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Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson wins NBA Coach of the Year for his first season with Cavaliers
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- Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson wins NBA Coach of the Year for his first season with Cavaliers
Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson is believable while insisting he would have preferred to defeat the Indiana Pacers in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinals over becoming the recipient a prestigious end-of-season NBA award.
Nevertheless, Atkinson was named NBA Coach of the Year on Monday, May 5, less than 24 hours after the top-seeded Cavs fell 121-112 to the fourth-seeded Pacers to begin their best-of-seven, second-round playoff series. The league announced the Coach of the Year results on TNT.
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"No thoughts. I'd rather beat Indiana. That's my thoughts on that," said Atkinson , who helped the Cavs sweep the eighth-seeded Miami Heat 4-0 in the first round of the playoffs.
Atkinson's competitive fire aided the Cavs during a historic season. He is the third Coach of the Year in Cavs history. The others are Mike Brown (2008-09) and Bill Fitch (1975-76).
Kenny Atkinson shaped by his 7 brothers: Cleveland Cavaliers coach embraces pressure to succeed in playoffs
Former Cavs coach J.B. Bickerstaff finished runner-up in NBA Coach of the Year voting for his first season with the Detroit Pistons
The Cavs hired Atkinson in June to replace J.B. Bickerstaff, whom the Detroit Pistons later hired as their coach.
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Atkinson , Bickerstaff and Houston Rockets coach Ime Udoka were the three finalists for Coach of the Year .
A media panel of 100 voters picked the winner based on performances throughout the 2024-25 regular season. Atkinson received 401 points in the voting system used by the league, followed by Bickerstaff with 305 and Udoka with 113.
In the regular season, the Cavs went 64-18 to earn the East's No. 1 playoff seed and the Central Division title. They had winning streaks of 15 and 16 games, with their longest losing streak spanning just four games. Only two other teams in franchise history have reached 60 regular-season wins — 66-16 in 2008-09 and 61-21 in 2009-10. The Cavs have been the East's top playoff seed four times.
Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson smiles as he watches the action against the Brooklyn Nets on Feb. 20, 2025, in Brooklyn, New York.
With Kenny Atkinson in his first year as Cavs boss, the Cleveland Cavaliers finished the 2024-25 regular season with the NBA's top offense
Among the NBA's 30 teams, the Cavs finished the regular season first in offensive rating (121) and eighth in defensive rating (111.8)
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"He's got his hands all over this team," Cavs small forward Max Strus said in April of Atkinson. "We've gotten better in every aspect of the game, I think. But I'd say offensively, just our strategic game plans and organizationally with our spacing and whatnot, just how to utilize this team best, I think that is where he's really helped us."
Atkinson became the fifth coach in NBA history to win 64-plus games in his first season with a team. The others who accomplished the feat are Bill Sharman (69 wins with the 1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers ), Phil Jackson (67 wins with the 1999-2000 Lakers), Steve Kerr (67 wins with the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors ) and Flip Saunders (64 wins with the 2005-06 Pistons). Sharman, Jackson and Kerr guided their teams to an NBA title in those same seasons.
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Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson reacts during Game 1 against the Indiana Pacers in a second-round NBA playoff series May 4, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio.
Cleveland Cavs credit Kenny Atkinson with empowering Cavaliers players
Atkinson's NBA Coach of the Year award was foreshadowed. On April 19, the National Basketball Coaches Association named him its coach of the year, an honor voted on by the NBA's coaches. He was also named the NBA Eastern Conference Coach of the Month twice this season.
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"It's the level of empowerment that he's given each individual on this team," Cavs All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell said in April of Atkinson's contributions. "We've talked about it for so long, and you've seen it in the play. You've seen it in guys. You've seen it in the camaraderie, the chemistry."
As for Bickerstaff and Udoka, their teams made the playoffs but were eliminated in the first round. Bickerstaff led the Pistons to a record of 44-38 in the regular season a year after they went 14-68. Udoka guided the Rockets to a record of 52-30 during his second season in charge of Houston.
Bickerstaff went 170-159 and 6-11 in the playoffs in four-plus seasons as coach of the Cavs. Last season, the Cavs went 48-34 before beating the Orlando Magic 4-3 in the first round of the playoffs and losing 4-1 to the eventual NBA champion Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Cavs then fired Bickerstaff in May 2024 and hired Atkinson the following month.
Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson looks on during the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Jan. 18, 2025, in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Cavaliers' Kenny Atkinson joins Browns' Kevin Stefanski and Guardians' Stephen Vogt as coaches or managers of the year in Cleveland pro sports
Atkinson, 57, had one previous head coaching job in the NBA. He went 118-190 in three-plus regular seasons (2016-20) in charge of the Brooklyn Nets . Before joining the Cavs, Atkinson spent the previous three seasons as a Warriors assistant under Kerr. Atkinson captured an NBA championship with the Warriors in 2022.
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Atkinson winning Coach of the Year continues a trend in Cleveland professional sports.
Browns coach Kevin Stefanski has won two Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year awards. He received the honor for the 2020 season as a first-year head coach and again for the 2023 season.
Guardians manager Stephen Vogt was named the Baseball Writers' Association of America's 2024 AL Manager of the Year after his first season as an MLB manager.
Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich .
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Kenny Atkinson wins NBA Coach of the Year with Cavs' 64-win season
