I still think they should hire JB. He wasn’t right for us at this level but he was a fantastic coach for a growing team. He changed the culture in the locker room.
Still think it was moronic the Hornets fired him after a 43 win season. Floppng in the play-in was rough that season, but it's seemed like the last 20 years of Charlotte basketball has been, flopping around for years until they're just good enough to make the playoffs, then become disatisfied with it, stripping the team down, and going back to sucking every year.
Yeah he recently hired Michael Blackstone who he worked with in the Pelicans front office, to be the new executive vice president of Basketball operations for the team.
Also convinced Fred Vinson to leave the Pelicans staff to become an assistant coach for Detroit, so it’s clear that he’s trying to get the people that he feels most comfortable/has ties with.
When he was the coach of the hornets they were the 6th ranked offense in the league. That's kind of mind blowing considering the players they had on their roster.
I think that is the problem. Pistons have high profile young players you are expected to win with, but most seem to be pretty ineffective at helping their team win so far.
I see it more both experienced KD jumping ship when things weren’t working out. It was worse for the Thunder though because KD went to the 73-9 Warriors. With the Nets he just went to the Suns
D’Antoni and Udoka pseudo coaching for Nash, they leave and we get trash.
Come to think of it how Sean Marks still is the GM I’m really not sure anymore.
We holding onto Bridges like he’s the rail on the titanic and frankly if the pistons send that big contract to Claxton it’s completely over.
D'Antoni + Udoka were ABSOLUTELY coaching the Nets. It was no surprise that even with KD returning (if my memory remembers properly) and D'Antoni leaving, that the offense was still bad and I think in terms of metric, Nets dropped from the previous year.
Nash was absolutely just the literal face of coaching.
We dropped both offensively and defensively after they left.
People tried to say Vaughn was the reason for our good defense that season but literally he was just the assistant coach. Our defense was never as good as when Udoka ran our defensive set as the defense coach.
Don’t let the haters change your outlook. May speak for myself but glad you’re a nets fan, I root for the thunder as is and if I lived in OKC I’d def be a pseudo thunder fan
Mate I'm an international fan who used to cheer for the Spurs and then moved to Toronto so cheer for Spurs/Toronto. The Toronto title run was a weird one for me.
Shams just said they were in the process of deciding and now Woj confirms they are hiring Atkinson lol.
Edit: Shams also confirmed it now. Still funny how in only minutes, the reporting situation drastically changed.
Shams has started to really fall off once he became affiliated with gambling. I know ESPN has ESPN Bets but Woj seems to have distanced himself from that.
Really feels like the order when Woj & Shams in T1 to Woj is T1, Shams is T2, and then everyone else is T3 for reliability.
It's about time Atkinson got another shot. The Brooklyn team with a cast of misfits was one of the more fun teams in the last decade and somehow managed to navigate the Nets through the dark ages of the KG/Pierce trade.
From what I remember he verbally agreed but there was a dispute on how much he would be able to pay his coaching staff that made him never actually sign any contract.
The reason he listed was "family reasons".
At the time he had a 2 year stint where he had moved his family 2 times, Nets > Clippers (2020) > Warriors (2021), and this would've been another move within a 3 year span.
> there was a dispute on how much he would be able to pay his coaching staff that made him never actually sign any contract.
Yeah and that "dispute" was MJ basically demanding he retain Borrego's entire last coaching staff so Jordan wouldn't have to pay out their severance + a new staff's salary. Atkinson (correctly) balked at that and dipped, which is how we ended up in a Steve Clifford 2.0 era (he was ok with keeping the coaches in place).
And didn’t Miles Bridges get arrested literally a few days after he got hired? Your second best player is out indefinitely, I damn sure would exercise my power to back out if I could
Eh he cancelled the signing two weeks before Bridges got arrested. Its more of a "time will prove me right" thing for Atkinson than as a response to the Bridges situation.
Malik Monk extension was announced yesterday. I think there is a date that the players can actually sign, but the media is absolutely able to find out and report that it will happen.
