Pregame Dribbles: Another Night, Another Game, As Unbeaten Cavs Face Kenny Atkinson’s Former Team

November 9, 2024

CLEVELAND — Random dribbles ahead of the Cavaliers’ home game against the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday (7:30 p.m. EST). …

1. There’s no rest in this league. That much you already knew. If not, you sure know it now.

2. One night after the Cavalies’ most convincing win of the season, they get to tangle with coach Kenny Atkinson‘s old team.

3. That would be none other than the Nets — who fired him back in March 2020. He will forever hold the distinction of The Last Coach Fired Before the Season Shut Down because of the COVID pandemic.

4. Interestingly, the press release out of Brooklyn read that Atkinson and the team had “mutually parted ways.” Trust me, that wasn’t the case.

5. Atkinson finished 118-190 in nearly four full seasons in Brooklyn. It was his only other head-coaching job. Before Brooklyn, he spent four years as an assistant with the Knicks under Mike D’Antoni (2008-12) and three more under Mike Budenholzer with the Hawks (2013-16), which is where he was during the Cavs’ title run.

6. Speaking of that, after Atkinson’s run in Brooklyn, he moved on to become an assistant coach under Tyronn Lue with the Clippers for a season (2020-21).

7. Finally, he spent the three seasons before this one as an assistant under Steve Kerr with the Warriors — the team the Cavs just demolished.

8. Today, Atkinson and the Cavaliers are 10-0. He is off to the best start in NBA history as the head coach of a new team. The Nets (4-5) also have a new coach, first-year man Jordi Fernandez, whose NBA career began as a player development coach with the Cavs back in 2009.

9. Fernandez also coached the old Canton Charge of the G League (2013-14), before moving on to assistant roles with Michael Malone and the Nuggets (2016-22) and Mike Brown and the Kings (2022-24). Both of those men also have Cavs ties, of course.

10. Anyway, back to Atkinson. He will be the first to tell you that he’s a different coach than the guy who once led the Nets. Clearly, the Cavs have been a different team with Atkinson at the helm.

11. As an aside to all this, Atkinson seemed to take the head-coaching job with the Hornets in 2022 … but ultimately decided to stay with Kerr and the Warriors. “I didn’t love how it went down,” Atkinson told NBC Sports Bay Area at the time. “But I’m not going to disparage (the Hornets) in any way.”

12. Regardless, that’s all ancient history. All that matters is it sure has worked out so far for Atkinson and the Cavs.

13. As for the players, as Ty Jerome said after the win over the Warriors, the Cavaliers just need to keep doing what they’re doing — which is playing a fantastic brand of team basketball.

14. By the way, a lot of people have forgotten about Max Strus during this hot streak (though no fault of his own), but Atkinson said that Strus is “progressing” from an ankle injury suffered in the preseason. He’s likely to be back in another three weeks or so.

15. Strus’ role has been handled well by Dean Wade and Isaac Okoro. Atkinson wouldn’t commit to Strus moving back into his starting role when he returns to action. He said it would depend on how well Strus is feeling and whether he’s on a minute restriction.

16. That’s it for now. Please enjoy the picture below. Also, several of you texted or emailed to say you saw me on television, a frightening thought for sure. So, my apologies. But yes, our new show, Full Court Cleveland (also starring Booby Gibson and Rafa Hernandez-Brito) airs regularly on Fan Duel Sports Network, formerly Bally Sports Ohio. You can check out the latest episode here.