The head coach of New York Knicks basketball has officially announced the suspension of new signing due to…
There have been three coaching changes in the NBA this season. Two of them were accounted for by teams from New York. It is only the third time in NBA history that the Knicks and Nets have made bench substitutions during the same season. Consider that nugget of information, courtesy of the Elias Sports Bureau in the aftermath of Coach Kenny Atkinson’s abrupt departure from the Nets, one of the finer examples of how strange 2019-20 has been for Gotham basketball.
While Los Angeles celebrates the Lakers’ revival and the Clippers’ effort to exceed the league’s most glamorous franchise for the ninth straight season, the opposite side of the country has been a depressing slog. The Knicks, of course, have been Knicking in earnest since a disastrous start in November. However, everything that has occurred since their dismal free-agent summer should not conceal the fact that the Nets, considered by some to have won the NBA’s off-season, have generated their own constant stream of unpleasant headlines, culminating with Atkinson’s departure.
Alarm bells were rung recently after heavy losses to Atlanta and Memphis, but Atkinson’s Saturday morning departure made little sense to outsiders on a performance basis, especially given how soon it followed Caris LeVert’s 51-point explosion in an overtime victory at Boston and a Friday night rout of San Antonio.
In coaching circles, however, there was less surprise. That’s because Atkinson was becoming viewed as a top candidate for firing following the season, with some Nets fans hoping to hire a more high-wattage name to oversee Kevin Durant’s expected return from an Achilles’ tendon tear next season. Rumblings about Atkinson’s tenuous job security had spread to the point where many league watchers appeared to believe the Nets’ claim that the departure of Atkinson was as “mutual” as it gets. Such statements from teams are often met with skepticism, but in this case, there is a sense that Atkinson had reason to beg out now if he knew the end was nigh.
That comes after Atkinson led the Nets to the playoffs despite a 2-12 record shortly after Christmas and a slew of ailments that hampered his three best players (Kyrie Irving, LeVert, and Spencer Dinwiddie) to less than 100 minutes on the court combined. Irving was limited to 20 games in his first season with the Nets due to knee and shoulder ailments.
