Kenny Atkinson is getting a deserved second likelihood at being an NBA head coach.
In response to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, the Cavaliers are hiring Atkinson as their new head coach.
The 57-year-old was an assistant with the New York Knicks from 2008-2012 and the Atlanta Hawks from 2013-16 earlier than starting a run because the Brooklyn Nets‘ head coach that lasted three-plus seasons.
Atkinson had a 118-190 file within the common season and 1-4 mark within the postseason with the Nets — ending fifth within the Coach of the Yr voting in 2019 — earlier than stepping down in March 2020.
He spent one season as an assistant on Tyronn Lue’s bench with the Los Angeles Clippers earlier than aiding Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors for the final three campaigns. Atkinson received his first NBA championship ring with the Warriors in 2022.
The Huntington, New York native will probably be reuniting with two former Nets gamers when he formally joins the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Capturing guard Caris LeVert spent the primary four-plus seasons of his profession with Brooklyn, together with Atkinson’s total tenure with the membership. He averaged 18.7 factors and 4.2 rebounds (each the second highest of his profession) in the course of the pandemic-altered 2019-2020 marketing campaign and led the workforce in scoring (20.3 factors) and assists (9.5) throughout their four-game sweep by the hands of the Toronto Raptors within the first spherical of the playoffs.
After spending elements of two seasons with the Indiana Pacers from 2020-22, LeVert was traded to the Cavaliers in February 2022 in a deal that included Ricky Rubio and has been with the workforce since.
Heart Jarrett Allen performed three seasons underneath Atkinson after being chosen by the Nets with the twenty second total choose in 2017.
The large man turned a full-time starter in his second season and completed ninth within the Defensive Participant of the Yr voting, recording a career-high 1.5 blocks per contest over 80 video games. Allen averaged a close to double-double throughout his third and ultimate marketing campaign underneath Atkinson in 2019-2020, posting 11.1 factors and 9.6 rebounds per recreation.
The Texas product has averaged double-doubles throughout three of the final 4 seasons and was traded to Cleveland in January 2021 as part of a four-team blockbuster that additionally despatched LeVert to Indiana and landed former MVP James Harden in Brooklyn.
Allen made his first All-Star workforce in the course of the 2021-22 season and completed second within the NBA in area objective proportion (.677) that 12 months as effectively. The large man has completed inside the highest 10 in area objective proportion in every of his first six seasons and within the prime 5 in three straight years.
Allen’s .630 area objective proportion is third-best all-time.
Atkinson is becoming a member of his sixth completely different group within the final 12 years however is coming into a really promising scenario in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers superior to the Japanese Convention semifinals this spring earlier than falling to the eventual-champion Boston Celtics and have received 99 regular-season video games over the previous two seasons.
If the workforce is ready to lock up All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell on a contract extension, that offers Atkinson a strong core to work with for the upcoming season and past.
