Steve Kerr sees shades of early Warriors in Kenny Atkinson’s Cavs
CLEVELAND – If there’s anyone qualified to speak about what the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing to the rest of the league this season, it’s Steve Kerr and Draymond Green.
The Golden State Warriors started winning championships after Kerr inherited a very good roster and made it great. The frenetic pace, the extra pass, the relentless onslaught of three-pointers; the luxury of multiple playmakers who can dribble, pass and shoot; the nightly stranglehold defensively…
If there was a group of pioneers who invented a new way of playing in this era of pace and space, it was Kerr and the Warriors who drove the cars and established the country.
Now it’s the Cavaliers and their new coach who are putting the rest of the NBA on notice, similar to how the Warriors did a decade ago.
Cleveland tied a franchise record Friday with 83 points in the first half and set a team record with a 41-point halftime lead in what became a 136-117 win.
The Cavs aren’t just beating teams this season; they are destroying them. They are the only team to score better than 50 percent overall and lead the league with a 3-point percentage. They are second in made 3s, have the second best points differential and are 10-0 and remain last undefeated with the best start to the season in the league since these Warriors won 24-0 at the start of 2015- 2016. And they’re doing it with two defensive giants: Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen.
At some point it’s not just a good start or good shooting. There comes a time when a streak transitions from a fluke to the fabric of the franchise. That’s where the Cavaliers are today.
“I feel like they’re just beating us at what we’ve been beating teams at for years,” Green said. “Just the movement of the ball, the guys flying around. They are so intentional with the extra pass. That is a key ingredient for us. The drive, kick, swing is what we’ve been preaching for years, and they’ve cut us to pieces with it.
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It’s high praise from someone who has won four championships this way, from someone who recognizes how Kenny Atkinson uses Mobley exactly the way Green has played in the Warriors system for years.
That experience with Green and the Warriors is part of what made Atkinson so attractive to the Cleveland job.
Mobley now plays from the pocket, similar to how Green does with the Warriors. He is a center in attack, with one big difference.
“It’s 7 feet tall,” Green said.
Mobley’s length on the wing adds a dimension to the Cavs that even Green and the Warriors didn’t enjoy during their dynasty. Mobley’s evolution into a wing solves the problem of playing him next to Jarrett Allen as two non-shooting bigs clogging the floor.
Atkinson’s arrival has helped transform Mobley, which in turn has developed the Cavs from a plucky playoff contender to a threatening championship force.
“They’re obviously one of the best teams in the league,” Kerr said.
The entire selection is back from last year. The only real change involved Atkinson and the coaching staff.
It’s easy to draw a comparison between what Kerr did for the Warriors when he arrived in 2014 and how Atkinson has transformed the Cavaliers this season after spending three years as an assistant on Kerr’s staff.
“This was a great job to get, just like mine was 10 years ago,” Kerr said. “Now you’re just tweaking things and seeing where you can get better at the margins, rather than trying to grow something organically. It’s a perfect place, and Kenny has taken advantage of it.”
Kerr’s greatness extends beyond his players. He made Mike Brown a better coach for the Sacramento Kings because of his time immersed in the Warriors culture. Now it appears to have had a similar effect on Atkinson in Cleveland during his second stint as head coach.
Part of Kerr’s greatness is his ability to communicate with everyone on the roster, his dexterity in dealing with stars and the ease with which he includes everyone on his coaching staff and makes the culture so inclusive.
“Steve has an incredible ability to understand the temperature of the team,” Atkinson said.
It’s no secret that Atkinson had trouble dealing with moody stars in Brooklyn, which is part of the reason he was fired despite overperforming with a Nets roster that wasn’t very good in its first few years .
In Cleveland, he arrived with the blessing of Donovan Mitchell and a pre-existing relationship with guys like Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert from their days together with the Nets. The confidence was immediate, the results clear.
He has installed more movement in attack to create better looks. The Cavs began setting screens near midfield on Friday to loosen the Warriors’ excellent defense and create easy lobs near the basket. The Cavs have shifted from a team that relies heavily on pick-and-rolls to one that can damage opponents from all angles. They scored 136 points in one night. Mitchell, their best player, shot 4 of 13 points and scored only 12 points. The offense is so versatile they didn’t even need it.
“Last year it was a lot easier to guard,” Green said. “This year it is a lot more difficult to monitor.”
Where this all goes remains to be seen. Both the Cavs and Warriors look very different from the teams that have hosted four straight finals series.
Green and Steph Curry are still the mainstays of the Warriors, but the Cavs have been completely torn down and rebuilt since their last Finals appearance in 2018. They are young, athletic, excellent defensively and can now score with any team in the league. competition.
Of all the impressive milestones achieved with this start, the Cavaliers have already surpassed 130 points five times this season. It matches the franchise record.
They did it in 10 games.
(Top photo of Kenny Atkinson and Steph Curry: Jason Miller/Getty Images)
