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Brooklyn Nets: Kenny Atkinson is the Best Coach They’ve Had in Years

By Brandon Jefferson

Oct 17, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson directs his team on the court during the first half against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports
Oct 17, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson directs his team on the court during the first half against the Boston Celtics at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: Bob DeChiara-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Brooklyn Nets are entering the 2016-17 season with yet another new head coach, Kenny Atkinson.

Since 2000, the Brooklyn Nets have had 10 different coaches (including interim). Over that same time period, the Nets have amassed a 584-910 record — a win percentage under 40 percent.

The list of coaches for the Nets includes such vaunted names as Byron Scott, Lawrence Frank, Tom Barrise, Kiki Vandeweghe, Avery Johnson, P.J. Carlesimo, Jason Kidd, Lionel Hollins, Tony Brown and now Kenny Atkinson.

Only Scott (.517), Carlesimo (.648), and Kidd (.537) were able to have winning records during their time on the sidelines with the Nets. The bar for being a great coach within the Nets organization has been lowered over the last decade and a half.

However, this isn’t to take away from Atkinson. Atkinson’s version of the Nets are a blank slate. The team is undergoing a rebuild and the amount of talent on the roster is very thin. Given time, this team will hopefully grow and develop into a sum that is greater than its parts.

Atkinson has shown the ability to bring the best out of players dating back to his time as an assistant coach.

I’m sure all Nets fans — and even the entire NBA world — knows it was Atkinson whom Jeremy Lin credits for helping Linsanity take off when both were with the New York Knicks. Kent Bazemore, of the Atlanta Hawks, also says that his rise in the league was due to the help of Atkinson.

The Nets really need someone like Atkinson to build this roster up as there isn’t much help coming in the immediate future.

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During the preseason, the Nets showed that they will run a system and philosophies similar to what the Hawks ran under Mike Budenholzer the last two seasons. This ball-movement, perimeter-oriented, floor spacing style of play has shown that it can be very successful in the NBA (see: Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs).

Atkinson is adapted to modern times and won’t try to force Brooklyn into being something that it’s not — a subliminal jab at Phil Jackson? Yes, yes it is.

Brooklyn has yet to really find its essence as a franchise and Atkinson, through his first seven months on the job, has said and done all the right things to make fans hopeful for some defined direction in the near future.

For the Nets, Atkinson’s success is going to be more than X’s and O’s or finding the right rotation. Brooklyn is in limbo as a franchise. They need someone to be their face, someone who will build something that can be sustained for years, not just 48 minutes.

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First-year coaches are often learning on the fly in their debut seasons. Steve Kerr with the Warriors and Tyron Lue with the Cleveland Cavaliers have broken the mold in their sideline debuts and while it would be unrealistic to expect the Nets to win a championship in Atkinson’s first try, he could go a long way in changing the way the basketball world thinks about Brooklyn.