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<\/p>\nCLEVELAND \u2014 Reigning NBA coach of the year Kenny Atkinson is \u201cnot on the hot seat\u201d with the Cleveland Cavaliers despite the team\u2019s poor start, multiple league sources with direct knowledge of the franchise\u2019s thinking told The Athletic.<\/p>\n
This was the sentiment even before the Cavs snapped a three-game losing streak (and four-game home slide) by beating the Charlotte Hornets 139-132 on Monday night, though no one should necessarily feel better about this team just yet, either.<\/p>\n
To be clear, decision-makers, coaches and players are \u201cupset\u201d with how the team has played for two months following last year\u2019s 64-win season, but those frustrations have not risen to the level of Atkinson\u2019s job being in imminent danger, those sources said. Atkinson is in his second season, having replaced J.B. Bickerstaff, who was fired despite guiding the team to better campaigns each year of his four-season tenure.<\/p>\n
Additionally, Cleveland\u2019s front office, led by president of basketball operations Koby Altman, is not in a hurry to overhaul the roster, even though the Cavs have the NBA\u2019s most expensive collection of players (with a payroll of $229.8 million, they are the league\u2019s only team currently over the second apron). Team executives want to see how it looks once all of the Cavs\u2019 projected starters are on the court together, which has yet to happen this year.<\/p>\n
To that end, at least two trade offers for rotation players were rejected by Cleveland, league sources said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe healthier we get, the better we\u2019ll be,\u201d Atkinson said before the Cavs avenged last Sunday\u2019s loss to the Hornets, who are now 9-20. \u201cI\u2019m buying this dip. I know what we got comin\u2019, and I love our leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is another game Tuesday night, against the New Orleans Pelicans, but regardless of the outcome the Cavs will enter their first Christmas Day game since 2017 nowhere near where the casual fan expected them to be in the standings. Monday\u2019s win put them at 16-14 and in seventh place in the Eastern Conference; if the postseason began today, they\u2019d be a Play-In team. They started the season 7-3, which means even with a win against New Orleans, they\u2019d limp into Thursday\u2019s noon ET matchup at Madison Square Garden against the New York Knicks with a losing record over their last 21 games.<\/p>\n
The simplest reason there has been such a dip would be injuries, but the reality isn\u2019t so simple. It\u2019s not just that starting small forward Max Strus has missed the whole season following summer foot surgery, or that reigning defensive player of the year Evan Mobley is going to be out for an extended time with a calf strain, or that All-Star point guard Darius Garland began the year in street clothes because of toe surgery, or even that starting center Jarrett Allen recently returned after missing nine games out of 10 with broken fingers or that Sam Merrill, the team\u2019s top 3-point shooter, came back Monday night after 14 games missed with a severely sprained hand.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all of those injuries combined, forcing Atkinson to give rotation minutes to at least two players who were not in the NBA at this time last year in Nae\u2019Qwan Tomlin and rookie Tyrese Proctor, and a third (second-year forward Jaylon Tyson) who was not in the Cavs\u2019 rotation last season. Larry Nance Jr., back for his second stint with Cleveland, is out with a calf strain now, but before he was injured was shooting 40 percent from the field and 30 percent from 3-point range. Lonzo Ball, a backup point guard the Cavs traded Isaac Okoro to the Chicago Bulls for, is not only shooting 25 percent from 3-point range, but his own struggles with health have been challenging for Cleveland to manage while Garland has been nursing a surgically repaired toe.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Injuries have knocked Cleveland off course. Sam Merrill, the Cavs\u2019 top 3-point shooter, returned Monday after 14 games missed with a sprained hand. (Jason Miller \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s troubles are of course by no means solely on the new guys. Garland has put together two solid games in a row, scoring 27 points with 10 assists against the Hornets after putting up 35 points in a loss to Chicago on Friday. But before that, he had been struggling with his shot and movement. He\u2019s still shooting just 32 percent from 3-point range. De\u2019Andre Hunter, the Cavs\u2019 big acquisition at last year\u2019s trade deadline who played the best basketball of his career in those two months in Cleveland, was in the middle of a precipitous drop in performance until he poured in 27 points off the bench Monday. Dean Wade, another veteran reserve forward, has seen a slight uptick in his defensive metrics from last season, but he\u2019s shooting 29 percent from 3-point range.<\/p>\n
Among the Cavs\u2019 established stars, only Donovan Mitchell, the team\u2019s biggest star, is performing above last year\u2019s rate by most metrics. (He scored 30 against the Hornets, right at his average).<\/p>\n
Entering Tuesday, the team ranked 27th in 3-point shooting and 14th in total defense. Cleveland\u2019s 24 3s against Charlotte were a season high and the fifth-most in franchise history, but the Cavs still coughed up 132 points and 17 offensive rebounds.<\/p>\n
