The Cavaliers’ core issues were there long before Atkinson took over.
Seemingly everything that could go wrong for the Cleveland Cavaliers this season has.
The Cavs can’t stay healthy, can’t make open shots, and aren’t playing hard. They’re going through the motions night in and night out, even after having a player-led meeting after being called out for their lack of defensive energy and focus.
This has all resulted in a team that is 15-14 and has lost five of its last seven games. Each of those recent losses came against opponents with worse records than the Cavs.
There’s a lot of blame to go around for what has been the most disappointing team in the NBA this season. And head coach Kenny Atkinson certainly deserves his fair share of criticism.
There are tactical decisions that Atkinson is making that should be called into question. Is it best for a team that can’t play transition defense to be crashing the offensive glass as hard as they are? Should an offense that’s 27th in three-point percentage be second in the league in attempts? Does it make sense to gamble for steals as much as they are when it gets away from what has made this team a top-10 defense for the previous four years?
On top of that, the players seem to be tuning out Atkinson. He has been delivering the same comments about how they need to get inside more and play with energy for several weeks — as have his players — but nothing has changed. These are signs that Atkinson’s message isn’t resonating with players. And once that happens, it’s nearly impossible to regain a locker room after you’ve lost it.
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That said, Atkinson is far from the main reason why this team is in shambles. Being on the hot seat — as recent reports seem to suggest — is difficult to justify when you watch this team play.
Atkinson isn’t the one missing shots. He’s not responsible for the blown assignments. He didn’t trade for De’Andre Hunter and Lonzo Ball. Atkinson isn’t the reason the team is over the second apron. And, if he were fired, he’d be the second straight quality coach that the team had to let go of because this core group stopped playing for them.
It can be easy for an organization to blame the coach when things go wrong. It’s much easier to pin the failings on one person than it is to look inward and try to diagnose what is actually keeping a group from reaching its potential.
This isn’t to say that the coach shouldn’t be held responsible for critical issues they haven’t been able to correct. J.B. Bickerstaff took this core as far as it seemed like he could. The offense became stale as he never quite could figure out how to make lineups work with both Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley. That was a hindrance for a team that believed it could be a title contender.
Then, there were the reports that the team grew tired of Bickerstaff’s message at the end of his tenure. The team seemingly didn’t believe in the offense he was running and the way he was leading the team.
However, that same style seems to be working for Bickerstaff with the Detroit Pistons. He’s completely transformed that organization in less than a season and a half. Right now, they have the third-best odds to win the Eastern Conference. Clearly, he’s doing something right as head coach.
Atkinson isn’t perfect, but if this core needs a third coach in two years, and both of the coaches fired just finished first and second in Coach of the Year voting, then that speaks more to the makeup of the team than anything else.
This core is still trying to overcome the issues that were exposed in their loss to the New York Knicks in 2023. They folded when they met their first bit of adversity in the playoffs and were completely steamrolled by a team that they were more talented than. And this is the same issue they’re dealing with right now. Things haven’t gone their way since the second-round loss to the Indiana Pacers last spring, and they have yet to pick themselves off the mat and fight back.
The Cavs have made many stylistic changes and periphery roster moves to try to solve these issues. That happened again this past offseason as they tried to find more versatile skill players. Yet, the same foundational problems dating back four seasons remain despite how many players have shuffled in and out of the organization.
Coaches are important. They can help change the culture of an organization and meaningfully affect wins and losses. But they can’t control everything. Even the best coaches need their players to perform up to their skill level to be successful. Right now, the players are the ones responsible for this poor stretch. And they are the only ones who can get them out of the mess that they’ve created.
Category: General Sports
