CLEVELAND — Kenny Atkinson’s first stint as an NBA head coach ended with a sudden, unusual separation in Brooklyn.
He is hoping for a longer-lasting relationship in Cleveland.
The Cavaliers finalized a five-year contract on Friday with Atkinson, who spent the previous three seasons as an assistant with Golden State and now takes over a Cleveland workforce coming off its second straight playoff look.
In selecting the revered Atkinson, the Cavs ended a monthlong search that started after the firing of J.B. Bickerstaff, who led the workforce to 99 wins the previous two seasons. Bickerstaff was let go after Cleveland misplaced in 5 video games to Boston within the Japanese Convention semifinals.
“Kenny brings a wealth of expertise, a confirmed observe document of participant growth and a relentless work ethic that aligns with the imaginative and prescient we’ve for this franchise,” Koby Altman, the workforce’s president of basketball operations, mentioned.
“His familiarity teaching alongside a few of the NBA’s greatest elevates this partnership and we’re excited that Kenny will information our workforce and assist us obtain our targets each on and off the court docket,” Altman added.
The Cavs plan to introduce Atkinson — the franchise’s twenty fourth coach — at a information convention on Monday.
“That is an unimaginable alternative to guide an already proficient younger roster with an equally shiny future,” Atkinson mentioned in an announcement. “I’ve seen firsthand and needed to put together for this group as an opposing coach, and the duty was not straightforward. I am so excited to now be on this aspect of the ledger to assist proceed shifting this workforce ahead.”
There was a delay in Atkinson signing his contract as a result of he was in France serving to its nationwide workforce put together for the upcoming Paris Olympics. He’ll be again in Europe subsequent week for exhibition video games with the French workforce.
Atkinson arrived in Cleveland on Wednesday and was within the workforce’s draft room when the Cavs chosen Cal ahead Jaylon Tyson with the No. 20 choose.
Atkinson’s hiring is one other vital transfer in a pivotal summer time for a Cleveland workforce that believes it has the mandatory roster to compete for a championship. The following step — and maybe an important — is getting All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to signal a long-term contract, which he’s anticipated to do.
Atkinson, 57, is a protected, sound choose by the workforce’s entrance workplace and chairman Dan Gilbert, who hasn’t at all times dealt with teaching searches with aplomb. Gilbert’s outside-the-box hires of first-time NBA coaches David Blatt and John Beilein backfired badly.
Atkinson is much much less dangerous.
He has the résumé, highlighted by offensive success and a popularity for growing gamers. Atkinson started as an assistant underneath Mike D’Antoni with the New York Knicks and has additionally been on staffs with Tyronn Lue and most lately Steve Kerr.
Two years in the past, Atkinson briefly accepted the Charlotte Hornets’ head-coaching job earlier than altering his thoughts and remaining with the Warriors. Atkinson gained a title with Golden State in 2022.
“Kenny is a good pal,” Kerr, who’s additionally the U.S. workforce’s coach and inspired Atkinson to affix the French workers, mentioned. “He is an ideal coach. That is the rationale Cleveland simply employed him. And I used to be very fortunate to have him the previous couple of years.”
The Cavs are relying on Atkinson to carry out the most effective of their younger gamers — significantly ahead Evan Mobley, 23, — and take the workforce additional than Bickerstaff may.
His expertise with the Nets undoubtedly formed Atkinson. Though his document wasn’t glowing (118-190), he received Brooklyn’s gamers to purchase in and the workforce made incremental enhancements in every of his 4 seasons, making the playoffs in 12 months 3.
Nevertheless, 62 video games into the 2020 season, Atkinson was pushed out amid an possession change and the ballyhooed arrivals of stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. His dismissal stays considerably mysterious, a type of behind-the-scenes energy struggles that percolate all through the league.
The Cavs had been additionally drawn to Atkinson’s offensive ingenuity. Beneath him, the Nets had been on the forefront of taking part in quicker and taking pictures extra 3-pointers, a development that took off and was embraced by the champion Celtics this season.
Info from The Related Press was used on this report.