The Nets and Kenny Atkinson part ways

[MrDollarBills]

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Toxic people tend to infect everything else around them.

[Prokorov]

Durant and Irving never connected with Atkinson and there was a growing belief that they did not have interest in playing for him when this team is whole again next season, sources told The Athletic.

It was not limited to just Durant and Irving, though. Several other players are also said to have begun disconnecting with Atkinson.

To be clear, a directive from Irving or Durant was not given to fire Atkinson. Marks and his front office are leaders of the franchise. The proper research must be done, and gathering a pulse of the franchise is always ongoing. The belief had been that the stakeholders involved in the franchise would evaluate everything at season’s end. However, enough information had been gathered prior to that, and even Atkinson, sources said, started to understand he had lost his most critical players. As a result, the Nets’ front office had to take all of the information it had at its disposal to make a difficult decision.

My money on the other critical player being Dinwiddie.

I mean, either way, it doesn't matter. The narrative has been set, Irving and Durant ran Kenny out of town. Expect to deal with this for the foreseeable future.

The Nets look really bad. We can sit here, debate what Kenny did wrong til we're blue in the face but right now this whole scenario looks terrible and the media are going to massacre Irving and Durant as this aspect of the story continues to grow. Despite what we say among ourselves as Nets fans, public consensus is painting this in a really bad light and there's no way around it.

Kenny had this team running through walls for the first three years. Year four we add 8 new guys and all of a sudden Kenny loses the team? Sounds about right.

and yet, despite all of that the Nets are still in the playoff hunt and could still feasibly hit 41 wins (although not likely). I give Kenny all the credit in the world.

I hate to say it, because I feel like the guy gets unfairly dumped on, but we can't ignore the elephant in the room, and that's Irving. The drama is non stop. He allegedly didn't connect with a coach that managed to bring the best out of several players, and said coach ends up wanting to head for the hills than to stay on a moment longer.

We can get upset about people dragging Irving through the mud, but now a beloved coach who has a track record for development and getting guys to play hard doesn't even last the season, a season which Irving wasn't even available for most of. We can't sit here and get upset when fans and the media go on the offensive now, because this isn't an isolated incident of Irving being in a place and things start going downhill. You can tell me "yeah but Irving didn't ask for him to be fired", and that's true from what we know of. But he clearly didn't have an interest in having this guy stay around. This once vibrant and energetic team and culture now has an air of negativity around it, guys not playing hard every night, people more concerned about their starting role than winning games, and new comers not buying in. Everything that we used to proudly talk about regarding the high culture of the Nets is dead. It's going to be up to the franchise players to set the tone now going forward. So we can either see a high level team aspiring for a championship...or a team that is constantly surrounded by drama and negativity. Seems to me we're trending towards the latter.

I'm going to be pretty harsh on Irving and Durant going forward. We just lost a damn good coach in return for their happiness. I want results starting next season. Wins, I'm talking top 3 in the East and a deep playoff run. They need to make it worth it because right now I've soured on this situation and to everyone outside of here they are waiting for this situation to implode, and I frankly can't blame them for doing so because it took 5 months for this thing to hit critical mass.

from all the ecidence we have it looks more like dinwiddie and jordan ran kenny out of town and KD/Kyrie didnt stop them

[DarkXaero]

So Kyrie is toxic cancer even though he didn't get Kenny fired?

I don't think any particular player got Kenny fired. There are instances mentioned in that article, but nowhere does it say that DJ or Dinwiddie got Kenny fired, or that players went behind Kenny's back. You guys are free to jump to your conclusions, but I'm seeing a lot of stupid **** here over the last couple days.

[ProspectPark]

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Toxic people tend to infect everything else around them.

MDB come on man, Kenny needed to go.

-how long did it take him to figure out David Nwaba was good? Nwaba was our best defensive player, brought so much defensive energy and hustle, and still Kenny would give him 10 straight DNPs. Even casuals could see how much better we played with Nwaba yet Kenny was too stubborn to give him consistent minutes.

-our PnR defense was the worst in the league yet he was too rigid to adjust his defensive schemes.

-how often did players like Cam Reddish or Bruce Brown light us up because Kenny refused to switch defensively and always wanted our bigs to drop back into the paint resulting in wide open pull-up J after wide open pull-up J. Dame scored 60 on us too.

-why were Prince and Chandler getting minutes over Rodi? Even if Rodi was struggling, it wasn’t like Prince and Chandler were lighting the league on fire.

