r/clevelandcavs • u/EnemySoil • 4d ago
Cavs make it official with new head coach Kenny Atkinson
“I am thrilled and honored to be named head coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” said Atkinson. “This is an incredible opportunity to lead an already talented young roster with an equally bright future. I’ve seen firsthand and had to prepare for this group as an opposing coach, and the task was not easy. I’m so excited to now be on this side of the ledger to help continue moving this team forward.”
https://fox8.com/news/cavs-make-it-official-with-new-head-coach-kenny-atkinson/
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u/EvilChameleon09 4d ago
I was hoping "let em know" would go out the door with JBB, but they seem insistent on keeping this losing slogan for another year. We haven't let anyone know shit.
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u/Ok-Donut4954 4d ago
It was a bad zoomer catchphrase from the start. Not to mention there has to be a ton of creative options considering our branding
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u/Comfortable-Tale845 4d ago
Looks like the Hawks are finally rebuilding maybe. we can steal hunter or okongwu
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u/Illustrious_Kale_692 4d ago
I'm happy with Kenny. Was kinda surprised at the time since it seemed like Borego was the guy until the 11th hour Gilbert swoop in. Oh well, we got an experienced offensive minded coach who has spent time under D'Antoni, Budenholzer, and Kerr and got a pretty bad Nets team out of the wilderness and into the playoffs in 3 years. Excited to see what he can do
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u/MasterApprentice67 4d ago
All you truly hear is his developmental abilities. It be great to see him help DG and Mobley take a jump. Also it very great to see him work with Luke Travers who be great to finally see over here, he could be the SF we desperately need.
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u/Illustrious_Kale_692 4d ago
The ability to develop gets talked about a lot. But I did a little statistical digging after the hire and found some interesting stuff regarding his time with the Nets. Biggest take away was that Kenny like to run an offensive system that emphasizes pace and spacing
Here's the Nets' league ranking in a couple categories while Kenny was coach:
Pace: 1st, 6th, 11th, 9th
3PA: 4th, 2nd, 5th, 5th
Notably, even controlling for pace, their 3PAr matched their ranking for 3PA each and every season
Now, the Net's offenses were never particularly good under Kenny. Their best ranking for PPG was 12th and for ORtg was 19th.
BUT If you take a look at those Nets' rosters though, they were mediocre at best.
In their best offensive season (2018-29) the top 3 shot takers were DeAngelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie (Kenny basically made his career) and Caris (who played half a season). After that in terms of FGA/game they had: Joe Harris (another guy Kenny saved from the G-League), Allen Crabbe, DeMarre Carroll, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Shabazz Napier, a 2nd year Jarrett Allen, and Rodion Kurucs.
Not exactly an inspiring bunch! In comparison this Cavs team has wayyyy more talent than Kenny ever had on the Nets. I'm very interested to see if his approach can give us a much needed boost on offense and if the defensive principles instilled to the core under JB can maintain a top 10 ranking.
TLDR: Kenny is going to push the pace and have us shoot a lot of 3s
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u/Medical-Aide-8769 4d ago
I like the idea of increasing 3 point attempts. That should improve our offense. I feel like people usually assume faster pace means better offense but there’s no correlation. Boston played at a below average pace in the playoffs and regular season. Same with the Nuggets last year. The good Cavs teams from 2014-18 also played at an average-ish pace.
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u/Illustrious_Kale_692 4d ago
That’s a very good point. Increased pace isn’t a magic fix to a better offense, it’s more just a play style.
If we end up running the main group back I’m curious what an up tempo offense would look like with this roster though. With the personnel we have I could see a faster pace working, in particular if it means less Don and DG dribble-out-the-clock plays and more actually running schemes to get guys open looks earlier in the shot clock plays
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u/Sweatytubesock 4d ago
Hope he’s the guy to finally get DG to really fire from 3. I’m personally really excited to see the Cavs under him and his staff.
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u/thecameraman8078 3d ago
Maybe there is some stuff about Borego we aren’t seeing. Looks like Detroit is passing on him too
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u/Illustrious_Kale_692 3d ago
Maybe, although the reports are that he pulled himself out of consideration for the Detroit job. My guess is that it was pretty close between KA and JB, but Gilbert swayed it to Kenny
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u/LittleTacoBoy 4d ago
One small thing that I like about this hire is that just about every instance I see Atkinson, he has a clipboard in his hand. I guess we’ll find out how well he can use it, but I feel like I rarely ever saw JB using that magically piece of plastic.