Bulls considering Kenny Atkinson for HC

[PrimzyBulls81]

https://pippenainteasy.com/2020/06/11/kenny-atkinson-is-on-chicago-bulls-radar-as-hc-candidate/

[RaptorHusky]

https://pippenainteasy.com/2020/06/11/kenny-atkinson-is-on-chicago-bulls-radar-as-hc-candidate/

Surprise, surprise. Why people think upfront that AK is dumb and will catch a HC without evaluating all available possibilities?

[sco]

I know folks aren't high on KA, but I like that they are giving him a good look. HC and playoff experience has value. There is a learning curve as a first time HC, and I would much rather have that done on some other team's clock.

[MrFortune3]

Not sure why this would be shocking, he's shown he can develop players which is a big part of the plan in Chicago.

[KissedByaRose1]

Would be a great hire. If he’s the Knicks first choice I fear they will pay much higher than we’re willing to go and it’s hard seeing him pass up a big offer from them who will be desperate to improve fast. I think we’ll go the first time head coach route which I don’t hate I guess.

[Michael Jackson]

Would be a great hire. If he’s the Knicks first choice I fear they will pay much higher than we’re willing to go and it’s hard seeing him pass up a big offer from them who will be desperate to improve fast. I think we’ll go the first time head coach route which I don’t hate I guess.

They will pay. The fan base (cash flow) was drying up so they are giving the franchise a facelift. They are making it very public, they will pay just so they can say, look we listened (at least for a season or 2). Maybe it sticks, but right now they are selling themselves as changed, so they will pay if within reason. You can get overpaid by Dolan but you know he is going to fire you in a year or two and it will be a miserable experience.

[PrimzyBulls81]

https://pippenainteasy.com/2020/06/11/kenny-atkinson-is-on-chicago-bulls-radar-as-hc-candidate/

Surprise, surprise. Why people think upfront that AK is dumb and will catch a HC without evaluating all available possibilities?

Where did you catch that, that people think AK is dumb??? AK is pretty damn smart guy, its pretty known among NBA.

[Red8911]

Now this would be a good hire and a safe bet. Atkinson has done a wonderful job with the nets the last couple of years. He overachieved with that team with below average rosters and took them to the playoffs. That’s what the bulls goal should be next season,make the playoffs and for that reason Atkinson is the right guy for the job. He’s proved to work great with young players making them play hard and most importantly he provides leadership.

Now idk why exactly the Nets fired him, it came out of no where late in the season. Apparently Irving and Durant didn’t like him, but that’s their problem and they made a mistake getting rid of their coach like that, he deserved better. Bulls should pick him up if they can, him or Joerger would be best picks.

[MrFortune3]

https://pippenainteasy.com/2020/06/11/kenny-atkinson-is-on-chicago-bulls-radar-as-hc-candidate/

Surprise, surprise. Why people think upfront that AK is dumb and will catch a HC without evaluating all available possibilities?

Where did you catch that, that people think AK is dumb??? AK is pretty damn smart guy, its pretty known among NBA.

I think he was inferring that people assume he is dumb as in he would only consider a couple of candidates without casting a wider net in his search.
The presumptive candidates are Udoka and Griffin and we have not heard of many others.

[dougthonus]

Atkinson may be amazing, I don't know much about him.

His work with the Nets on a results basis is complete trash to me.
Year 1: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 2: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 3: Big improvement, gets to 42 wins, in an extremely weak east.
Year 4: Kicked out because star players don't respect him.

Now his roster quality sucked in year 1 and 2, so I don't ding him for that as "wow he's awful", but there shouldn't be any credit given to him either. Year 3 he had a good year, and people say he developed the talent, but talent development is mostly done by the assistants not the head coach. Year 4, he was removed because star players didn't respect him.

That's not a compelling set of outcomes. Effectively, one year in four could be considered a success, and we seem like we'd like to attract star players, so getting a coach that was removed due to stars not liking him seems like not in our best interest.

That said, I refer back to the first statement, I don't really know much about him (or any coaching candidate) and so many of those things may have been circumstances that were not reasonable or fair to gauge, but on the surface, Atkinson seems heavily overrated to me.

[Andi Obst]

Atkinson may be amazing, I don't know much about him.

His work with the Nets on a results basis is complete trash to me.
Year 1: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 2: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 3: Big improvement, gets to 42 wins, in an extremely weak east.
Year 4: Kicked out because star players don't respect him.

