The Cavs month-long search ends where it started.
Kenny Atkinson will be the next head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers according to Adrian Wojnarowski. Atkinson takes the role just over a month after the Cavs fired J.B. Bickerstaff. He will be inheriting a team that fell in the second round to the eventual champion Boston Celtics.
The specifics of Atkinson’s contract are still being worked out at this time.
This is the second time Atkinson, 56, has been named head coach. He guided the Brooklyn Nets to a 118-190 record from 2016 through the 2020 season before resigning. He spent the ensuing campaign as an assistant for Ty Lue with the Los Angeles Clippers before becoming an assistant for the Golden State Warriors from 2021-2024.
The current situation in Cleveland is far from the head coaching position he accepted in Brooklyn in 2016. The Nets were rebuilding from the disastrous Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce trade. They needed someone who could develop a winning culture and get the most out of a situation that had little room for improvement through the draft.
Atkinson did that. He built a winning foundation as his team climbed from 20 wins in his first season with the team to 42 and a playoff entrance just two seasons later. The foundation he helped build was appealing enough for Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving to sign there in the summer of 2019. However, he never got the chance to coach them both due to Durant’s injury that kept him out of the 2019-20 season, and resigned because some of the players wanted him gone.
The Cavs don’t have the personalities that led to Atkinson agreeing to step away in Brooklyn, but they’re a team that is looking to win now. Bickerstaff is the one who essentially did what Atkinson’s task was in Brooklyn. The Cavs were a mess before Bickerstaff took the reigns and he righted the ship. Atkinson’s job won’t be to build a sustainable culture but to elevate this group and get the most out of the talent on the roster. Specifically on the offense end.
Atkinson is someone who should be able to do this. He established an effective, motion-based offense in Brooklyn that is similar to the one the Atlanta Hawks ran under Mike Budenholzer when he was an assistant there from 2012-2016. Brooklyn was a fast-paced team that got up three-pointers while moving on and off-ball. Spending the last few years under Steve Kerr, who runs a similar system in Golden State, likely enforced this type of system.
Bickerstaff talked about adding offensive principles like that at the beginning of last season, but this never came to fruition. At least not when the roster was completely healthy. Atkinson will be tasked with doing so.
The Cavaliers don’t have a lack of talent. The issue is the overlapping skillsets that don’t naturally fit together on the offensive side of the ball. Atkinson’s tenure in Cleveland will be defined by whether or not he’s able to get the most of out the pieces already in place.
