It only took Kenny Atkinson one season to make a splash in the Eastern Conference, and he was rewarded handsomely as the Cleveland Cavaliers frontman was named the NBA Coach of the Year, it was announced on Monday.
Atkinson, who guided the Cavs to 64 wins and the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, beat out J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons and Ime Udoka of the Houston Rockets. Interestingly, Atkinson took over Cleveland after the team fired Bickerstaff last May.
The Cavaliers recorded the franchise’s second-most regular-season wins under Atkinson, who joins Bill Fitch (1976) and Mike Brown (2009) as the only Cleveland coaches to win the honor. The 64 victories also tied for the fourth-most by a head coach in his first season with a team.
After Atkinson left an assistant coach position with the Golden State Warriors to take over in Cleveland, the Cavaliers won their first 15 games of the season to equal the second-best start in NBA history. They also strung together a team-record 16 wins spanning February and March.
In addition, Cleveland saw Evan Mobley establish himself as a force down low, becoming the first Cavalier to win Defensive Player of the Year.