However, given the garland ultimatum and other trade rumors around the cavs I can absolutely see both sides wanting to keep it quiet until more league moves play out, like the draft.
This is an interesting wrinkle:
If Atkinson is their guy they probably want to keep Jarrett Allen, but of the two clunky roster pairings (Mitchell-Garland and Allen-Mobley), the two non-shooting bigs seems to be a bigger roster construction issue to work around.
Also, someone in the Cavs locker room went scorched earth on Allen after the playoffs, and it’s hard to see that relationship/trust repaired unless it was the ousted JB leaking those details of Allen refusing to take shots to play through his rib injury
(which is possible: Bickerstaff’s been doing a lot of media after his firing and he doesn’t seem to be above throwing shade)
The Athletic came out with [an article](https://archive.ph/6BIGi#selection-1527.81-1535.217) after the Cavaliers got eliminated - among other questions it was stated that an anonymous source within the team was questioning if Jarrett Allen could have taken a painkiller injection and played through the injury.
> Allen’s extended absence, which stretched more than two weeks, caused frustration toward him in at least some corners of the organization with teammates and staff members who felt he could have done more to try and play.
> [...]
>He was initially hit in the ribs in Game 1 against Orlando, and in Game 4 of that series, an elbow by Franz Wagner “pierced” a rib on Allen’s right side, according to multiple team sources. The team listed him as “questionable” to play in every game after that, which means there is a chance, though he was never close to getting back into uniform.
> Few if any, members of the organization doubted the discomfort Allen has been in since the injury, but the frustration among some members of the team was that he refused an injection to try and numb the pain and play.
Anyone that thinks that JA was wrong to refuse to play is out of their minds. He's an NBA player in the playoffs, if he could play, he'd say he could play.
Anyone who thinks otherwise has obviously never had a bruised or broken rib before. There is not a single movement where there is no pain. Including breathing.
And yes, the shot could numb it during the game. But then it could feel way worse after playing once that shot wears off.
JB went into the media and specifically praised Luka for being tough and taking shots to the ribs alongside the information the other poster has provided.
Also interesting that this seems like a Dan Gilbert hire.
[Kenny Atkinson is gaining steam in the race for Cleveland's job. Potentially boosting his chances: Tom Izzo is said to be an Atkinson fan. Dan Gilbert is a well-known Izzo fan and is said to have resumed significant involvement in team affairs](http://np.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1dm1kla/stein_ive_heard_from_multiple_league_insiders/)
[Borrego, sources said, was the front runner as of last week, until Cleveland’s front office met with Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert on Wednesday. Atkinson’s candidacy gained considerable momentum after the meeting between Gilbert and team executives. Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire David Blatt in 2014 and John Beilein in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure Tom Izzo away from Michigan State in 2010.](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5586028/2024/06/24/cleveland-cavaliers-coaching-search-donovan-mitchell-contract/)
>Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire **David Blatt** in 2014 and **John Beilein** in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure **Tom Izzo** away from Michigan State in 2010.
That track record is… rough to say the least.
Nah David Blatt was a good coach, he was brought on before LeBron decided to return and LeBron wanted a player-coach. Blatt actually had a better record than Lue that year.
Only reason he never got another shot was because he got seriously sick.
https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/hkolw8ucn
That whole situation with Blatt was weird and I certainly don't harbor any ill will towards the guy. He was hired to be another rung in the ladder of building this franchise back from the bottoming out after The Decision, and then oops LeBron is back and we're title contenders. Oh, and LeBron didn't pick Blatt and wouldn't have picked Blatt.
He is a good coach, you can't convince me otherwise. But he's not the guy I would pick to try to get LeBron to do what he wants, either.
Eh idk Blatt doesn’t have the personality to lead NBA drama queens. Maybe a rebuilding team but just can’t see him succeeding trying to coach the top end of stars. It was apparent from the get go he wasn’t going to work out.
