Cavs HIRE Kenny Atkinson as new Head Coach! Cleveland Cavaliers News, NBA (The Junkyard Pod)

Cavs HIRE Kenny Atkinson as new Head Coach! Cleveland Cavaliers News, NBA (The Junkyard Pod)

this is the moment we’ve all been waiting for for the thousands Independant and the millions watching around the world let’s get ready here welcome to the junkyard pod today we have breaking news to cover as the Cleveland Cavaliers have finally filled their head coaching vacancy after over a month I think and they ended up right where they started with Kenny ainson swooping in to get the job at the last second ainson had previously coached the Brooklyn Nets with Jared Allen and Carris Levert as well as serving as an assistant coach for the Golden State Warriors during their Championship run in 2022 so there’s lots of interesting stuff and even some drama behind the decision to get to and joining me to discuss all of this is my co-host Jackson wickinger Jackson let’s start here give me your quick instant reaction to the news I know you were a bgo fan how are you feeling right now I still wish it was bgo um I just really liked what he did in Charlotte but I don’t think you can argue too much with the ainson decision um they were both they both have similar backgrounds in the sense of they’re both offensive guys and they both have some ties to like Atkinson uh coached under uh coach Bud whereas bgo comes from the Spurs where uh coach Bud also comes from so there’s a lot of similarities between two like both of their profiles they’re both uh guys who are known for their Player Development so it’s really you know from the outside it’s sometimes tough to really evaluate coaching because we don’t have everything we’re not inside the room but you could talk me into either one of these guys they are both theoretically what the Cavs need the Cavs need an an an offensive coach that can get the most out of the talent they have on this roster and there’s reason to believe that ainson uh can do that yeah I’m glad that you said all of that because uh I have seen a lot of people kind of sharing the sentiment that because and we’ll talk more in depth about this this decision appears to be heavily influenced by Dan Gilbert uh so there have been some groans and complaints uh now I will say I I’m glad that you mention that they are too similar bergo and ainson are similar candidates I I don’t think we should be disappointed that ainson was the choice here uh and look I I’ve been so caught up in NBA draft stuff that I haven’t even really taken the time to worry about the difference between those two and I’ve always said that you you hit on this there’s so much stuff outside of our knowledge when it comes to coaching an NBA team that I genuinely I couldn’t tell you who would be the right guy for any given job uh with that said you had convinced me to be team bergo so I’m slightly disappointed thank you for that Jack but you know what I’m still excited for the team to go in a new direction under a new coach I think ainson is worthy of the job I’m interested to see how he prioritizes developing the young guys how the offense will change under his guidance if we’ll see an emphasis on Pace off ball movement ball movement in general if the role players will look like they have more freedom if he is willing to bench guys when they need to be benched uh if we’ll be Stars yeah maybe maybe Isaac aoro will be allowed to dribble more than twice in a row that may be cool um one of the things that I think is interesting and this kind of applies to brego as well is that both of them were hired to their previous head coaching jobs for a long-term rebuild of sorts and both Atkinson and bgo are both hired to not do that job like you know JJ bigger staff did that job for them he’s the one who the foundation he’s the one that rided the ship for a franchise that was really dysfunctional when he took over so ainson this is a new challenge for him and the last time he was kind of in this position which you know the net situation with Kyrie and Kevin Durant is a very different situation but it was still like the cast current situation is closer to that than it is you know taking over a team that has Spencer dwiti and you know basically a bunch of guys that don’t really fit together so it’s it’ll be interesting to see how how he’s able to like just to see what his voice is like in the a locker room just to kind of see how the Cs respond especially in the first 20 or so games of next season oh yeah especially when you look at some of the reporting that we saw after JB was fired which seemed to indicate that he had lost the locker room at least to a degree uh you bring in a new guy who hopefully will have Buy in right away I’m just very excited to see what that looks like how many changes we’ll see from that and I’m also interested to see The Fallout of this decision and the potential implications for how all of this happened uh quickly before we get into that let me just say if you enjoy the junkyard pod please consider hitting subscribe and dropping a like those two things go a long way toward helping the channel and it is very much appreciated the NBA draft is right around the corner this week I will have a full ranking of 20 different prospects coming tomorrow we also have two other podcast episodes down a handful of prospects so please go check them out and getting us back to today’s episode one of the most interesting things about this hiring that I’m gonna pass off to Jackson here in a second is the Dan Gilbert aspect of everything now from the W report it sounds like the Cavs and Kobe Alman were pretty set on Jackson’s guy James bergo being the guy for the job right up until the powers that be Dan Gilbert interjected