Maybe Brooklyn should have given Kenny Atkinson more time back in March of 2020 rather than succumbing to the stars and showing him the door.
If Cleveland’s historic start to this season has shown us anything, it’s that the 57-year-old who was fired by the Nets back then — and who has the Cavs at a remarkable 15-0 heading into their NBA Cup showdown in Boston on Tuesday night — might have made basketball magic if his tenure hadn’t been cut unceremoniously short amid pressure from players to bring in a new voice. His body of work to that point had been strong, with Atkinson ushering the Nets through some dark rebuilding days before leading them to an unexpected playoff berth in 2019.
One could argue the Nets’ dysfunctional culture at the time would never have allowed Atkinson to truly make his mark, with the Kyrie Irving–Kevin Durant era hampered by a lack of synergy from top to bottom and, later quite infamously post-Atkinson, Irving’s extended absence because of his stance on the COVID-19 vaccine. Still, it’s a what-if worth remembering now that we’re seeing the full breadth of Atkinson’s acumen when given the right roster and a healthier locker room climate.
If these Cavs can down the Celtics (11-3) on the defending champs’ home floor, then Cleveland will join the vaunted 2015-16 Golden State Warriors as the only two teams to win 16-plus games from the jump. That tidbit is fitting, too, considering the path taken by Atkinson after his Nets exit.
While he was still an Atlanta Hawks assistant when that Stephen Curry-led Golden State team won a record 73 games before falling to Cleveland in the Finals, Atkinson later spent three years (2021 to 2024) with the Warriors as a pivotal assistant coach alongside Steve Kerr (including, of course, the 2022 title the team celebrated on the Celtics’ TD Garden floor). As Atkinson has discussed, the lessons he learned during that time have carried over into this Cavs experience. The movement, pace and creative use of versatile personnel all have hinted at the Golden State approach, with Atkinson’s Draymond Green-esque use of big man Evan Mobley at the top of that list.
So far, the Cavs profile like a legitimate title contender.
- Second in net rating, with a mark of 11.5 that trails only Oklahoma City (11.7).
- First in offensive rating (122.1 points scored per 100 possessions), with Boston second (121.4); the Cavs were just 16th under former coach J.B. Bickerstaff last season.
- Seventh in defensive rating (110.7 points allowed per 100 possessions); they were seventh last season (112.1).
The Cavs even won their first game of the season without Donovan Mitchell on Sunday, downing Charlotte 128-114 while the five-time All-Star rested and four Cavs (Mobley, Jarrett Allen, Darius Garland and Mitchell’s fill-in starter, Ty Jerome) scored 20-plus points. Speaking of what-ifs, that’s the same Hornets organization that agreed to terms with Atkinson to be their head coach in the summer of 2022 before he reversed course and returned to the Warriors. Uncomfortable though it might have been — and it most certainly was — his choice is looking like the right move these days.
Even if the Cavs’ streak ends against the C’s, this start bodes well for their chances of making the deep playoff run that has evaded them since Mitchell arrived three summers ago. All three of the previous teams that won 15-plus games to start a season — the aforementioned Warriors, the 1993-94 Houston Rockets and the 1948-49 Washington Capitols — made the Finals. The Rockets won it all.
For these Cavs, who signed Atkinson to a five-year deal on June 28 and inked Mitchell on a three-year, $150.8 million extension less than two weeks later, this is the next step in the post-LeBron James plan that didn’t always look this promising. A well-deserved hat-tip goes out to general manager Koby Altman, who was elevated to the top front office role in the summer of 2017 (after it was turned down by Chauncey Billups) and has been putting in quality work ever since.
Jayson Tatum’s (latest) MVP case and the Celtics’ dominance
The Cavs’ winning streak is impressive, but let’s not forget about the team currently holding the Larry O’Brien trophy. These Celtics, who have yet to play with big man Kristaps Porziņģis because of a leg injury, are on a 64-win pace that would match what they did in the 2023-24 regular season. Considering what happened thereafter in the spring, with Boston losing just three times in 19 tries in the playoffs en route to winning a league-record 18th trophy, it’s downright disrespectful to ignore the dominance unfolding for all this time.