-4th quarter execution

-benching LeVert in crunch time earlier in the season

-every coach in the league knows you have to keep your bigs engaged on offense, and they will bring more energy on defense. We would go on long stretches where Allen wouldn’t even touch the ball. If you see Allen struggling, you run 2-3 consecutive plays for him. Kenny never did that.

I think it’s pretty simple. The team recognized if we ever made a deep playoff run, they couldn’t trust him to make the right adjustments in a 7 game series. He was too rigid to ever try anything new. Instead of wasting everyone’s time, Tsai and Marks were honest with him and let him know that this was his last season. He decided it was better to leave now.

I think this was the right move.

[ProspectPark]

Our Pick and Roll defense under Kenny Atkinson was 2nd worst in the league. Worse than the Cavs and Hawks.

https://on.nba.com/2xhaRQn

[Shark]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dinwiddie was one of the players that ran Kenny out of town. He put in a piss poor effort during the Grizzlies and it was painfully obvious that he didn't give a **** during that game. Sad thing is that Kenny believed in him and helped his game reach new levels and the way Dinwiddie decides to repay him is to be a **** **** about it.

Also not happy with our "big 3". DJ wasn't happy because he didn't have a defined role? WTF? You mean being the big that comes off the bench isn't "defined" enough for him? Guess Kenny trusting him to close out some games must have gone to his **** head because I'm pretty sure his role was to be the back up big and to mentor Allen.

And whether or not Kyrie or KD had an active role in Kenny's exit doesn't matter. If they took a back seat and let this happen its not a good look because they decided to come here because they supposedly liked what Marks and Kenny had built here. They're supposed to be leaders on this team and for them to just let things go south like this is just sad. And its even worse if the opposite is true. Kyrie lives up to his rep around the league as a problem child and KD lives up to his rep as being a snake.

I gotta agree with MDB. If these guys are coming in here to blow everything that's been built here over the last three seasons then they better win fast. Because apparently they think they know better.

[ProspectPark]

Our Pick and Roll defense under Kenny Atkinson was 2nd worst in the league. Worse than the Cavs and Hawks.

https://on.nba.com/2xhaRQn

Last season we were dead last.

https://on.nba.com/3cIEg6l

Can we please stop pretending like Kenny Atkinson was a young Larry Brown or something?

[clo12345]

Our Pick and Roll defense under Kenny Atkinson was 2nd worst in the league. Worse than the Cavs and Hawks.

https://on.nba.com/2xhaRQn

Last season we were dead last.

https://on.nba.com/3cIEg6l

Can we please stop pretending like Kenny Atkinson was a young Larry Brown or something?

Weird how you're picking apart one defense metric. We have the 8th best defensive rating in the league

[Prokorov]

So Kyrie is toxic cancer even though he didn't get Kenny fired?

I don't think any particular player got Kenny fired. There are instances mentioned in that article, but nowhere does it say that DJ or Dinwiddie got Kenny fired, or that players went behind Kenny's back. You guys are free to jump to your conclusions, but I'm seeing a lot of stupid **** here over the last couple days.

Kyrie wasnt even present for the meeting/blowup in boston

[Prokorov]

Our Pick and Roll defense under Kenny Atkinson was 2nd worst in the league. Worse than the Cavs and Hawks.

https://on.nba.com/2xhaRQn

are you kevin durant?

[ProspectPark]

Our Pick and Roll defense under Kenny Atkinson was 2nd worst in the league. Worse than the Cavs and Hawks.

https://on.nba.com/2xhaRQn

Last season we were dead last.

https://on.nba.com/3cIEg6l

Can we please stop pretending like Kenny Atkinson was a young Larry Brown or something?

Weird how you're picking apart one defense metric. We have the 8th best defensive rating in the league

I understand that, but in the most important metric, we’re dead last. When teams need a bucket, what play do you think they run?

[MGrand15]

I wouldn't be surprised if Dinwiddie was one of the players that ran Kenny out of town. He put in a piss poor effort during the Grizzlies and it was painfully obvious that he didn't give a **** during that game. Sad thing is that Kenny believed in him and helped his game reach new levels and the way Dinwiddie decides to repay him is to be a **** **** about it.

Also not happy with our "big 3". DJ wasn't happy because he didn't have a defined role? WTF? You mean being the big that comes off the bench isn't "defined" enough for him? Guess Kenny trusting him to close out some games must have gone to his **** head because I'm pretty sure his role was to be the back up big and to mentor Allen.

