r/clevelandcavs • u/EnemySoil • 6d 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/Illustrious_Kale_692 6d 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

5

u/MasterApprentice67 6d 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.

6

u/Illustrious_Kale_692 6d 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

3

u/Medical-Aide-8769 6d 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.

3

u/Illustrious_Kale_692 6d 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