The Cavs Are Hiring Golden State's Top Assistant, Kenny Atkinson, To Be Their Next Head Coach

So the Cavs fired JB Bickerstaff over a month ago today, and I'll be honest, I'm pretty shocked as to how long this process has taken. As of this morning, with the draft just a few days away, we still didn't even have our guy. And I would like to think that if you fire a guy who rejuvenated the franchise and won 99 games over two years, you have a plan in the hopper. It's a tough decision to dismiss someone who just took an injury-ridden team to the Conference Semis and won the first playoff series in Cleveland since LeBron left, but the Cavs made that move.....and apparently had no plan afterwards.

It seemed like it was down to James Borrego, the associate head coach in New Orleans, and then Atkinson, who is the top assistant for the Golden State Warriors. All of the talk shows and podcasts I listen to seem like Borrego was the favorite? But now it seems like Dan Gilbert may have stepped in at the end and said we're going with Kenny? If so, he better be right.... (but then again when you're worth 28.3 billion, who gives a fuck)

I personally like the hire, simply on association with the Warriors offense alone. I'm not going to act like I know his X's and O's inside and out, but I'm reading that he's generally bottom 5 in Post Up Frequency and runs a high volume off-screen offense to free up shooters. I can get behind that plan when this is the other news breaking within the Cavs organization this morning:

Fuck yes. It's been trending this way for a couple weeks now, and I love that it seems like we're sticking it to everyone who said otherwise and are keeping Mitchell, Garland, Allen, AND Mobley. People say that Atkinson is great with player development too, citing work with Deangelo Russell, Spencer Dinwiddie and Caris Levert. I have zero problem with Kyrie and KD deciding they didn't need a coach and having him canned....his work before they got there is fine by me.

Let me say this: I'm very optimistic about the Cavs next season. I just watched the Celtics cakewalk through the entire league, and outside of them, there's not one team in the East that I think is more talented than the Cavs core. Keep them together. Don't give in, especially to LeBron's little puppet Rich Paul.