Now his roster quality sucked in year 1 and 2, so I don't ding him for that as "wow he's awful", but there shouldn't be any credit given to him either. Year 3 he had a good year, and people say he developed the talent, but talent development is mostly done by the assistants not the head coach. Year 4, he was removed because star players didn't respect him.

That's not a compelling set of outcomes. Effectively, one year in four could be considered a success, and we seem like we'd like to attract star players, so getting a coach that was removed due to stars not liking him seems like not in our best interest.

That said, I refer back to the first statement, I don't really know much about him (or any coaching candidate) and so many of those things may have been circumstances that were not reasonable or fair to gauge, but on the surface, Atkinson seems heavily overrated to me.

I think that whenever you say that the star pkayers didn't respect him in Brooklyn, you should have to add that we're talking about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Definitely two special (Is that a nice way to say it?) young men.

That said, I agree with your general point. Last years Nets were fun and they had great chemistry, no doubt, but they were nothing more than a mediocre team in a horrible conference. Atkinson might be very good, I don't know, but I don't see why he would be the best option based on his years with the Nets.

[nitetrain8603]

Atkinson may be amazing, I don't know much about him.

His work with the Nets on a results basis is complete trash to me.
Year 1: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 2: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 3: Big improvement, gets to 42 wins, in an extremely weak east.
Year 4: Kicked out because star players don't respect him.

Now his roster quality sucked in year 1 and 2, so I don't ding him for that as "wow he's awful", but there shouldn't be any credit given to him either. Year 3 he had a good year, and people say he developed the talent, but talent development is mostly done by the assistants not the head coach. Year 4, he was removed because star players didn't respect him.

That's not a compelling set of outcomes. Effectively, one year in four could be considered a success, and we seem like we'd like to attract star players, so getting a coach that was removed due to stars not liking him seems like not in our best interest.

That said, I refer back to the first statement, I don't really know much about him (or any coaching candidate) and so many of those things may have been circumstances that were not reasonable or fair to gauge, but on the surface, Atkinson seems heavily overrated to me.

I think he's overrated, but I also think he's a good coach. Both can be true.

[dougthonus]

I think that whenever you say that the star pkayers didn't respect him in Brooklyn, you should have to add that we're talking about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Definitely two special (Is that a nice way to say it?) young men.

I agree there is something to that, though I don't remember Kyrie or Durant really having lots of blow ups (or any really) with coaches. Kawhi and LeBron have had more famous disagreements with coaches as far as I can remember. This seems to be a star problem to some extent, but they both turned on him immediately. I mean Durant didn't even play at all and Kyrie barely played for him, so I still find that to be a pretty huge negative that they took one look and said this guy isn't a championship caliber coach.

[Andi Obst]

I think that whenever you say that the star pkayers didn't respect him in Brooklyn, you should have to add that we're talking about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Definitely two special (Is that a nice way to say it?) young men.

I agree there is something to that, though I don't remember Kyrie or Durant really having lots of blow ups (or any really) with coaches. Kawhi and LeBron have had more famous disagreements with coaches as far as I can remember. This seems to be a star problem to some extent, but they both turned on him immediately. I mean Durant didn't even play at all and Kyrie barely played for him, so I still find that to be a pretty huge negative that they took one look and said this guy isn't a championship caliber coach.

Absolutely, it doesn't look good for Atkinson. And maybe they have a point, who knows. Just wanted to mention that Kyrie and KD both had a lot of issues with teammates and the media when things didn't go the way they wanted. That should be considered, too, I think. It's also possible they both just disliked Atkinson as a person and asked the Nets to fire him, which they did. That wouldn't tell us anything about his ability to coach, though.

[Dez]

I think that whenever you say that the star pkayers didn't respect him in Brooklyn, you should have to add that we're talking about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Definitely two special (Is that a nice way to say it?) young men.

I agree there is something to that, though I don't remember Kyrie or Durant really having lots of blow ups (or any really) with coaches. Kawhi and LeBron have had more famous disagreements with coaches as far as I can remember. This seems to be a star problem to some extent, but they both turned on him immediately. I mean Durant didn't even play at all and Kyrie barely played for him, so I still find that to be a pretty huge negative that they took one look and said this guy isn't a championship caliber coach.