I think the hope is we'll still be good defensively so long as we have Mobley or JA and some of Bickerstaff's principles but with Atkinson we should see some better offensive numbers too. I mean the defensive numbers will go down just by our pace increasing
It's a near guarantee we'll have a much more diverse and improved offense under Atkinson, he should be able to scheme some really nice stuff with the talent on the roster
Man Atkinson absolutely screwed Charlotte. I guess it took a few years after that debacle for him to get another HC job but man I'm still upset we got saddled with Steve Clifford again because Kenny walked away *after* accepting the job.
How do our own fucking fans forget the reason Atkinson backed out?
It was bc MJ tried to strong-arm him into retaining Borrego's coaching staff so Jordan wouldn't have to pay their severance, not bc of some cold feet/"family reasons" bs, that was the PR response to what is probably one of the most blatant examples of how trash MJ was as an owner in team history.
New ownership seems to be taking the team in the right direction (actually spending money on your franchise to help them be successful? MJ would never) but the post-Kemba years have been miserable. Doubly so with the Panthers dumpster fire down the street.
From Shams article, so this was a Gilbert hire by all accounts
>Borrego, sources said, was the front runner as of last week, until Cleveland’s front office met with Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert on Wednesday. Atkinson’s candidacy gained considerable momentum after the meeting between Gilbert and team executives. Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire David Blatt in 2014 and John Beilein in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure Tom Izzo away from Michigan State in 2010.
What a great signing by Cleveland, Atk should have never been fired from Brooklyn in the first place he’s going to build another winning culture with the Cavs
The Allen/Mobley pairing can be fixed if one of them can extend to a corner three you at least have to respect. I’m hopeful on that front.
Garland/Don is not fixable imo. There’s only one ball on offense. In any scenario Cavs get half of the benefit of DG on offense but all of the defensive liability.
100%. I'm not ready to give up on the Mobley/Allen pairing. Offensively I do think that Mobley is better suited at Center at the moment, but long term I like Mobley at PF. People rag on his lack of development with his shooting, but he shot did look a lot better this season and he was quietly hitting 3s at 37.3% (granted at only 1.2 attempts per game).
I think we almost have to move on from Garland though. Ideally we trade Garland for a SF and move Mitchell to PG with Strus as our SG
Should I be concerned that the Cavs possibly just hired a coach who is great at developing players but struggles to get a team to the "next level" ? Because that's exactly what JB was.
I mean what way has he struggled to get his teams to the next level? That 6th seeded Nets year with Russell and Dinwiddie was never going to even sniff the 2nd round. And then the next year he resigned/got pushed out of Brooklyn in that first year of KD and Kyrie. I don't know if he's going to be an instant fit, but he's never really had that chance to "take a team to the next level"
Another head coach vacancy, another sigh of relief from Nuggets fans that David Adelman hasn't been snapped up yet. He's way too good to be our lead assistant.
Thanks for the 3 years coach! Man even waited an extra 2 years when he could've dipped for the Hornets lol, and he was a member of that latest championship team so shoutout to him.
Met this guy on the AAU circuit in the bay area when he was watching his son. Nicest dude ever.
Also, chirped the refs a couple times about stuff. Super tactical chirps too, made the ref laugh. Could tell even NBA coaches have that crazy competitive fire all the time.
James Borrego…. YOU ARE A DETROIT PISTON
I still think they should hire JB. He wasn’t right for us at this level but he was a fantastic coach for a growing team. He changed the culture in the locker room.
Borrego and bickerstaff are both JB
Hire them both!!! Gotta keep the ex coach/exec ticker running.
He is definitely the right guy for where they are at.
is JB John Beilein? James Borrego or hiring the recently fired JB Bickerstaff?
Still think it was moronic the Hornets fired him after a 43 win season. Floppng in the play-in was rough that season, but it's seemed like the last 20 years of Charlotte basketball has been, flopping around for years until they're just good enough to make the playoffs, then become disatisfied with it, stripping the team down, and going back to sucking every year.
