Kenny Atkinson will reportedly remain the Cavaliers’ head coach

The Cleveland Cavaliers are expected to retain head coach Kenny Atkinson despite suffering a 4-0 sweep to the New York Knicks in the Eastern Conference finals, per The Athletic’s Joe Vardon, as well as ESPN NBA Insider Shams Charania.

There were rumors circulating on Tuesday that Cleveland could be looking to fire Atkinson and replace him with former Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd.

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Instead, the head coach will be back with the franchise for a third season. Not only is Atkinson expected to be retained, but there are no major moves expected in the front office or coaching staff.

In his second season, Atkinson led the Cavaliers to the second round of the playoffs last year, which helped to earn him Coach of the Year honors. This year, Cleveland improved, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals.

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Despite being swept, Charania reported that Atkinson has the full support of both Donovan Mitchell and James Harden. Rather than focusing on a coaching search, Cleveland is now expected to focus more on roster improvement.

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Atkinson went infamously viral twice during the Eastern Conference finals. When the team was down 3-0, he was asked in a media scrum how he remains positive facing the deficit.

The head coach responded that they are playing better analytically than the Knicks, so there were positives to draw from that.

The question wasn’t included in the viral video; instead, it looked like Atkinson was ranting that analytics showed the Cavaliers had won two of three at that point, even though, in reality, the Knicks were up 3-0.

Then, after they were swept, the head coach went viral again. This time, for saying that part of why they lost was because they didn’t get through their earlier playoff series fast enough, implying that they played so poorly because they “had the deck stacked against them” and they were tired.

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The Knicks advanced to the NBA Finals and await the winner of the Western Conference finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs.

Cleveland…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/nba/breaking-news/article/kenny-atkinson-will-reportedly-remain-the-cavaliers-head-coach-192638022.html

Author : Teddy Ricketson

Publish date : 2026-05-26 19:26:00

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