Head Coaching Candidates the Cavaliers are Looking at – Sports4CLE, 6/7/24
these are guys that we know the Cavs are interested um in talking to Terry stots listed as a long shot David Edelman Kenny Atkinson Chris Quinn James bgo all assistants Atkinson does have a little bit of head coaching experience uh then you go Johnny Bryant Mike an Nori Dave jorger uh Alex Jensen Steve hetel the Cavs have come out and said they will not interview Frank vogle who was the head coach of the Suns as well as the Lakers Rec recently let’s welcome in Sam Amo from hoops.com Sam what are they do what are they looking for with uh with their coaching search that’s uh the question of the year it seems like there’s a lot of different candidates uh a lot of different styles of candidates a lot of different um I guess the word you know levels of experience you have Kenny Atkinson who who you mentioned has head coaching experience with the Nets uh and has been he went to the clippers for one year after he got fired by the Nets and if you remember Kenny Atkinson got fired like by the next I think probably like three days before the season shut down in 2020 because of covid so he got fired and it was like yeah we’re shutting down the league anyway so whatever but uh then he went and coached doc or coached with Doc Rivers the clippers for a year and then he’s been on Steve K staff ever since uh the last three seasons so you know he’s got plenty of experience plenty of winning experience he’s had opportunities before Kenny Atkinson I believe a few years ago when James Bargo was let go uh by the Charlotte Hornets Kenny Atkinson was pretty much named the coach the Hornets and then turned it down uh decided he didn’t want it so you know hopefully with the Cavs a similar situation wouldn’t play out but uh you know James pgo of course being another candidate as you mentioned coach the Hornets uh he’s now an assistant with David Griffin’s New Orleans Pelicans under Willie Green and uh James brego in each of those last three years with the Hornets the team won 10 more games so his last three years he compiled a total of 30 more wins than you know the his second season so I mean and what did to get for his efforts fired you know so there’s a lot of people who like James bgo he’s been mentioned has been mentioned all summer or all offse as a candidate with the Lakers has interviewed there interviewed with the Cavs so um I would think that those two would be your top two at the moment but it’s fluid and and it can really change uh with with new candidates emerging or emerging or depending on the interviews are any of these guys the quote unquote offensive Guru in other words where I’m going with this is there a guy that can figure out how to use EV Moy so you don’t have to turn him into a three-point shooter because he’s athletic enough you should be able to move him around and and make him a threat offensively yeah I think that’s a big reason why they you know the Cavs decided to let JB bicker staff go was because you weren’t seeing that offensive growth uh from Evan Mobley that wasn’t the the only reason but it was part of the reason and Mo’s numbers you know were up across the board but just slightly and I think the Cavs are waiting for him to take that next leap so whoever the next coach is that’s going to be a big part of their job description and part of their responsibility is to get Evan Moy from pretty good offensive player to great offensive player and to reach the potential that the Cavaliers believe he has in terms of an offensive player defensively you know he’s already fantastic you don’t have any worries there offensively it’s you know let’s assume that Donovan Mitchell signs this extension how do you get Evan Moy to get to that next level while playing next to an elite guard uh that’s you know I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s one of the exact questions during the interviews when the the Cavs were talking to coaches so yeah that’s the idea is to get him to another level is is you mentioned Atkinson with Steve Kerr is that is the Warriors offense a different offensive system I is there a system that that you can kind of look to and say they do things a little differently than the C I mean there’s a lot of them that you can say that offensively with the Cavs about is there one that makes sense with what the Cavs have personnel-wise yeah I mean you know what probably is working in Kenny Atkinson’s favor is the fact that Mike Brown you look at how he coached when he was a coach in Cleveland right I mean I remember Mike Brown telling me the uglier the game the better and then went to the warriors uh where you know you’re coaching under Steve Kerr and it has a whole another level of uh offensive you know strategy and ball movement and crispness and then you see Mike Brown after a couple years with Steve Kerr go to the Sacramento Kings and totally he’s clearly revamped his philosophy because the kings are one of the highest scoring teams in the league they play far from ugly basketball they play Beautiful basketball and this is exactly the opposite of what Mike Brown was with the Cavs after a couple years with the Warriors so I think that yes you know look you go to a different system as an assistant coach in this case Kenny Atkinson and you take things from Steve Kerr that you’ve picked up that you know to your next job just as Mike Brown did theoretically that’s what Kenny Atkinson would bring some of that Warriors offense that you know when when when they were younger went to the finals what five straight years so you know I think there’s a lot of that uh that the Cavs are looking at like look at the difference in Mike Brown after he went to the Warriors and and how sharp the kings are offensively uh and can Kenny Atkinson do that himself after a a brief run with the Warriors
Dave Bacon and Sam Amico discuss which candidates the Cavaliers are looking at for their head coaching vacancy.
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