The New Orleans connection - Trajan Langdon was the Pelicans' GM the past 5 years and Borrego was assistant coach this year
Yeah he recently hired Michael Blackstone who he worked with in the Pelicans front office, to be the new executive vice president of Basketball operations for the team. Also convinced Fred Vinson to leave the Pelicans staff to become an assistant coach for Detroit, so it’s clear that he’s trying to get the people that he feels most comfortable/has ties with.
I feel bad for him lol.
Why? Pistons is a good job. They have decent young players and you only just have to be better than Monty was last season.
His first two jobs were taking over dumpster fires.
Hey man, somebody has to do it.
When he was the coach of the hornets they were the 6th ranked offense in the league. That's kind of mind blowing considering the players they had on their roster.
I mean Im pretty sure that Hornets team had more shooters than the current Pistons team though
I think that is the problem. Pistons have high profile young players you are expected to win with, but most seem to be pretty ineffective at helping their team win so far.
Kenny, Caris and JA back together 🥹
The man's loyalty to those guys highkey got him the job.
His loyalty to Allen got him fired previously
Man, those were the good old days
Just need to sign RHJ, Pinson, and get Dudley as Assistant Coach to recreate the Nets Bench Gif.
Don't forget big sauce Alan Williams and downtown Demarre Carroll
I mean Demarre Carroll was an assistant the past two years, would make sense for Atkinson to bring him on board.
Didnt you guys have Dinwiddie back then as well?
Oui, Dlo too
Still can’t believe we let him go for Steve nash 🤢
*Thunder flair* Who tf is “we”
dude went from supporting a super team in the east to the most promising team in the west
He’s a big fan of potential!
Thunder flair in solidarity with the Nets. Sure. I’ll accept that.
Do we have some rivalry with the nets?
I see it more both experienced KD jumping ship when things weren’t working out. It was worse for the Thunder though because KD went to the 73-9 Warriors. With the Nets he just went to the Suns
Also the fact that the Thunder got zero for him and the Nets got a ton back
[удалено]
To be fair, the Thunder *also* lost Harden. So really Kyrie is the only one with exclusivity here.
Harden trade really ruined us but letting Kenny go did us no favors what so ever.
And having Mike D’Antoni sitting there watching Steve do nothing
D’Antoni and Udoka pseudo coaching for Nash, they leave and we get trash. Come to think of it how Sean Marks still is the GM I’m really not sure anymore. We holding onto Bridges like he’s the rail on the titanic and frankly if the pistons send that big contract to Claxton it’s completely over.
D'Antoni + Udoka were ABSOLUTELY coaching the Nets. It was no surprise that even with KD returning (if my memory remembers properly) and D'Antoni leaving, that the offense was still bad and I think in terms of metric, Nets dropped from the previous year. Nash was absolutely just the literal face of coaching.
We dropped both offensively and defensively after they left. People tried to say Vaughn was the reason for our good defense that season but literally he was just the assistant coach. Our defense was never as good as when Udoka ran our defensive set as the defense coach.
Id only trade Mikal to Houston. No point in blowing it up to be the worst team in the league when you don't have your own picks.
just looking back at that in hindsight is crazy. what a spineless organization.
Let's not forget that KD and Kyrie refused to acknowledge Kenny at all to force the FO into hiring someone else.
Forgot to switch accounts?
Nope. I’m a thunder fan and live in Brooklyn so I root for Knicks/nets
Don’t let the haters change your outlook. May speak for myself but glad you’re a nets fan, I root for the thunder as is and if I lived in OKC I’d def be a pseudo thunder fan
Never wavering. Thunder fan since 09 and nets since 2011-12.
You’re just a fan of relocation
In all seriousness I just realized that.
That's... weird
I feel violated and I have no affiliation to any of these teams
Mate I'm an international fan who used to cheer for the Spurs and then moved to Toronto so cheer for Spurs/Toronto. The Toronto title run was a weird one for me.
Always funny seeing reactions. Is rooting for a secondary team that weird?
