Cavaliers' new HC's familiarity with two players should help transition

The 57-year-old was an assistant with the New York Knicks from 2008-2012 and the Atlanta Hawks from 2013-16 before beginning a run as the Brooklyn Nets' head coach that lasted three-plus seasons. 

Atkinson had a 118-190 record in the regular season and 1-4 mark in the postseason with the Nets — finishing fifth in the Coach of the Year voting in 2019 — before stepping down in March 2020.

He spent one season as an assistant on Tyronn Lue's bench with the Los Angeles Clippers before assisting Steve Kerr and the Golden State Warriors for the last three campaigns. Atkinson won his first NBA championship ring with the Warriors in 2022.

The Huntington, New York native will be reuniting with two former Nets players when he officially joins the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Shooting guard Caris LeVert spent the first four-plus seasons of his career with Brooklyn, including Atkinson's entire tenure with the club. He averaged 18.7 points and 4.2 rebounds (both the second highest of his career) during the pandemic-altered 2019-20 campaign and led the team in scoring (20.3 points) and assists (9.5) during their four-game sweep at the hands of the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs.

After spending parts of two seasons with the Indiana Pacers from 2020-22, LeVert was traded to the Cavaliers in February 2022 in a deal that included Ricky Rubio and has been with the team since.

Center Jarrett Allen played three seasons under Atkinson after being selected by the Nets with the 22nd overall pick in 2017.

The big man became a full-time starter in his second season and finished ninth in the Defensive Player of the Year voting, recording a career-high 1.5 blocks per contest over 80 games. Allen averaged a near double-double during his third and final campaign under Atkinson in 2019-2020, posting 11.1 points and 9.6 rebounds per game.

The Texas product has averaged double-doubles across three of the last four seasons and was traded to Cleveland in January 2021 as a part of a four-team blockbuster that also sent LeVert to Indiana and landed former MVP James Harden in Brooklyn.

Allen made his first All-Star team during the 2021-22 season and finished second in the NBA in field goal percentage (.677) that year as well. The big man has finished inside the top 10 in field goal percentage in each of his first six seasons and in the top five in three straight years.

Allen's .630 field goal percentage is third-best all-time.

Atkinson is joining his sixth different organization in the last 12 years but is entering a very promising situation in Cleveland.

The Cavaliers advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals this spring before falling to the eventual-champion Boston Celtics and have won 99 regular-season games over the past two seasons.

If the team is able to lock up All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell on a contract extension, that gives Atkinson a solid core to work with for the upcoming season and beyond.