Kenny Atkinson is putting together an INCREDIBLE staff for the Cleveland Cavaliers

Kenny Atkinson is putting together an INCREDIBLE staff for the Cleveland Cavaliers

over the weekend Kenny ainson added another piece to his first staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers he hired Johnny Bryant away from the Knicks his exact position still TBD on the Cav staff but he worked extremely close with Donovan Mitchell when the two were together in Utah now we know up to this point Kenny Atkinson’s staff looks like this and Steve you want to take the one up he has Johnny Bryant Jordan o deari Carroll and Dan jro who’s a hold over from the JB bicker stat regime here on his staff are you guys a fan of the direction Kenny Atkinson is going in terms of putting different personalities and coaching Arch tyes Arch types together to assemble his version of a super staff here 99% I am a fan of this staff how it’s been assembled so far listen Mike you did a great job laying this out during your ultimate C show yesterday Kenny Akerson overemphasized how important it was to build a staff that created uh communication between staff and players that created open dialogue it’s just a open communication communication type situation and then when you got a guy like deari Carroll on this on his staff who’s a former player just got finish plan a guy like Johnny Bryant who’s a lead at Player Development and has a great relationship with your Superstar Donovan Mitchell and then you got a guy like Jordan at who’s a technician and has spent some time in LA with superstars like uh Anthony Davis and LeBron James and you yourself keny a is known as a grinder you basically created a buffer between you and the players and you’ve done a phenomenal job of hiring great basketball minds and great personalities that I think that’s uh huge when it comes to the chemistry side of things G let’s face it Mike did a shitty job with his breakdown yesterday I don’t know what the Earl’s talking about that breakdown was the worst breakdown I’ve ever seen in my entire life Nobody by the way nobody heard of Jordan a before two days ago I I got bu it’s so funny that you went there when I saw this as a topic last night here’s honest to God what I said what the hell are we talking about this this is this is an underrated part of what they done they haven’t done anything else that’s no it’s not an underrated part it’s what they’ve done and and and here’s my point here’s my point we’re inside baseball okay yeah yeah yeah like that’s what we do Mike is inside basketball big time when you start asking me to grade the quality of the assistant coaches on The Cast coaching staff you’re in trouble I’m hitting my tap out button I don’t know anything about any of these dudes let me let me give you guys a football comparison and see if this makes more sense who doesn’t know a lot what this is I’m just looking J and I appreciate Earl I appreciate that bull I double appreciate what you said uh and Jay thank you for the transparency G I hope this makes sense I’m just listening yeah g has brought this up many times about the Browns Kevin stansky this off seon bringing in different offensive Minds to help collaborate on a game plan week in and week out not just his way he brought in Tommy ree from the Collegiate ranks he brought in Ken dorsy who’s more versed in the spread sure they added a new running backs coach and do Staley instead of stump Mitchell they brought in a new offensive line coach because Bill Callahan left he welcomed Mike Vel into the fry to help give him a little more okay you were a head coach against these teams let’s see what you can add it’s a nice collection of experts exactly Kenny ainson in Brooklyn part of his downfall was his relationship with star players he is a self-admitted grinder and he says I want control I want to get guys to work their hardest day in and day out and eventually that can rub players the wrong way and we saw here in Cleveland last year with Donovan Mitchell and JB bicker staff that personality type doesn’t always mesh with the modern day Superstar so what he has done here and I’ll be honest Dan jro not super familiar with Demari Carroll played for ainson in Atlanta yep and in Brooklyn of course I was familiar with Jordan I do know Johnny Bryant because we talked about him as a potential candidate for the head coaching spot with the Cavs he was the top assistant for Tom Tibido or SEC he wasn’t tibo’s go-to guy but he was the associate head coach he also knows Donovan and has a uh long and fruitful track record of Player Development Kenny ainson has put guys around him that relate to the players in a way that he may not be able to himself and I think when you looked at when you hired the hiring of Kenny ainson one of his most important aspects was assembling a staff that could relate to the superstars in the top tier players not only from a developmental standpoint but from a open dialogue back and forth standpoint JJ Rick’s trying to do the same thing in Los Angeles now is that the wave in the NBA because it seems like it is and we saw and we talked about it before with JB like he didn’t have an offensive coordinator right James bgo was legitimately the offensive coordinator in New Orleans Kenny ainson was the defensive coordinator in Golden State because Steve Kerr part of being a head coach now is less about the X’s and O’s and more about the relationship and getting the most from your players so you have to assemble a staff if you are not the players guy yourself you need a staff full of them and Mike and from real quick and from all reports and once again I’ve never talked to jordanut deari KY was with LA the last two years he’s a former player himself josea hold over Johnny Bryant we actually know what he’s done and who he’s worked