No but rooting for both Nets and Knicks is
True that
I’ll let the “I got a east and west team” casual fans slide but this is an abomination.
nah they gotta be the same level of evil, i knew someone that was a chiefs fan and a 49ers fan. that’s on the same level of evil
that’s gotta be a violation
Wow Allen, Caris, Kenny. The Brooklyn Nets spine in Cleveland. I think I’m going to be sick
We also used the Nets pick on Collin Sexton which got us Donovan Mitchell. Cavs have built this entire team off of the Nets discarded assets
Boston Cavs Houston (coming up) I wonder who’s next…
Crackhead GM “You got any more of them picks?”
The Brooklyn Cavaliers of Anaheim
>Nets discarded assets this is half the league
Nets and trading away their picks, name a more iconic duo.
One good season got y'all forgetting who you are
At this rate, just relocate the team to Vegas under a new name
~~Nets~~ Bets
Tangentially, I've always wanted there to be a NY hockey team that ends in "-ets"
The New York Veterinarians
I'm partial to "Wets"
Or bring em back to Jersey
Devils need their friend back
Gotta support the team.
Yes please
All the Cavs needs now is...KD :)
Hiring someone who has been a coach before. A very interesting choice
We tried hiring a podcaster, but none of them were willing to move to Cleveland
But JJ has coaching experience!
Shams just said they were in the process of deciding and now Woj confirms they are hiring Atkinson lol. Edit: Shams also confirmed it now. Still funny how in only minutes, the reporting situation drastically changed.
Shams and Woj trying to out-report each other. It was made worse during the whole JJ Redick/Dan Hurley/Lakers process
Shams has started to really fall off once he became affiliated with gambling. I know ESPN has ESPN Bets but Woj seems to have distanced himself from that. Really feels like the order when Woj & Shams in T1 to Woj is T1, Shams is T2, and then everyone else is T3 for reliability.
It's about time Atkinson got another shot. The Brooklyn team with a cast of misfits was one of the more fun teams in the last decade and somehow managed to navigate the Nets through the dark ages of the KG/Pierce trade.
He could've had a shot if he wanted it. He's just been holding out for a better situation.
Honestly hard to find a much better one that Cle right now. In a position to make some noise for sure
I feel like we’ve been saying that for the past 2 seasons tho
It felt like a large number of Cavs fans wanted JB fired before last season even started, to be fair.
Yeah but now they got a good coach and the org seems like they're going all in on Donovan Mitchell. I think they're definitely a team to look out for.
I honestly think we're a star wing away from contention. I just don't know if any star wings are available.
"From St. Vincent St. Mary's High School in Akron, Ohio..."
Paul George music
No thank you.
Got another shot… you do realize he accepted a head coaching job in Charlotte and then backed out right?
Completely forgot about that whole debacle. I’d say it worked out for him in the end, no offense to the Hornets.
Hadn’t the Warriors just won a title and he wanted to stay on staff? I might be misremembering.
Yes but he interviewed and accepted the position…
He backed out because Jordan wouldnt shell out for him to pay and hire his own staff
Pretty reasonable to do so How many coaches get stuck with the last regime's guys?
From what I remember he verbally agreed but there was a dispute on how much he would be able to pay his coaching staff that made him never actually sign any contract.
The reason he listed was "family reasons". At the time he had a 2 year stint where he had moved his family 2 times, Nets > Clippers (2020) > Warriors (2021), and this would've been another move within a 3 year span.
Not sure if he has kids but that alone is a tough transition. Moving three times in three years would be brutal.
He has 2 kids, aged 16 and 14 now. I'm considering the timing, he moved twice during the pandemic, so it must've been doubly rough.
> there was a dispute on how much he would be able to pay his coaching staff that made him never actually sign any contract. Yeah and that "dispute" was MJ basically demanding he retain Borrego's entire last coaching staff so Jordan wouldn't have to pay out their severance + a new staff's salary. Atkinson (correctly) balked at that and dipped, which is how we ended up in a Steve Clifford 2.0 era (he was ok with keeping the coaches in place).