More specifically, give Jayson Tatum his early-season flowers. After a Team USA summer that called his superstar status into question in the eyes of some — fresh off his Finals MVP miss that sparked a similar debate — Tatum has reminded the masses this Celtics squad can’t truly contend without him. Tatum is averaging a team-high 29.7 points (46.1 percent shooting overall; 38.1 percent from 3), 7.9 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.4 steals per game, as well as a plus-minus mark of 10.1 that also leads the team. This is a welcome contrast to his national team experience, when league sources say the five-time All-Star didn’t have any truly good days on the court — in practice or in games — in his entire time leading up to the gold-medal win over France.
In this era of transcendent heliocentric talents such as Nikola Jokić, Luka Dončić, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, it’s harder than ever for a player of Tatum’s ilk to win MVP because the Celtics share the workload more than the teams of the aforementioned candidates. But Tatum has been special so far. The tone of the conversation around him should change with the prospect of Tatum making a run at the league’s top individual honor by season’s end.
Unless, of course, Jokić somehow continues at his ridiculous pace for the Nuggets: 29.7 points, 13.7 rebounds (league high) and 11.7 assists (also a league high) per game. Not a bad start in the Joker’s effort to win his fourth MVP in the past five seasons.
On the Sixers’ demise and the reminder it offers
It never ceases to amaze me how wrong we tend to be in this business.
Watching the Sixers go down yet again on Monday night, when they played with Joel Embiid and Paul George yet lost for the 11th time in 13 tries in a 106-89 rout by Miami, it was impossible not to ponder all those preseason projections that missed the mark so badly. Again.
Remember when the Bucks landing Damian Lillard would propel them to the Finals again? Or when the Kevin Durant-Bradley Beal-Devin Booker Suns received similar projections? The examples are many, and the on-paper pontificating almost always misses the mark.
The Sixers landing George in free agency was the blockbuster move of the summer, and plenty of pundits (yours truly included) believed it was a difference-making move that could make them legitimate title contenders again. Yet … here they are, with a record that, as The Athletic’s Mike Vorkunov detailed, doesn’t put them on the sort of postseason track they had in mind.
The 76ers are 2-11. They’re a half-game better than the worst record in the NBA.
106 teams have started 2-11 or worse in NBA history; just 8 have made the playoffs. Only 3 of those had a winning record.
— Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) November 19, 2024
Health issues with the Sixers’ top stars have certainly played a pivotal part, but the team has hardly been a world-beater when they’ve been available. Embiid, in particular, looks like a shell of himself after working his way back from the well-chronicled left knee management earlier this season. If you’re having hour-long postgame meetings to unpack your team’s various issues before December rolls around, as was reported, then it’s all bad.
And back to the Nets …
The trade deadline is still nearly three months away, but there is plenty of chatter about Brooklyn being the place to go for contending teams looking for upgrades when that crucial time of roster-building finally arrives. League sources say the rebuilding Nets are expected to be open for business, even with this competitive start (5-9; 20th in net rating) in which first-year coach Jordi Fernandez has made good use of the available talent.
Fourth-year gunner Cam Thomas (24.6 points per game) failed to come to terms on an extension and is widely considered to be available, but Brooklyn’s list of possibilities hardly ends there. They have proven vets like Dennis Schröder and Bojan Bogdanovicć who has yet to play this season because of left foot surgery but is progressing toward a return.
Big man Nic Claxton signed a four-year, $100 million extension last summer, but the reality of the Nets’ long-term plans means no one is likely off the table. Cam Johnson showed an ability to produce for a contender during his Phoenix tenure, and the 28-year-old small forward (16.9 points per; 38.1 percent from three on 7.5 attempts per) surely remains intriguing for those sorts of teams. You get the idea.
Nets general manager Sean Marks will have plenty of possibilities to sort through as this season wears on.
(Photo of Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell: Jason Miller / Getty Images)