And whether or not Kyrie or KD had an active role in Kenny's exit doesn't matter. If they took a back seat and let this happen its not a good look because they decided to come here because they supposedly like what Marks and Kenny had built here. They're supposed to be leaders on this team and for them to just things go south like this is just sad. And its even worse if the opposite is true. Kyrie lives up to his rep around the league as a problem child and KD lives up to his rep as being a snake.

I gotta agree with MDB. If these guys are coming in here to blow everything that's been built here over the last three seasons then they better win fast. Because apparently they think they know better.

Yeah, it's clear the players are floating this "defined role" and "communication" nonsense to try and excuse their garbage play. Dinwiddie, Prince, and DJ are the guys being named. Their day to day role isn't rocket science. They just played like garbage or gave 50% effort.

Apparently Kyrie was mad about the equal opportunity offense? When he's scoring and shooting a career high?

None of the player complaints make sense to me. That tells me guys are just frustrated that they were playing badly or acting like divas.

[LOUiS-D]

Yeah, it's clear the players are floating this "defined role" and "communication" nonsense to try and excuse their garbage play. Dinwiddie, Prince, and DJ are the guys being named. Their day to day role isn't rocket science. They just played like garbage or gave 50% effort.

Apparently Kyrie was mad about the equal opportunity offense? When he's scoring and shooting a career high?

None of the player complaints make sense to me. That tells me guys are just frustrated that they were playing badly or acting like divas.

Reminds me of Pop saying that the key to San Antonio's culture was bringing in guys who had gotten over themselves. That he couldn't have coached the way he did if Tim Duncan didn't let him. It was an example set to everyone top to bottom that if Tim Duncan, a top 20 player of all time, could be held accountable of course they could be too.

A hallmark of maturity is the ability to take ownership of your shortcomings.

With Miami and the big 3 there were calls for Riley to come down from on high and save them. Who knows, they might have won a few more rings. Full credit to Pat, Bron, Wade and Bosh, they stuck with Spo and now he's a top 3 coach in the league. Maybe the main voice that mattered was Pat's. Maybe given the same amount of experience, Sean might have stuck with Kenny here.

We all know Kenny wasn't perfect. I don't think anyone could say that he didn't deserve, that he hadn't earned a shot at coaching the full unit.

[therealbig3]

I mean, we have factually played better without kyrie this year. That’s not really debatable.

Is it his fault? Not necessarily, he’s played well and led a good offense when he’s been out there, but our defense also went to **** when he was out there, maybe as a result of his style of play.

Honestly, it’s too much of the same with Kyrie right now compared to when we had Deron. Star PG who’s damaged goods when he gets here and is just a huge headache to deal with.

As for Kemba vs Kyrie, the best ability is availability. Kemba is generally a pretty durable player, while Kyrie is made of glass. I’ll take someone who’s 90% as good as Kyrie but consistently plays a lot more games.

[GTR11]

Yeah, it's clear the players are floating this "defined role" and "communication" nonsense to try and excuse their garbage play. Dinwiddie, Prince, and DJ are the guys being named. Their day to day role isn't rocket science. They just played like garbage or gave 50% effort.

Apparently Kyrie was mad about the equal opportunity offense? When he's scoring and shooting a career high?

None of the player complaints make sense to me. That tells me guys are just frustrated that they were playing badly or acting like divas.

Reminds me of Pop saying that the key to San Antonio's culture was bringing in guys who had gotten over themselves. That he couldn't have coached the way he did if Tim Duncan didn't let him. It was an example set to everyone top to bottom that if Tim Duncan, a top 20 player of all time, could be held accountable of course they could be too.

A hallmark of maturity is the ability to take ownership of your shortcomings.

With Miami and the big 3 there were calls for Riley to come down from on high and save them. Who knows, they might have won a few more rings. Full credit to Pat, Bron, Wade and Bosh, they stuck with Spo and now he's a top 3 coach in the league. Maybe the main voice that mattered was Pat's. Maybe given the same amount of experience, Sean might have stuck with Kenny here.

We all know Kenny wasn't perfect. I don't think anyone could say that he didn't deserve, that he hadn't earned a shot at coaching the full unit.

Spo is100% Riley's protege unlike Kenny. There was no way Riley was giving up any power to star players, he never allowed it before.
Kenny is not Marks protege and has his way of thinking. They bumped heads and Tsai picked Marks. If Tsai wouldn't go and ask players opinions, we don't have this Kyrie and KD toxic stuff.
Until after we hear from both Kenny and Tsai this entire thing is gossip and rumors. If some want to stay pissed and blame whoever for whatever it's their right to do so. Me personally, I want to see what Marks has before anything. I love Kenny and will remain his fan even if he join Knicks, but today I don't think he's a Chip caliber coach.