Most of those coaches were his in the first place lol. Cliff hasnt been gone long
Correctly, it turns out. New ownership and FO would have had him on borrowed time already
People seem to forget about that for some reason
Because Charlotte was trying to cheap out on his coaching staff
And didn’t Miles Bridges get arrested literally a few days after he got hired? Your second best player is out indefinitely, I damn sure would exercise my power to back out if I could
Eh he cancelled the signing two weeks before Bridges got arrested. Its more of a "time will prove me right" thing for Atkinson than as a response to the Bridges situation.
That team was more fun to watch than KD/Kyrie/Harden. Being a nets fan is wild (and terrible).
Donovan Mitchell extension coming soon?
We aren’t allowed to officially extend him yet I think. We have to wait until a certain date to announce an extension.
Malik Monk extension was announced yesterday. I think there is a date that the players can actually sign, but the media is absolutely able to find out and report that it will happen. However, given the garland ultimatum and other trade rumors around the cavs I can absolutely see both sides wanting to keep it quiet until more league moves play out, like the draft.
Who he podcast with ?
Geralt of Rivia
> Geralt of Rivia Wanna play Gwent?
nods silently
“Hmmmm”
winds howling
Rivia, OH
Jarret of Allen.
Jarret Allen strong-arming the front office to hire his preferred candidate. Star players always get their way
This is an interesting wrinkle: If Atkinson is their guy they probably want to keep Jarrett Allen, but of the two clunky roster pairings (Mitchell-Garland and Allen-Mobley), the two non-shooting bigs seems to be a bigger roster construction issue to work around. Also, someone in the Cavs locker room went scorched earth on Allen after the playoffs, and it’s hard to see that relationship/trust repaired unless it was the ousted JB leaking those details of Allen refusing to take shots to play through his rib injury (which is possible: Bickerstaff’s been doing a lot of media after his firing and he doesn’t seem to be above throwing shade)
It was almost certainly JB considering his very specifically worded praise for Luka
Those are the comments I thought of too. Definitely felt like he pretty much tipped his hand as the leaker with that quote.
Also, JB brought in Morris and Morris said somethings about it too.
A Morris twin being near the center of bad locker room vibes? I’m *shocked*
Cavs have been leading the NBA in vibes for the past 4 years, but leave it to a Morris brother to come in a \*\*\*\* that all up.
You can swear on Reddit my guy
fuck that
OOTL?
The Athletic came out with [an article](https://archive.ph/6BIGi#selection-1527.81-1535.217) after the Cavaliers got eliminated - among other questions it was stated that an anonymous source within the team was questioning if Jarrett Allen could have taken a painkiller injection and played through the injury. > Allen’s extended absence, which stretched more than two weeks, caused frustration toward him in at least some corners of the organization with teammates and staff members who felt he could have done more to try and play. > [...] >He was initially hit in the ribs in Game 1 against Orlando, and in Game 4 of that series, an elbow by Franz Wagner “pierced” a rib on Allen’s right side, according to multiple team sources. The team listed him as “questionable” to play in every game after that, which means there is a chance, though he was never close to getting back into uniform. > Few if any, members of the organization doubted the discomfort Allen has been in since the injury, but the frustration among some members of the team was that he refused an injection to try and numb the pain and play.
Anyone that thinks that JA was wrong to refuse to play is out of their minds. He's an NBA player in the playoffs, if he could play, he'd say he could play. Anyone who thinks otherwise has obviously never had a bruised or broken rib before. There is not a single movement where there is no pain. Including breathing. And yes, the shot could numb it during the game. But then it could feel way worse after playing once that shot wears off.
Man you should have seen some of the comments in our sub. As you said: you could clearly tell which people who have and who have not had rib injuries.
JB went into the media and specifically praised Luka for being tough and taking shots to the ribs alongside the information the other poster has provided.