and got his way with ainson being named head coach now if you look back at Dan recent history with coaches we have John beine and David blat which suggest the Casual fire ainson midseason and then they’ll settle on finding the right guy for the job um joking and again it’s important to distinguish ainson has 13 years of NBA experience very different from those other candidates uh but it is worth mentioning he doesn’t have any experience podcasting which makes me question are the Cavs truly at the Forefront of NBA advancements is Dan behind the times here uh but in all seriousness Jackson are you concerned at all with Gilbert’s influence here I know a lot of people are worried about it I’m not as concerned as the masses are on this I think I think one of the things about when you have an owner who does like to medal and I think we can say damn likes to metal is that coaching is the easiest thing for somebody who is a businessman like Dan Gilbert was Slash is to metal in because they have experience with evaluating interview and you know talking to people and kind of really what a head coach is is a head coach is like a middle manager you know they report up to the GM and the and the um owner but they’re also in charge of what’s happening on the floor so they’re always in between this position of like balancing power and stuff and that’s something that I think again someone like Dan can relate to that because he’s hired people at his own businesses that have similar roles in a way that you know maybe Dan isn’t we know that Dan does influence draft decisions or at least he has in the past but it’s a lot easier for an owner to justify doing that I think in their mind in a way that like oh I didn’t actually go to all of Alabama’s games this year so maybe I shouldn’t be saying whether or not we should draft a point guard from there so I think it’s like I think it’s understandable and I think it’s also okay because I think the outcome was like it was not out of the boox thinking approach this wasn’t this wasn’t beine this wasn’t him trying to get Chanty Bops to be like the president of basketball operations this wasn’t you know this just wasn’t like a Dan move this wasn’t like Tom ISO he didn’t throw a bunch of money at calip Perry you know like there’s a lot of Dan things that could have happened here and this wasn’t a Dan thing that happened so like I think it’s fine from that standpoint what I do think is concerning is that we are getting some of these leaks that yeah you know like I really like James bgo like you know please print it in the papers that you know James bgo was my guy I think that’s concerning because it shows that you know this 10 years is not off on the right foot like everyone’s not on the same page and I do understand that you can like brego more than ainson we like brego more than ainson so it’s not like it’s unfair to think that but I I would like it more if the Cavs were more unified in this decision so I think from that standpoint that’s concerning not necessarily the fact that Dan was involved or that I mean I you know I will not say that Dan being involved is always ideal but you know what I mean like yeah like that outcomes acceptable I think the problem is some of the process behind it I think that’s what’s a little concerning yeah no I think you made fantastic points right there uh regardless of what the end results are here I think everyone reasonably should be able to agree that Atkinson was a was a reasonable Choice uh he he didn’t really go outside the box like you said I’m glad that you also mentioned the fact that in moments where an owner can kind of medal when it comes to hiring a coach is a lot more understandable than Dan being like hey you know what I love Zack e we’re gonna draft him at number 20 even though he didn’t the scouting or anything like that so it’s a very different situation again I think the process is where people have some concerns I think this is a potential Rift between Kobe and Dan at least the most notable one that we have seen publicly uh it depends on the truth of how everything actually went down uh the real Cavs fan on Twitter pointed this out and I think it’s worth mentioning that we don’t know if there was a healthy debate or discussion on this matter or if Dan simply just brought his fist down and made it demand uh if you want my speculation I would say it’s probably closer to the ladder uh Wendy fan of the show certainly indicated that this was more of a unilateral decision and something that I found very interesting Wendy also mentioned that bgo really really wanted this Cavs job he says that burgo would have taken it over the Lakers job and apparently he even attempted to appeal his case to Gilbert in recent days once once ainson reemerged as the front runner so as a bgo guy that’s kind of disappointing to hear just knowing how passionate he was and how dedicated he want he was to this potential job I’m sure ainson is also excited uh but it’s just something worth mentioning and lastly before I let you jump back in I think this comes back to what I’ve been saying about Kobe is that I think this summer and this upcoming season is going to be make or break for him I think we are seeing pretty clearly that Dan is starting to question him at least a little bit and if he doesn’t put together a roster that truly truly competes it could the writing might be on the wall now yeah I mean it’s just so tough because like it feels like the like Kobe isn’t in a position to run it back with this team it feels like running it back with this current core maybe the most risky thing like if they were a first or second round exit next year with this current core it feels like kobby could be gone especially if they don’t