with a little more in depth they all have terrific reputations of being players guys to help ease that dialogue potential back and forth conflict and what and a coached under Atkinson before correct um as well so there’s connections with all the guys correct in in all seriousness who knows how good they it’ll all mesh together but I think it is a sign of growth from Kenny Atkinson that he’s hired guys that like that come from as you said different backgrounds and and have different connections with the players and I think he probably learned that being in Golden State you with this great coach and this great organization and you learn hey I can’t do everything as the head coach I have is a new way to coach player maybe papovich can still do it that way but that’s you know that’s going out so I got to be able to have other guys that connect and have these relationship I the the cliffnotes version is Atkinson’s not a players coach but every everyone on his staff is and that should mesh and you know it’s nice to have a guy who’s strong in one area that another I would say he’s not a players coach he might not be a Superstars coach more a ranking file play about to say that when he was is he even a ranking file because to me it sounds like and I don’t want to label this guy if this Brooklyn loved him it was the superstars that didn’t want to practice day in and day out like he had to get his other guys to do to be comp uh competitive what coach has a handle on Superstars like Phil Jackson did but today who he just worked with no he I was just about to make that statement I was just about to make that stat does yeah that’s what he said that was his biggest Achilles Hill and that’s what he learned the most from Steve cerr yeah how to manage those relationships with Superstar players and another point that you made I think that’s a a huge reason and Mike you can attest to is of why he brought Jordan op back to his staff Jordan op was the second coach second in line on that on that Lakers coaching staff and he was the guy primarily managing the relationships between Anthony Davis and LeBron James and so You’ learn how to manage relationships with superstars Andes deal with the biggest superstar in the NBA I think it makes a lot of sense you can clearly tell he’s learned a thing or two over his four years in Golden State y’all missed that y’all missed it you I missed it this this Ain this this a Donovan Mitchell hire what you talk about like Johnny Johnny Bryant on the squad is that’s my man my man is going to be on this roster you take ainson but clearly he’s the Lea zombie between me and you he didn’t have this with JB so when when you get auson doing things he’s gonna say okay how’s how’s Donovan feel about this how do we funnel see this is the this is the LeBron James Playbook the like when Donovan Mitchell has gotten to the point where he he he he has true power in or organization he got his guy in here assistant coach he co-signed ainon he got ainon and he said okay what do you feel about Jared Allen oh I like Jared Allen I played him before you’re hired look hey Jared Allen ain’t going nowhere Donovan Mitchell is telling you right now this is how we going to move I got my guys in here there’s some player coaches all of those dudes that move right there just showed me who was in charge and how they was moving let me take you behind the scenes a little bit two days after after we hire ainon me Mike and an is sitting upstairs we preparing for the show I turned to Mike and I said Mike what’s the chances that Johnny Bryant joins the Cleveland Cavaliers he goes it would be a lateral move it wouldn’t make sense and it’s so funny I thought the same thing it’s so funny that he’s here now I heard yesterday that when the rumbling started about Donovan Mitchell leaving Utah and the projected landing spot was New York that’s why he voted for New York because of the relationship that’s not a rumbling that is a confirmed legit fact okay so boom it’s a confirmed fact that’s why he voted for New York and so it could be aan Mitchell hire I just like the fact that when you hire a guy um that was a candidate to be your head coach and the guy that you end up hiring is willing to bring him along on that staff if it helps the Superstar if it helps the everybody on his team again Elite player developer right so I hear what you saying but I’m thinking outside of that box well I’m what I’m saying is is hey Kenny ainson you don’t get it you don’t get it done guess who right on the bench no I disagree with that guess who the associate head coach well it is that’s why it’s interesting that it’s almost as if one of the coaches who stuck around and interviewed for the head job and didn’t get it stays on that staff that’s rare they usually say okay that’s my that’s my that’s my notice that I’m not going to be the head coach here it happened before with tyo Ty was on the bench it’s it’s it’s it’s fairly rare that the coach that’s coming in decides to keep one of his competitors for the job he just won yeah yeah that was to me you brought him in I’m like okay now listen Kevin stansky is different you know why I got Coach of the Year twice shut up you can’t say nothing my you can’t put him on I got I got the cach a we talked about it ainon don’t really got the cash a like that we had a you y’all question whether was upgrade from JB to ainon who got the better hire with JB now now ainon I love what I said I wanted him as a coach I like him but you got you must keep an eye on the fact that the guy that interviewed for that same role is now the first so if it goes sideways after 40 games you got a guy on you got some that he Lo that that just so happens to be I guess it depends a great relationship with the I guess it depends in the end and we don’t know the answer