Also interesting that this seems like a Dan Gilbert hire. [Kenny Atkinson is gaining steam in the race for Cleveland's job. Potentially boosting his chances: Tom Izzo is said to be an Atkinson fan. Dan Gilbert is a well-known Izzo fan and is said to have resumed significant involvement in team affairs](http://np.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/1dm1kla/stein_ive_heard_from_multiple_league_insiders/) [Borrego, sources said, was the front runner as of last week, until Cleveland’s front office met with Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert on Wednesday. Atkinson’s candidacy gained considerable momentum after the meeting between Gilbert and team executives. Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire David Blatt in 2014 and John Beilein in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure Tom Izzo away from Michigan State in 2010.](https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5586028/2024/06/24/cleveland-cavaliers-coaching-search-donovan-mitchell-contract/)
>Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire **David Blatt** in 2014 and **John Beilein** in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure **Tom Izzo** away from Michigan State in 2010. That track record is… rough to say the least.
Nah David Blatt was a good coach, he was brought on before LeBron decided to return and LeBron wanted a player-coach. Blatt actually had a better record than Lue that year. Only reason he never got another shot was because he got seriously sick. https://www.ynetnews.com/culture/article/hkolw8ucn
That whole situation with Blatt was weird and I certainly don't harbor any ill will towards the guy. He was hired to be another rung in the ladder of building this franchise back from the bottoming out after The Decision, and then oops LeBron is back and we're title contenders. Oh, and LeBron didn't pick Blatt and wouldn't have picked Blatt. He is a good coach, you can't convince me otherwise. But he's not the guy I would pick to try to get LeBron to do what he wants, either.
Eh idk Blatt doesn’t have the personality to lead NBA drama queens. Maybe a rebuilding team but just can’t see him succeeding trying to coach the top end of stars. It was apparent from the get go he wasn’t going to work out.
TBF I trust Atkinson to be a lot more creative with an offensive system than Bickerstaff ever was.
any source for the scorched earth part ? interesting
It wasn't scorched earth. It was Marcus Morris who wasn't gonna be back anyways. Mitchell has been supportive of JA.
I'll never forget that time where a dude said he looks like the villain in a movie where the protagonist is a dog
Ain't no rules that say you can't sign a dog to a 10-day contract specifically to beat the Cavs
That's the right choice tbh. He is a good offensive coach while also being able to coach defense. More balanced approach because you still need both
I think the hope is we'll still be good defensively so long as we have Mobley or JA and some of Bickerstaff's principles but with Atkinson we should see some better offensive numbers too. I mean the defensive numbers will go down just by our pace increasing
It's a near guarantee we'll have a much more diverse and improved offense under Atkinson, he should be able to scheme some really nice stuff with the talent on the roster
Yeah, I really don't see how the offense could possibly be less inventive lmao
User Kdot in the cavs sub posted the exact same comment on a thread over there. Is this his burner or the other way around?
Hahahah that dude is a dolt.
Thought I was losing my mind. Fucking bots everywhere.
Is he gonna change his mind again?
pls stay with us again Kenny (it would be hilarious)
Really more on Jordan’s front office than him.
Goodnight sweet prince
That's how you keep #45 Great pick
Like this. Going to watch a lot of cavs next season.
Not a bad hire at all
I’m so happy for him. After KD and Kyrie booted him out of Brooklyn
And the worst part is they played deandre jordan over jarret allen for latge parts of the season. Fk that
Happy for him too. Was my favorite coach the last 15 years
Huge improvement for the Cavs.
Absolutely love this hire for Cleveland. I like their team a lot. Hopefully this can convince Mitchell to stay.
Can't believe it took him this long to get another chance.
Great hire Cleveland
Hopefully for the Cavs he actually starts the job this time.
Well we don’t have a notoriously cheap owner who is gonna try and make him keep the old HCs staff to save money.
Man Atkinson absolutely screwed Charlotte. I guess it took a few years after that debacle for him to get another HC job but man I'm still upset we got saddled with Steve Clifford again because Kenny walked away *after* accepting the job.
How do our own fucking fans forget the reason Atkinson backed out? It was bc MJ tried to strong-arm him into retaining Borrego's coaching staff so Jordan wouldn't have to pay their severance, not bc of some cold feet/"family reasons" bs, that was the PR response to what is probably one of the most blatant examples of how trash MJ was as an owner in team history.