Last year, the Cavs were No. 1 in offense, second in 3-point shooting, eighth in defense and had the healthiest team in the NBA while steamrolling to the East\u2019s top seed for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t crack any code tonight,\u201d Mitchell said after Monday\u2019s win. \u201cWe didn\u2019t. This isn\u2019t like a victory lap. This isn\u2019t something where we\u2019re like, \u2018Yeah, you know, we\u2019re back.\u2019 No, we gotta do it again tomorrow and after that on Christmas, like, right then we got a big stretch coming up.\u201d<\/p>\n
Atkinson, 58, took the Cavs\u2019 second-round playoff loss to the Indiana Pacers last spring hard and spent the summer reviewing every possession from that series to see where they went wrong. He can be demanding of his coaching staff and has asked more of players in spots, such as putting the ball in Mobley\u2019s hands to start possessions earlier in the season (which the Cavs largely abandoned before Mobley\u2019s injury) and preaching to all to crash the boards harder instead of getting back on defense.<\/p>\n
But Atkinson has also remained positive with players, especially during this recent stretch when the boos were raining down from the rafters in brutal home losses to the Portland Trail Blazers, to a depleted Golden State Warriors lineup, to the Hornets and to the Bulls. Hunter said he appreciated that Atkinson approached him for a discussion about taking him out of the starting lineup and moving him back to the bench, while Mitchell said he and Atkinson are preaching the same thing to players in the locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis isn\u2019t an easy stretch,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201c(Atkinson has) been through this when they won the championship in Golden State (as an assistant). I\u2019ve been through this several times in Utah. Like, just continue to be a great leader, both of us. I tell myself continue to be positive because, if you tuck your tails and hang your head, like, that\u2019s not going to get you anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked how his interactions with the front office and Cavs ownership have been during Cleveland\u2019s tough stretch (the team is owned by Dan Gilbert, and his son Grant is taking an active role, too), Atkinson said his bosses \u201ccouldn\u2019t be more supportive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom their point, it\u2019s like, how can we help?\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cThose are the conversations we have. It\u2019s a great atmosphere to work in, and we\u2019re all pulling together. It\u2019s not like, \u2018Hey, you guys gotta do this, or coaches gotta do this, or the front office has gotta make trades.\u2019 None of that. \u2018How can we help each other?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that sounds corny, but those are the conversations we had over the last couple of days,\u201d Atkinson said.<\/p>\n
As a second-apron team, the Cavs are severely limited by league rules as to the kinds of trades they can make. It would be difficult to improve the roster this season, or even in one offseason, because of the restrictions on how they can make deals. But re-adding Strus to the lineup later this year would almost be like making a trade, and Mobley rejoining the fray next to Allen will give the Cavs back their two-big lineup that has been copied by several teams in the league. It would also reduce roles for Cleveland\u2019s younger players and allow Merrill and Hunter to play big minutes off the bench.<\/p>\n
If Garland can continue to round into form as his toe heals \u2014 he seemed to re-aggravate the injury in the fourth quarter Monday but stayed in the game \u2014 that would obviously be another huge boost.<\/p>\n
Cleveland\u2019s second season under Atkinson was always going to be defined by how much further the team could go in the playoffs. With such an expensive roster, the Cavs were always going to have to decide if the expense was worth it for this collection of players, or if they should seek flexibility for future runs this coming offseason.<\/p>\n
No one in the organization was surprised the Cavs didn\u2019t repeat their 15-0 start from a season ago, given the injuries to Strus and Garland coming into training camp. But home losses, bad defense, worse shooting and loud boos tend to bring some issues into view on an accelerated timeline.<\/p>\n
The Cavs appear poised to avoid joining that particular race, for now, and are practicing patience.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got to keep holding the fort,\u201d Atkinson said. \u201cWe\u2019ve just got to scrap some wins together here in these next few games. But \u2026 I think we\u2019re trending positive, especially as those guys get healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CLEVELAND \u2014 Reigning NBA coach of the year Kenny Atkinson is \u201cnot on the hot seat\u201d with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":365668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[8174,355,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-365667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-cleveland-cavaliers","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=365667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/365667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/365668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=365667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=365667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=365667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}