[GTR11]

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I know I know it's crazy. I'm on that hype train though right now. Can you imagine Pop's in BK.

[therealbig3]

I liked Kenny a lot, I think he's one of the better coaches in the league.

I'll be honest, my patience with Kyrie is at an all-time low. This has been a bust of a season on his part (yeah, he's been hurt, but he wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire when he played...a consistent theme of a team playing better without you across multiple seasons in a large sample size is very daming, IDC what anyone says), and I mean, nobody is firing a head coach without the star player being aware of what's going on. At minimum, he didn't exactly go to bat for Kenny and fight for him to stay.

He better put up or shut up next season. For all the trash talk we've gone back and forth with regarding Kemba vs Kyrie...anyone that still takes Kyrie is insane at this point.

I've noticed you over the years having these type of takes and there tends to be a lot of PG blame/overreaction.

In the 20 games Kyrie played this season, he averaged 27.4 PPG, 6.4 APG, 5.2 RPG, 1.4 SPG, with only 2.6 TOV, on efficiency of 59.5% TS%, and 26.3 PER. That puts him among the elite tier of PGs in the league this season. Stats indicate that we're a top 5 offense with him, and a below average offense without him. Metrics also indicate that he has elite offensive impact in the league. This is despite a super frustrating season, where he was injured a lot, and team chemistry issues were apparent, we didn't get to gel as a team with Kyrie. So let's not go there with the "he wasn't exactly lighting the world on fire when he played", because on an individual basis, the impact was there. Teams haven't been consistently better without him, let's not play into idiotic narratives generated by Celtics fans, and the media.

Secondly, Kyrie IS a better player than Kemba, this is fact. This doesn't mean that Kemba isn't a better fit for the Celtics. Celtics are for now better off with Kemba instead of Kyrie, because Kemba is more willing to take a backseat to Tatum & Brown, who have IMPROVED a lot from last season. But you can compare statistics, raw or advanced, and you can compare team success, Kyrie is FACTUALLY better than Kemba. Third, you're placing blame on Kyrie for Kenny getting fired, when all we really have is a **** reporter saying so. If Kyrie got Kenny fired, why would it be now when he's not even playing for the rest of the season?

Meh, I just try to hold the stars accountable. Kyrie put up nice stats, and he made a strong offensive impact...but we essentially gave everything back on defense when he was on the court as well. Can we say for sure that we can maintain a strong offense with Kyrie without sacrificing the defense? IDK if I can.

Celtics were better without him last year. We've been better without him this year. It's kind of a huge sample size at this point, hand waving it away doesn't really make much sense at this point.

Like I said in a later post, Kemba is like 90% of Kyrie but is actually available. That's what I mean, it's crazy to take Kyrie at this point since he's a guarantee to miss a ton of games, while Kemba has pretty much been an iron man outside of this year and 2015. And he's NEVER involved in off the court drama the way Kyrie is.

I'm also saying that if Kyrie didn't actively ask for Kenny to be fired, he damn sure didn't jump to his defense, and there's no way Kyrie didn't know that it was going down. Kenny wasn't perfect, but he was a really good coach who blatantly overachieved with the talent he's had the last 2 years. Not really sure that having Kyrie is worth losing Kenny.

[MrDollarBills]

So Kyrie is toxic cancer even though he didn't get Kenny fired?

I don't think any particular player got Kenny fired. There are instances mentioned in that article, but nowhere does it say that DJ or Dinwiddie got Kenny fired, or that players went behind Kenny's back. You guys are free to jump to your conclusions, but I'm seeing a lot of stupid **** here over the last couple days.

There's a clear pattern happening here. Ignore it if you want, I'm not going to try to convince you.

[MrDollarBills]

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I know I know it's crazy. I'm on that hype train though right now. Can you imagine Pop's in BK.

Why would Pop come to a team that just ran Kenny Atkinson out of town?

All yall Kenny haters better get ready for Tyrone Lue.

[GTR11]

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I know I know it's crazy. I'm on that hype train though right now. Can you imagine Pop's in BK.

Why would Pop come to a team that just ran Kenny Atkinson out of town?

All yall Kenny haters better get ready for Tyrone Lue.

Pop's know Sean like no other coach out there. Him stepping out and letting someone else take over been a thing for few years now. My guess is that he can come around and help Sean to win while groom future coach. I mean look at this, Spurs come to town and Kenny get fired next day. Of course I'm speculating here but I think there's some legs to it.