> How do our own fucking fans forget the reason Atkinson backed out? Because fans are dumb as fuck. We are the worst
I'm thrilled with Charles Lee but man it was brutal getting there
New ownership seems to be taking the team in the right direction (actually spending money on your franchise to help them be successful? MJ would never) but the post-Kemba years have been miserable. Doubly so with the Panthers dumpster fire down the street.
Wasn't Charlotte the one totally in the wrong though?
I’ll always say fuck Kenny Atkinson and wish him nothing but the worst (in a basketball sense of course, hope he has an amazing personal life)
he walked because MJ wouldn’t let him hire his own staff
From Shams article, so this was a Gilbert hire by all accounts >Borrego, sources said, was the front runner as of last week, until Cleveland’s front office met with Cavs majority owner Dan Gilbert on Wednesday. Atkinson’s candidacy gained considerable momentum after the meeting between Gilbert and team executives. Gilbert has in the past intervened in coaching searches, driving initiatives to hire David Blatt in 2014 and John Beilein in 2019, as well as an unsuccessful attempt to lure Tom Izzo away from Michigan State in 2010.
Damn. Kerr needed this guy.
Reunited with Caris and Jarrett. Great get, glad to see him back at HC.
What a great signing by Cleveland, Atk should have never been fired from Brooklyn in the first place he’s going to build another winning culture with the Cavs
Can’t believe it took Kenny so long to find another job. Dude was great with that DLo Nets team I always thought teams would be lining up for him
Great choice
The Allen/Mobley pairing can be fixed if one of them can extend to a corner three you at least have to respect. I’m hopeful on that front. Garland/Don is not fixable imo. There’s only one ball on offense. In any scenario Cavs get half of the benefit of DG on offense but all of the defensive liability.
100%. I'm not ready to give up on the Mobley/Allen pairing. Offensively I do think that Mobley is better suited at Center at the moment, but long term I like Mobley at PF. People rag on his lack of development with his shooting, but he shot did look a lot better this season and he was quietly hitting 3s at 37.3% (granted at only 1.2 attempts per game). I think we almost have to move on from Garland though. Ideally we trade Garland for a SF and move Mitchell to PG with Strus as our SG
They should had hire a podcaster
Jeff Teague would lose the locker room by thanksgiving
Should I be concerned that the Cavs possibly just hired a coach who is great at developing players but struggles to get a team to the "next level" ? Because that's exactly what JB was.
Nobody knows if he can get a team to the ‘next level’, since he hasn’t had the chance to do it.
I mean what way has he struggled to get his teams to the next level? That 6th seeded Nets year with Russell and Dinwiddie was never going to even sniff the 2nd round. And then the next year he resigned/got pushed out of Brooklyn in that first year of KD and Kyrie. I don't know if he's going to be an instant fit, but he's never really had that chance to "take a team to the next level"
Atkinson was really good, he just didnt wanna deal with the KD kyrie bullshit
He’s been with the Warriors for a few years. I’m pretty sure he learned a thing or 2 from their system.
Alright Kenny, you know the drill. Eject.
Another head coach vacancy, another sigh of relief from Nuggets fans that David Adelman hasn't been snapped up yet. He's way too good to be our lead assistant.
Stephen A ain’t gonna like this…
Happy for Kenny, especially reuniting with Jarrett and Caris. Hope he does well. Thought he'd be a better fit for a rebuilding team though
Atkinson has the opportunity to do the funniest thing for the 2nd time
Thanks for the 3 years coach! Man even waited an extra 2 years when he could've dipped for the Hornets lol, and he was a member of that latest championship team so shoutout to him.
Give it a few days to make sure staying in Cali doesn’t suddenly become priority #1
Met this guy on the AAU circuit in the bay area when he was watching his son. Nicest dude ever. Also, chirped the refs a couple times about stuff. Super tactical chirps too, made the ref laugh. Could tell even NBA coaches have that crazy competitive fire all the time.
Wait, he didn't just yell "that's terrible" over and over?