Would you put an asterix on that though? I mean I can't take a man who didn't even play (nor was he going to) for the coach he wanted fired or another guy who has a history of being a complete moron and being difficult to work with seriously.

I agree with you about Atkinson and his results though.

[HomoSapien]

“Kenny’s my guy,” Spencer Dinwiddie said of his ex-Nets head coach. “He was great and like I told him in a text, I said, I needed to be able to be in a situation and an environment where I could make mistakes and that was critical to my development and he afford me that opportunity. Believing you’re a great player is one thing, but being able to go out there and not look over your shoulder and think that you’re gonna come out if you miss a shot or turn it over is paramount in anybody’s development, any NBA player. That was huge for me and I’ll always appreciate it.”

https://clutchpoints.com/nets-news-spencer-dinwiddie-caris-levert-react-to-kenny-atkinson-firing/

[kingkirk]

Atkinson may be amazing, I don't know much about him.

His work with the Nets on a results basis is complete trash to me.
Year 1: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 2: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 3: Big improvement, gets to 42 wins, in an extremely weak east.
Year 4: Kicked out because star players don't respect him.

Now his roster quality sucked in year 1 and 2, so I don't ding him for that as "wow he's awful", but there shouldn't be any credit given to him either. Year 3 he had a good year, and people say he developed the talent, but talent development is mostly done by the assistants not the head coach. Year 4, he was removed because star players didn't respect him.

That's not a compelling set of outcomes. Effectively, one year in four could be considered a success, and we seem like we'd like to attract star players, so getting a coach that was removed due to stars not liking him seems like not in our best interest.

That said, I refer back to the first statement, I don't really know much about him (or any coaching candidate) and so many of those things may have been circumstances that were not reasonable or fair to gauge, but on the surface, Atkinson seems heavily overrated to me.

He took the Nets from a terrible situation with no reasonable draft picks, developed those players enough to build a playoff program while instilling good basketball on both sides of the ball, so much so that it led to them landing Kyrie and Durant.

Atkinson is good and not overrated at all.

[MrFortune3]

I think that whenever you say that the star pkayers didn't respect him in Brooklyn, you should have to add that we're talking about Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Definitely two special (Is that a nice way to say it?) young men.

I agree there is something to that, though I don't remember Kyrie or Durant really having lots of blow ups (or any really) with coaches. Kawhi and LeBron have had more famous disagreements with coaches as far as I can remember. This seems to be a star problem to some extent, but they both turned on him immediately. I mean Durant didn't even play at all and Kyrie barely played for him, so I still find that to be a pretty huge negative that they took one look and said this guy isn't a championship caliber coach.

Kyrie is a drama queen. This has been known since Cleveland. He usually wears on his teammates nerves more than his coaches.
He and Durant came together to win a title with their own vision of what that takes, they likely never wanted Atkinson and looked for any excuse to get him out and have the Nets grab a guy they felt fits their vision.

[DuckIII]

Irving and Durant disliking him goes in the plus column, in my book.

[MrFortune3]

Atkinson may be amazing, I don't know much about him.

His work with the Nets on a results basis is complete trash to me.
Year 1: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 2: Competing with tanking teams while not trying to tank.
Year 3: Big improvement, gets to 42 wins, in an extremely weak east.
Year 4: Kicked out because star players don't respect him.

Now his roster quality sucked in year 1 and 2, so I don't ding him for that as "wow he's awful", but there shouldn't be any credit given to him either. Year 3 he had a good year, and people say he developed the talent, but talent development is mostly done by the assistants not the head coach. Year 4, he was removed because star players didn't respect him.

That's not a compelling set of outcomes. Effectively, one year in four could be considered a success, and we seem like we'd like to attract star players, so getting a coach that was removed due to stars not liking him seems like not in our best interest.

That said, I refer back to the first statement, I don't really know much about him (or any coaching candidate) and so many of those things may have been circumstances that were not reasonable or fair to gauge, but on the surface, Atkinson seems heavily overrated to me.

He took the Nets from a terrible situation with no reasonable draft picks, developed those players enough to build a playoff program while instilling good basketball on both sides of the ball, so much so that it led to them landing Kyrie and Durant.

Atkinson is good and not overrated at all.

I really don't understand Doug's stance on Atkinson at all.
He tends to bring up the Nets being a bad team and having every reason to not tank given their draft picks were owned by other franchises.
You have to have actual talent to win in the NBA and he turned some cast offs and so so players into playoff basketball players.