CLEVELAND — In the wake of the Cavaliers’ playoff-ending, season-ending, dream-ending loss May 25 to the New York Knicks, there was only one thing Donovan Mitchell found funny.
The Cavs lost 130-93 in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals to the Knicks, who completed a four-game sweep to advance to the NBA Finals.
The left the Cavs somewhat on both sides of the fence when evaluating their playoff run. They did accomplish some major goals for the franchise, but they also fell short of their ultimate goal, an NBA title.
This summer, the organization will have a number of questions to answer and decisions to make, some that could impact the makeup of the front office, the coach’s office and/or the roster. In the NBA, the head coach often takes a good chunk of the blame, warranted or not, and the coaches carousel goes round and round each summer.
When asked about the idea that Cavs coach Kenny Atkinson would take heavy criticism for Cleveland’s playoff demise, Mitchell said, before making an impassioned defense of Atkinson, “It’s just hilarious.”
“We’ve done something that we haven’t done since 2018 … there’s going to be criticism everywhere on Kenny, right? But why?” Mitchell said. “We got here. … We didn’t just go out there and coach ourselves. People are going to be people. People probably criticize me just as much, and then James [Harden], but I love Kenny. We love Kenny. We ride with Kenny and, ultimately, that’s all that matters, right?”
Such is life in the NBA. One needs to only look at the other bench, and the team celebrating an Eastern Conference championship at Rocket Arena, to see a recent example. Last year, the Knicks reached the conference finals for the first time in more than two decades with coach Tom Thibodeau. But as the franchise evaluated its path forward, it still decided to move on from Thibodeau and hire Mike Brown in his place, feeling the latter was a better fit.
NBA head coaches, at times, receive the brunt of the blame regardless of the context that led them there.
“I know for a fact he’s from Long Island, he don’t give a damn [about the outside criticism],” Mitchell said, as he and Atkinson have New York ties. “But it’s just the world we live in. We could have made it to the Finals and got swept, somebody was going to say something. I told you out there, even if we won, there’s going to be something. ‘Can we do it?’ It’s always going to be something for people to say, but ultimately, we’re in the thick of it, we’re in it together and that’s my biggest thing.”
Cavaliers playoff history with Kenny Atkinson, Donovan Mitchell
If the Cavaliers’ leadership believes the conference finals sweep at the hands of those same Knicks went sideways enough to warrant a change, they might go that route. That isn’t to say it is endorsed, but very little can be entirely ruled out, as it isn’t yet clear what is on the table and what isn’t.
Then again, Atkinson led the Cavs to the conference finals with a roster that didn’t include LeBron James for the first time since 1992, and had them as one of four teams left competing for a championship.
Mitchell certainly endorsed Atkinson after the Game 4 loss. Harden, too, echoed that sentiment, and put the conference finals loss more on the Cavs’ shooting woes than anything else.
“Ultimate players coach. Like, he gets it,” Harden said. “He understands the team. And, yeah, of course, somebody’s gonna have to take the criticism, whether it’s myself or Kenny, the entire team, whoever. They’re gonna put it on somebody. But I think for Kenny, he did an unbelievable job of getting me acclimated as fast as possible to understanding what I was supposed to be doing out there. And it’s just an unfortunate situation.
“Any team coming off of the tough two series against two defensive monsters, it would have been challenging. … Other than [the third quarter of Game 1], I don’t necessarily remember a quarter where we actually made shots, like as a group, which is like, you’re not gonna win against any team.”
Michell and Harden both made it clear that, at least publicly, they believe Atkinson is the right coach moving forward. Atkinson’s response about the team’s future revolved around his belief they’re all trending in the right direction as a unit.
“Listen, I have confidence — confidence in myself, first of all, confidence in the group. The roster talk, that’s for down the line,” Atkinson said. “Our front office has done a phenomenal job giving us a great roster. Obviously, there’ll be decisions to be made like every summer, but I think we’re doing pretty well with those decisions since I’ve been here. So, just keep trusting, trusting our process, trusting our collaboration.”
Ryan Lewis cover the Cavaliers for the Akron Beacon Journal. He can be reached at rlewis1@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Cavs’ Donovan Mitchell, James Harden throw support behind Kenny Atkinson
Reporting by Ryan Lewis, Akron Beacon Journal / Akron Beacon Journal
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