nail the mid-level exception which they did not nail the mid-level exception last year so it’s and they’re not going to have a mid-level exception next year cat people can um correct me but they’re not going to have at least not the full mid-level exception because they’ll likely be in the tax so this is a really important year on a lot of fronts for Kobe and yeah I mean I think that’s a fair assessment of the situation one thing I do want to note is that from previous Dan hires you know you think of you know beine you think of why why am I blinking on the fighter Pilot’s name right now plat you had to hire a babysitter you know for them you had to hire tyou you had to hire JB biggera like that was like the GM’s guy that was Griffin like like Griffin wanted Lou but you know let’s just make a compromise like you’re not going to have to do that with Atkinson I mean they may like it may end up being a situation where bgo ends up being like the associate head coach or something like that I don’t know that he seems to be in the running for the uh the Pistons job but they’re not bringing somebody on to like babysit Atkinson and that’s kind of where I I think it’s important to like say that hey like this guy’s very qualified for this job and if this was you know if we didn’t have any of this back and forth and they just hired Atkinson and there wasn’t this whole bgo thing that were that we’ve been hearing reports about this is like oh yeah that makes sense you know this is the type of guy that they need the thing that most excited about for Atkinson is just the Player Development uh this is a guy who kind of started or built this career on being a Player Development guy uh wge mentioned in his report that the Cavs are especially eager to see how he provides a path for Evan Moy to develop as a player which is something that we have been wanting to see uh again we mentioned this at the top the role players having more freedom please let these guys dribble don’t just stick them in the corner ainson comes from a list of teams that play a run and gun shoot three-pointers with volume value connectivity playmaking from all positions a modern style that I’d hope and expect the Cavs to play more like a unit with allaround effort on offense as compared to the guard heavy kind of heliocentric style that we have come to know uh that means letting even Evan Mobley dribble the ball a little bit let him face up rather than post up and try to maximize this roster now one thing I want to say that has been mentioned in all the reports I don’t care about Atkinson’s connection to Carris Levert I don’t care like that doesn’t move me uh the only connection Atkinson should have with Carris Levert as a zoom connection because I’m hoping that they won’t be talking too much this season I you know what I love Carris but I’m ready to move doesn’t sound like you do love not to send a stray his way but I just I don’t care about that aspect of it I think they should be looking to move on like I love Jetty I I would be fine if Jetty came back Jetty could play on any team for me but you know anyways um yeah I think that’s one thing I found really interesting is that like the W article said like oh we’re going to develop Center Evan Mobley and I feel like that’s just a massive shot at every like the coaching staff previously where yeah yeah where you have a you know you have a team that lost to the Boston Celtics the NBA champions and if Mitchell stays healthy you can convince me that they win one or two more of those games in that series just with how dominant Mitchell was and how Boston really didn’t have an answer for him and usually a team in that situation you don’t hear like he’s being hired to develop Evan Moy you expect like you know whoever gets hired by the by the Pistons like oh they’re going to develop a culture they’re going to develop Kate Cunningham Ivy whatever you know like they’re not like you don’t hear that for a team in the cast position so I think that’s interesting and in and that’s you know I don’t want to it’s tough to get into Dan Gilbert’s head but if I was to it feels like that’s something that I think he feels that this team can do a better job and one of the things that I think is still really interesting is that like Dan Gilbert didn’t make many public appearances this year in terms of like going to Cavs games but he went to Allstar Weekend and went to the rising stars game and talked to imanii Bates afterward for 10 minutes which is just you know out of character from what we’ve seen from Dan in the like the past couple years so I feel like he thinks like if I were to speculate this is all speculation you know it seems like he thinks there’s more that you can get out of these younger guys than what they’re currently getting out of them so I think if I was speculate as to why ainson may have been the guy in his mind that could be it yeah I and that goes back to what I kind of hinted at at the start of the episode is that I hope Atkinson isn’t he has the guts to bench guys when they need to be benched and play some of the younger guys think of how much we wanted to see of Sam Merill throughout the year even moments where we wanted Craig Porter moments where we thought maybe Aman could get a chance now I don’t think any of those guys are capable of truly changing anything for the Cavs I don’t think it last year Sam of course excluded from that conversation but I just mean in terms of really just experimenting a little bit more that’s what the whole Player Development stuff comes down to at least for me my gripe with JB and the way they have handled this is that they’re not allowing these guys to experiment and find out what we have hey can aoro handle the ball let’s find out