Cavaliers hire Warriors assistant Kenny Atkinson as next coach, AP source says

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Cavaliers are hiring Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson as their new head coach, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.

The Cavs are looking for a new leader for their young team since the last dismissal of JB Bickerstaff month despite two consecutive playoff appearances.

The sides have reached an agreement with details of Atkinson’s contract yet to be finalized, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the team is not publicly discussing its search.

ESPN.com was the first to report that Atkinson is headed to Cleveland.

Atkinson spent the last three seasons as Steven Kerr’s top assistant with the Warriors. In 2022, Atkinson accepted the job as Charlotte’s coach but quit a week after agreeing to a four-year contract.

Atkinson’s hiring ends an extensive search by the Cavs front office. Atkinson was one of at least six known candidates to be interviewed by the team since Bickerstaff’s firing on May 23 — a week after Cleveland was eliminated from the playoffs in five games by the eventual champion Boston Celtics.

Atkinson, 57, ticked all the boxes of what the Cavs were looking for: head coaching experience, an offensive mindset and a strong reputation in player development.

Atkinson was 118-190 in his three-plus seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, overseeing their rise from the bottom tier of the Eastern Conference to a playoff berth in 2019. He appeared poised for a long run in Brooklyn after the addition of superstar Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving, but had a surprising separation from the franchise in 2020.

Atkinson’s split was intriguing given the team’s growth under his guidance. After leaving, he spent one season on the Los Angeles Clippers team before moving to Golden State.)

With the Warriors, Atkinson met one of the league’s best offensive players, Stephen Curry, and immersed himself in a dynamic offensive system that he will certainly borrow from Cleveland.

One of the knocks on Bickerstaff was his inability to improve Cleveland’s offense. Still, he went 170-159 in the regular season while leading the Cavs back to relevance through a rebuild that began in 2018.

Bickerstaff has kept Cleveland among the East’s best teams this season despite a series of injuries, and Cleveland advanced beyond the first round of the playoffs without James on its roster for the first time since 1994.

Atkinson, who got his start in NBA coaching as an assistant on Mike D’Antoni’s New York Knicks staff in 2008, has some Cavs connections after working with center Jarrett Allen and forward Caris LeVert while in Brooklyn.

Hiring a new coach was the first priority in a crucial summer for the Cavs. The next step is to get All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell to accept a long-term contract extension, this week’s NBA draft (Cleveland has the 20th overall pick) and perhaps retool the roster with trades and in free agency.

After the Cavs were eliminated from the playoffs, president of basketball operations Koby Altman said the team needed a coach who could bring new ideas and a new approach to making the most of the team’s core of players – Mitchell, Allen, the guard Darius Garland and forward Evan Mobley.

Atkinson will get the next chance.

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