INDEPENDENCE, Ohio — From the surface, Kenny Atkinson stored tabs on Cleveland and acknowledged one thing particular occurring with the Cavaliers.
They’d younger expertise. They’d a constructive tradition. And, in Donovan Mitchell, that they had a celebrity.
Atkinson wished to be part of it.
So, when the Cavs fired J.B. Bickerstaff after shedding within the second spherical of the playoffs and targeted on Atkinson as their doable new coach, the Warriors assistant informed president of basketball of operations Koby Altman that his search was over.
He was their man.
“The very first thing I mentioned (was), ‘I need this job, I am going for it and I’ll be aggressive,'” Atkinson mentioned Monday after being launched by Altman. “I knew all the good issues that had been in place.”
With a sterling status for creating younger gamers, the 57-year-old Atkinson who spent the previous three seasons as Steve Kerr’s high assistant in Golden State got here throughout as earnest and enthusiastic about this new alternative — his second head teaching gig — throughout a 45-minute information convention on the group’s facility.
It has been a whirlwind week for Atkinson, who accepted the Cavs job — and a five-year contract — over the cellphone final week whereas he was in France working as an assistant coach for the host nation’s group because it gears up for the Paris Olympics.
As soon as Altman obtained group chairman Dan Gilbert’s blessing to make the rent, he wanted to contact Atkinson in Europe. Altman positioned the decision, figuring Atkinson, who had performed in France throughout his skilled profession, was “in all probability rebounding for Victor Wembanyama.”
Seems, he was on the court docket, and because the cellphone continued to ring, Altman started to fret earlier than Atkinson answered.
“He is sort of fumbling round. He will get out of the fitness center and I mentioned, ‘Coach, are you in follow?'” Altman recalled. “He mentioned, ‘Yeah, I am in follow.’ I mentioned, ‘I used to be apprehensive I wasn’t going to get you.’ And he mentioned, ‘No, I used to be going to take this one.'”
Atkinson inherits a Cleveland group that has rapidly grown from a 22-win squad simply 4 years in the past to one of many Jap Convention’s finest. The Cavs gained 99 video games and made the playoffs the previous two seasons beneath Bickerstaff, who was employed by Detroit on Sunday.
The rise is just like the one Atkinson managed in Brooklyn from 2016-20 earlier than his shock firing with 20 video games left within the season.
Atkinson made it clear he is a really completely different coach now after spending one season beneath Tyronn Lue with the Los Angeles Clippers and three beneath Kerr – an expertise he likened to “getting your doctorate in basketball.”
Together with drawing up X’s and O’s and designing offenses to maintain tempo with at this time’s recreation, Atkinson mentioned one of many greatest issues he gleaned from Kerr was his uncanny capability to work with superstars like Steph Curry and Kevin Durant.
It is vital to have sturdy relationships with each participant, particularly one of the best ones.
“It is a partnership,” he mentioned. “Ty was nice at it. Steve was a grasp at it. If you’re making massive choices, positive, you are the last word decision-maker. However you will have talked that by together with your finest gamers.
“In my expertise, they may say: ‘No, why do not we do that within the pick-and-roll? Why do not we do that?’ So actually, it is a true partnership, and meaning you higher be an important listener while you do have these one-on-ones.”
Atkinson rapidly put that follow to work this weekend as he, Altman and different members of the group visited Mitchell on the All-Star guard’s “Spida Elite Camp” in Los Angeles for the nation’s finest younger guards.
Whereas it was largely a get-to-know-you-better assembly for Atkinson, it was one other likelihood for the Cavs to promote their imaginative and prescient to Mitchell, who’s eligible to signal a multiyear contract extension this summer season.
The group stays optimistic Mitchell will signal a deal that may very well be for as much as 4 years and $200 million.
“We be ok with Donovan,” Altman mentioned. “He is in an important area mentally. He is wholesome. … He is actually invested in what we’re doing, and hopefully quickly we’ll have extra of a decisive reply on (a contract extension). However he is been nice. He is been tremendous concerned and tremendous collaborative and really, very a lot pro-Cleveland.”
Atkinson mentioned he made a “nice connection” whereas talking with Mitchell, whom he believes can take his recreation to a different stage. The identical goes for guard Darius Garland and ahead Evan Mobley, two gamers with room to develop.
Atkinson is aware of it is his job to make that occur for them and to get the Cavs nearer to a championship.
“That is what’s nice about this case — is the roster that is in place,” he mentioned. “There’s sufficient. There’s sufficient to take that subsequent step, little question about it.”