to this was was this a hire that was forced on him or is this a hire he wanted to make cuz that’s that’s a big difference I would would say the the former maybe it seems that way but you never know I I will say this in in looking at what the Cavs have done or what the Cavs haven’t done in this off season and that’s that’s our next topic what when I look at the staff to me the overriding message is front office when they did their postmortem and they really dug deep into the autopsy of what happened I think they are completely aligned that this team underachieved because of the coaching stff blam and the parts are here we have the main core four the pieces the pillars we’re here we just were driven off a cliff by the coach and so that’s what now whether or not that’s right whether or not that’s right we’re going to find out because they were the control in the experiment the is going to stay the same the coaching staff changed so what do you got now assuming there’s no significant roster changes which seems likely but I mean it’s not over yet do Jimmy Butler can still get Tred but see it feels like doesn’t I mean is there where we’re going we’ll get there once I just give one thing on Johnny Bryan we’ll move on so I woke up in New Jersey yesterday and my dad still reads the New York Post every morning they had an article on the Cavs hiring Johnny Bryant because he was the Nicks uh top Assistant two things stood out to me from that article I’m going to read it quote for quote real quick this is from The New York Times Stefan who wrote it Stefan Bondi or Stefan Bondi uh quote uh Brian’s hiring 2022 by the Knicks according to a source oh I wasn’t sure what Steve was taking let me start that over his hiring in 2020 by the Knicks according to his Source through executive William Wesley was seen as a way to entice All-Star Donovan Mitchell to New York wow again that was so he was the carrot to attract yes wow now later in the article this is also from the same Stefan Bondi quote Tibido still has the assistance he hired and feels the most comfortable with including Darren man Rick Brunson Daniel Brady and Andy Greer so despite the fact that he was technically labeled the associate head coach I read that as he wasn’t one of tibs inner circle guys he was BR so for to make a lateral move and to Earl that this is when I said that earlier I didn’t have that information I assumed if you’re the associate head coach you’d be in that quot quote Inner Circle M this is a chance for him to be in Kenny Atkinson’s inner circle with the guy in Donovan who he’s clearly super tight with the rest of the article talked about his Player Development Acumen what he did for Emanuel quickley and Julius Randall who they talked as complimentary as humanly possible about about his development of those guys yes so he comes with a lot of a proven track he has no question he’s a future head coach he’s going to get interviews to be a head coach next year yes he will he will get a head coaching position especially if things go well here yeah I don’t look at it as a threat to Kenny ainson I can’t imagine when you’re still paying JB bicker staff if you hire Kenny you’re not going to give him more than at least at minimum two he can do and we have to we have to operate under the assumption that this was a quote unquote Dan Gilbert hire so why would Dan Gilbert hire a guy and put him in a position to where he can be undercut well he did it twice already I mean that’s what Dan does he did it with David black saying why would he do that I guess I’m giving some I’m giving him some Grace because you know he’s been through a lot since then he’s probably not the same Dan Gilbert but to another point before we move on from this you know we seen this with the with the Browns last off season when they was searching for different coaches right I think Dickerson came in here was the candidate for uh for OC he ended up being the offensive line coach sometimes when you go through the interview process with some of these coaches he might not be your top choice for one position but I can still see this guy in this position Etc and I think for Dan Gilbert to be willing to write the check for top-notch assistance like that it says that he’s he’s all in on this too one last point on all this Player Development those two words that we keep using throughout this entire process it’s been associated with Kenny ainon has been associated with Johnny Bryant people need to understand it starts with guys like Evan Moy it trickles all the way down to guys like immani base right we have a lot of young guys on this roster that has raw potential or a high that they haven’t reached yet and when you can get the majority of your your staff bought in on developing Talent it’ll make it a very very interesting season for the Cavaliers coming up yeah Monty Bates dominate the G League after these hirings we will talk about him in the summer league coming up G

The Cavaliers have their head coach in place after hiring Kenny Atkinson to try to take the current roster to the next level. Now, Atkinson’s coaching staff continues to come into focus.

The Cavs have hired New York Knicks coach Johnnie Bryant to be Atkinson’s associate head coach, a league source confirmed an ESPN report.

Bryant was with the Knicks for four seasons. But perhaps most notably as it pertains to the Cavaliers, Bryant was with the Utah Jazz for six seasons and is familiar with star guard Donovan Mitchell, who was acquired from the Jazz and recently agreed to a long-term contract extension to remain in Cleveland | https://www.beaconjournal.com/story/sports/pro/cavs/2024/07/06/cleveland-cavaliers-hire-johnnie-bryant-to-be-associate-head-coach-new-york-knicks-donovan-mitchell/74318368007/

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