The Cavs leap under Kenny Atkinson deserves COTY
Can you lose Coach of the Year when you are outperforming your competition with his former employer?
The Kenny Atkinson hire had built-in expectations going into the season. In taking over a Cleveland Cavaliers team previously run by J.B. Bickerstaff, there were boxes to check for what would deem a successful season.
The first objective was to elevate the offensive play of now fourth-year big man Evan Mobley. Since Mobley was drafted, the comparisons have always been about how dynamic he could be on both ends of the floor. In his previous three seasons under Bickerstaff, Mobley was a force defensively, and his versatility jumped off the screen almost immediately.
Under Atkinson, Mobley has vaulted his offensive skillset to another level. From a stat line perspective, Mobley has improved in points per game (15.7 to 18.6). If you look at the rest of the stats, you wouldn’t see major leaps in three-point percentage, field goal percentage, or free throw percentage. However, Mobley has been much more empowered and aggressive this season.
The three-point percentage is the same as last season at 37.3%. The difference is that Mobley has attempted 166 more threes this go around. The same is true for free throws. Mobley has similarly improved his free throws per game from 3.4 attempts to 4.2. That is some of the magic that Atkinson has brought this season. Mobley is now empowered in Cleveland’s league-leading offense.
The second objective was to improve in the Eastern Conference.
It was apparent from the jump that this was a different Cavaliers’ team. They won their first 15 games, then proceeded to win 64 to this point and locked up the number one seed pretty comfortably. This is a 16-game discrepancy from last season. The Cavaliers have also vaulted from 17th in offensive rating (115.2) last year to first (122.2) right now, all while remaining a top defensive team.
The leap is noticeable and has led to three All-Stars and possible awards for All-NBA consideration, Sixth Man of the Year, Defensive Player of the Year, and finally, Coach of the Year.
Now, J.B. Bickerstaff has done an excellent job with the Detroit Pistons, but here is the dilemma I struggle with. How can someone lose an award when the other contender was the predecessor of their current team?
Bickerstaff and the Cavaliers were feeling stale and stagnant in the final few seasons, which led to him being let go. After being hired in Detroit, Bickerstaff immediately displayed his greatest strengths as a coach. Within games, the Pistons had a culture and identity, something which was lacking in the past. The Pistons have leapt from eternal basement dwellers, where the greatest joy fans could experience was figuring out where the ping pong balls determined they drafted, to now being the sixth seed in the East.
The Pistons currently are 44-37, which is a 30-win difference from last season. Now, this is one of my major gripes with Bickerstaff’s momentum. Monty Williams, to put it politely, was the worst coach in the NBA last season. The Pistons' goal was clear: To develop the young talent they drafted, and that was not Williams’ style.
Bickerstaff excelled in Cleveland by building the foundation of the current. He’s doing that now in Detroit. The likes of Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duran, Jaden Ivey, and Ron Holland have all had their moments and appear to be cornerstones going forward.
If we are using the barometer of where the team was last season to this season, I would strongly argue that it was going to be much tougher for Atkinson to improve the Cavaliers.
Cleveland wasn’t a bad team, or even a team on the decline, they were in purgatory. Conversely, the Pistons were the worst team in basketball, there truly was nowhere to go but up. It’s an infinitely easier jump from bad to good in the NBA than it is to go from good to great.
This is less about throwing shade on Bickerstaff, as it is to praise Atkinson.
Atkinson has made the Cavaliers elite on both ends of the ball, engineered multiple 15+ game winning streaks, and has the Cavaliers in pole position in the East. These are not strides to scoff at, this is a leap we haven’t seen since Steve Kerr took over for Marc Jackson a decade ago. Meanwhile, the improvement in Detroit isn’t unprecedented and not even far off what Bickerstaff did in his first go-around in Cleveland.
With all the accomplishments and accolades the Cavaliers can receive this season, I would argue that Atkinson losing Coach of the Year would be the most egregious. Hopefully, voters do not get swooned by cute little storylines and focus on the bare facts ahead of them. The Cavaliers are an elite team and an NBA Finals contender. Were they in this position last year? No. What changed, and how was that implemented? It’s not rocket science to deduce that it’s Kenny Atkinson that’s the difference.