Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs were on the road Tuesday night to face the Magic. They won the game 122-82 and improved their record to 48-10. Cleveland has 24 games left in the regular season.
The team is in prime position to be the #1 seed in the East come playoffs. Credit is due to first-year Cavs head coach Kenny Atkinson. He’s prepared his players each night and Cleveland is thriving as a team. According to odds via BetOnline, Kenny Atkinson (-600) is the heavy-betting favorite to win Coach of the Year in 2024-25.
Kenny Atkinson will win Coach of the Year this season
In 2008-09, Kenny Atkinson got his start in the NBA as an assistant coach with the New York Knicks. Atkinson held that posistion for four seasons. Ahead of 2013-14, he was hired as an assistant coach for the Atlanta Hawks. Atkinson got his big break ahead of the 2016-17 season. He was hired as head coach of the Brooklyn Nets. His time in Brooklyn lasted four seasons.
Atkinson was 118-190 in 308 games coached for the Nets. Brooklyn parted wats with Atkinson after 62 games in the 2019-20 season. In 2020-21, he was an assistant coach with the Clippers. From 2021-2024, Atkinson was an assistant coach for the Warriors. After the 2023-24 season, the Cavs fired former head coach J.B. Bickerstaff.
As his replacement, the team hired Kenny Atkinson. In his first year with the Cavs, the team is 48-10. Currently the best record in the NBA. Kenny Atkinson has Cleveland playing at a high level all season. It will be interesting to see how far the Cavs can go in the postseason. What will happen when they face a more experienced team like Boston in the playoffs? Atkinson hopes his group will have the answer to take down the Celtics.