best Coach/Manager21Lue was fired six games into the 2018–19 season. Drew served as interim head coach for the remaining 76 games.761957————22*541440————23Beilein resigned 54 games into the 2019–20 season. Bickerstaff served as head coach for the remaining 11 games before the season's suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.–3291701591761124–present16411648502228 NBA Coach of the Year
Notes A running total of the number of coaches of the Cavaliers. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once. Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.
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