Tag: steve kerr

Cavs’ Comparison To ’15 Hawks? What About ’15 Warriors?

Many of the national detractors of the Cleveland Cavaliers’ season have used the 2014-15 Atlanta Hawks as the comparison. Those Hawks were coming off of three consecutive first round losses and win totals of 38, 44, and 40 (in a strike shortened season) and exploded for a 60-22 season and the #1 seed in the East.

They were swept in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Cavaliers, who were in their first year of the return of LeBron James to the franchise.

We think those critics are overlooking the difference between the rosters. Yes, four Hawks made the All-Star Game that year, but Atlanta’s best players were Al Horford, Paul Millsap, Kyle Korver, and Jeff Teague, all of whom made the all-star squad.

Side note: Current Cavs’ assistant coach DeMarre Carroll was a starter on that team.

Mike Budenholzer’s team ranked 6th in offensive and 6th in defense, and their leading scorer was Millsap at 16.7 points, with Teague pitching in 15.9 and 7 assists. Millsap was the leading rebounder at 7.8.

Our question is there is another team from the same season that the Cavaliers have much more in common with. Why doesn’t anyone compare them to the 2015 Golden State Warriors?

The Warriors won 47 games in 2012-13 and 51 in 2013-14, and then changed coaches, firing Mark Jackson and hiring Steve Kerr. Cleveland won 51 games two years ago (same as Golden State) and 48 last season before changing from J.B. Bickerstaff to Kenny Atkinson as head coach.

And we think everyone should remember that Warriors’ team went on to win the NBA title, defeating the Cavaliers in six games.

That Warriors’ team led the league in field goal percentage and in three-point shooting. Cleveand is second in the former and leads in three-point percentage.

The Cavaliers currently have the best offense in the NBA and are 7th defensively. Golden State had the second-best offense and the best defense.

Both teams were guard oriented, the Warriors led by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Cleveland by Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland.

The Warriors’ slogan in the period was “Strength In Numbers”, an ode to Kerr’s choice to keep everyone’s minutes down. Under Jackson, four players averaged over 30 minutes per game (Curry, Thompson, David Lee, and Andre Iguodala) with the starting backcourt both getting more than 35 minutes per night.

Kerr cut that duo’s time to about 32 minutes per night and Draymond Green was the only other Warrior getting more that 30 minutes per night.

Atkinson did pretty much the same thing with this year’s Cavaliers’ squad. Mitchell averaged 35 minutes last season, one of five players averaging over 30 minutes (Garland, Max Strus, Jarrett Allen, and Evan Mobley).

This year’s group has just three, and Garland and Mobley are barely over the 30-minute threshold. Mitchell is down four minutes per game, and 12 Cavs average over 10 minutes a game, and number a little inflated because two of them, Caris LeVert and Georges Niang, were dealt during the season.

But they were replaced by De’Andre Hunter, so really, Atkinson is using an 11-man rotation.

By the way, that Warriors’ team went on to record a 67-15 regular season record, about the same pace as the 2024-25 Cavaliers.

That Hawks’ team was very good, but let’s face it, they didn’t have the star power of either the Warriors or the current Cavalier team.

We guess the deciding argument occurs in the playoffs. Golden State won a championship.

Cavs Hire Kenny Atkinson. Our Thoughts

The Cleveland Cavaliers have a new head coach, hiring Golden State assistant Kenny Atkinson to replace J.B. Bickerstaff. We also say we cannot judge a coaching hire until the person actually coaches games, but we like the hire.

Atkinson first got our attention when the Cavs acquired the Nets’ first round pick in the Kyrie Irving deal. The Nets were coming off a 20-62 season under Atkinson in 2016-17, so the Nets’ pick looked to have potential to have a very good chance to finish high in the lottery.

This was a Nets’ team led by DeMarre Carroll, Allen Crabbe, Spencer Dinwiddie. And yes, Caris LeVert and Jarrett Allen were on that squad as well. Brooklyn finished 12th in the Eastern Conference at 28-54 and as we all know by now, Cleveland got the 8th pick in the draft, not the top five selection that was hoped for.

The following season, he guided the Nets to the playoffs with a 42-40 record, losing in a five-game series to Philadelphia, who were led by Joel Embiid, Jimmy Butler, and Ben Simmons (ironically, new Laker coach J.J. Redick was also on the Sixers’ roster).

Brooklyn stole game one on the road behind D’Angelo Russell’s 26 points and LeVert chipped in with 23.

The following season, the Nets and Atkinson parted ways during the truncated pandemic season after he guided Brooklyn to a 28-34 record. Jacque Vaughn finished the year 7-3 and was swept in the first round of the playoffs by Toronto.

We went through this history because from afar Atkinson always seemed to get the most out of his roster, a good trait for any coach.

Atkinson was offered the Charlotte head coaching position following the 2022 season, and he took it, but then had second thoughts and settled for an assistants’ job with Golden State. Based on the mess the Hornets’ organization is, we thought he took the Warriors’ job as the heir apparent to Steve Kerr. Obviously, Kerr is still there.

There have been attempts on other sites to quantify Atkinson’s coaching style and philosophy, but we will not attempt that. The essence of coaching is looking at the talent at hand and getting the most out of the players. So, we will trust that his coaching philosophy with the Cavs will be based on having players do what they do best.

We also like that Atkinson has been a head coach before and then went and worked with another organization, especially a successful one like Golden State (like it or not, they are successful). Good coaches also learn and absorb things by working with players and also observation.

Many successful people learn from doing a job and as they do it more, they get better at doing it.

The new coach likes ball movement on offense, and we would hope he isn’t as dependent on the pick and roll as Bickerstaff was. As far as anything else goes, we will wait until we see the results.

And hopefully, the front office has discussions with Atkinson and what kind of team he wants, and is not saying here’s the roster, win with it. As we have been saying, the Cavs’ problem wasn’t just the coach. The make-up of the roster isn’t that of other contending teams.

We guess we will know more about the next edition of the Cavs in a few weeks.