let’s instead of sticking him in the corner and limiting him to three dribbles a game let’s see what he can do if he’s in a couple dribble handoff actions let’s see if Moy can face up let’s just try things so I hope ainson has the free freedom and the guts to do that uh obviously clearly has Dan Gilbert’s favor so he should be feel comfortable trying some things uh the next thing that I want to talk about last thing last thing real quick is that I think it’s like he spent his last couple years in Golden State and the biggest complaint everyone has that you know you would know this as you’re an avid Warriors fan like you know why don’t we just you know let Steph just you know run the show but they have a very like set offense where everybody touches the ball no matter how much you suck you still get to touch the ball and do things and that’s like what we’ve been wanting to see the from the Cav forever we want Isaac aoro to be a basketball player we want you know Dean Wade to be a basketball player we want these guys to play basketball and we don’t want you know the guys that have the best feel for the game and have the best like fundamentals it seems are guys who haven’t you know come up through the Cav system we’re looking at you know Donovan Mitchell Jared Allen Max stru even Sam Merill like they aren’t products of the Cavs development system they’re more so products of other teams development yeah and to that point like listen I’m the biggest aoro fan in the world I still like Dean Wade but the reality is if you put the ball in their hands a little more and you experiment and you find out hey okay he can’t do these things well now you know now we know that we need to move on and find guys who can do that stuff but right now we’re is it year four or five of ao’s career and you’re gonna have to pay Aero because you know when he gets to restricted free agency people see you know 66 they see him one of the best Wing Defenders oh he has enough skills we can do something from him what are we going to do pay you know kcp you know so it’s like there’s really only you know it’s a coveted position so you’re going to have to pay him and it feels like you don’t even know who he is and he’s been in your gym for four years and that’s what I think the problem is so it’s even though the Cavs have succeeded you know if we went back four years ago I think everyone would sign up for you know two playoff two like a two playoffs playoff series Victory like we all would have signed up for that but it’s these other things that are really really the issues yeah we just need some clarity on a lot of these things that I feel like we don’t have we’re going to hurry up and get to the end here and wrap up I know Jackson has to go thank you for taking the time out to cover this breaking news with us yeah you know the last thing the least I can do of course man the last thing that I think is interesting is that now that this is finally the decision has been made we know who the coach is are the floodgates for the off season officially about to open up I know that it’s been reported that they plan on offering Mitchell a four-year extension all signs indicate toward where him signing that I will wait to take my Victory lap which I’ve been waiting a long time to to do so we’ll wait we’ll get to that uh but even are we going to start hearing some rumors heating up about the Darius Garland and Jared Allen stuff I know Kobe seems like he wants to keep the core together but Dan has certainly shown that he is willing to take control here so draft days coming up free agency is coming up I’m very excited to see if now that we know who the coach is and we know that Dan is meddling a little bit how much all this is going to heat up if the floodgates have officially opened well the floodgates are going to open because you know the tampering period ends on Sunday so like yeah there’s going to be some action like same with the draft these would naturally be points where you’re going to be getting speculation And Trades could go down I don’t think we’re going to really hear anything before a trade goes down we didn’t hear anything before the Cavs weren’t like eyeing Jared Allen for months before they traded for him they weren’t you know you got some Buzz with the Mitchell stuff but it felt like it might not have been buzz from the Cavs it was more buzz from like the Jazz right you know try try to get them to throw in a better offer so there you know I don’t think we’ll hear all like a whole lot but the Donovan Mitchell extension is something that could happen sooner now you would think you would think that you know the order of operations would be all right let’s get a coach okay let’s get Donovan Mitchell resigned okay let’s get the draft figure out what we’re going to do get the mid-level exception figure out if we’re trading Allan SLG Garland so yeah but you know it’s also kind of like that time of the year too yeah I mean The Dominoes were going to fall regardless of of what the Cavs plan on doing that’s all for this episode of the junkyard pot I want to thank everyone for watching or listening what do you think of Kenny ainson is this the right guy for the job are you worried about Dan Gilbert’s influence here let us know in the comments I would love to hear your thoughts and with all that being said go Cavs I agree go Cavs Brian I don’t have any questions for you today sorry leave a comment you know you never leave a comment [Music]

The Cleveland Cavaliers have hired Kenny Atkinson to fill their head coaching position!

Tony Pesta and Jackson Flickinger break down the implications of how this decision was made and what Atkinson brings to Cleveland.

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