Cleveland Cavaliers Head Coach Kenny Atkinson reacts during the first half against the Chicago Bulls. Ken Blaze-Imagn Images

Cleveland Cavaliers' Kenny Atkinson gets disrespectful spot in head coach ranking

Originally posted on Cleveland Cavaliers on SI
By Jeremy Brener | Last updated Oct 24, 2025 11:31 AM ET

The Cleveland Cavaliers are in their second season with Kenny Atkinson as the head coach.

Atkinson won 64 games in his first season with the Cavs, but he is still not viewed as one of the best coaches in the league by Bleacher Report writer Lee Escobedo. In a ranking of all 30 head coaches, Atkinson came in at No. 14.

"In Cleveland, Atkinson has pushed to elevate Evan Mobley as the offensive fulcrum. Mobley's three-point attempts have soared—he attempted 166 more threes in the last season compared to the prior year—with his accuracy remaining solid (37%), and his free-throw attempts increasing as well (4.3)," Escobedo wrote.

"The Cavs' offensive rating under Atkinson jumped from 16th to first, with efficiency gains anchored by Mobley's expanded role and use of more off-ball screens. Still, the missing piece in his résumé remains one big playoff run.

"Despite Atkinson mastering zone defense and cross-matching in transition, the Cavaliers fell short again in the second round, losing 4–1 to Indiana. With the East wide open, a deep run can't elude him any longer."

David Richard-Imagn Images

Atkinson receives disrespectful spot in coach ranking

The coaches ranked ahead of Atkinson are Doc Rivers, Jason Kidd, Nick Nurse, Chris Finch, J.B. Bickerstaff, Mike Brown, Ime Udoka, Mark Daigneault, Joe Mazzulla, Tyronn Lue, Rick Carlisle, Erik Spoelstra and Steve Kerr.

While others on the list make sense like Spoelstra, Kerr and Mazzulla, all of whom have won NBA championships as head coaches, some are a bit of a head-scratcher. The main ones that are a bit confusing are Bickerstaff and Brown, two former Cavs head coaches that had relatively the same level of success as Atkinson.

Brown gets credit as the first head coach to lead the Cavs to the NBA Finals in 2007, but LeBron James definitely made his job a lot easier, especially that season. Bickerstaff, who was fired in 2024 after failing to get the Cavs past the first round, is a bit of a surprise that's ahead of Atkinson.

Bickerstaff was replaced by Atkinson last year, but the latter helped the Cavs get over the hump to become the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference. This season, Atkinson will just have to prove his doubters wrong as he hopes to get the Cavs one step forward towards winning their first championship since 2016.

The Cavs return to the court on Friday against the Brooklyn Nets.

This article first appeared on Cleveland Cavaliers on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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