Cavaliers center Jarrett Allen and guard/forward Caris LeVert know Kenny Atkinson well. After all, they played for Atkinson back when they were members of the Brooklyn Nets and Atkinson was head coach.
Today, Atkinson is an assistant under Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors. He is also believed to be the frontrunner in the Cavs’ coaching search.
Well, per Marc Stein of The Stein Line, Atkinson has at least Allen and LeVert in his corner. And they just happen to be two key members of the team.
“Two of Atkinson’s former players in Brooklyn — Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert — are said to be consistently praiseworthy of Atkinson when quizzed about him by Cavaliers teammates,” Stein wrote.
Hoops Wire sources have said the same, as Atkinson is viewed as a favorite of most of the players who were with those Nets and are with today’s Warriors.
Atkinson coached the Nets from 2016-20 and went 118-170 in the regular season and 1-4 in the playoffs. He was fired just days before the 2019-20 season shut down as a result of the COVID pandemic.
He then spent 2020-21 as an assistant with the Los Angeles Clippers, before joining Kerr and the Warriors as an assistant a year later.
Along with Atkinson, the Cavs are also reportedly considering New York Knicks assistant Johnnie Bryant, ex-Charlotte Hornets coach and current New Orleans Pelicans assistant James Borrego and multiple others. That said, Cavs president of basketball operations Koby Altman said his list is a bit different than what’s being reported in the media.
Bryant was an assistant coach with the Utah Jazz when Cavs star Donovan Mitchell was there.
Mitchell is said to be a fan of both Bryant and Dallas Mavericks assistant Alex Jensen, another former Jazz assistant under now-Atlanta Hawks coach Quin Snyder.
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