Cavaliers’ Head Coach Could Keep His Job Despite Knicks Sweep

The Cleveland Cavaliers got swept in a New York minute, but that doesn’t mean head coach Kenny Atkinson is heading out the door.

Atkinson will be back as the coach next season, as ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Tuesday. In two seasons with the Cavaliers, Atkinson has led the team to a No. 1 seed in the 2024-2025 season and an Eastern Conference finals appearance this year.

Atkinson won NBA Coach of the Year last season with a 64–18 record, and the Cavaliers won the first 15 games of the season that year. He became the first-ever NBA coach to start his tenure with a team on a 15-game winning streak.

The Cavaliers just didn’t get as far as they’d hoped in Year One under Atkinson, with a 4–1 series loss to the No. 4 seed Indiana Pacers, who made the NBA Finals that year. This year, Cleveland once again bowed out to the Eastern Conference champion, as the New York Knicks dominated in a 4–0 sweep.

New York pounded the Cavs 130–93 on Monday in Game 4 at Cleveland’s Rocket Arena. The No. 3 seed Knicks owned the series from the outset with double-digit wins each game, and Game 1 had the closest margin, an 11-point Knicks win at Madison Square Garden.

It had Cavs owner Dan Gilbert voicing his thoughts on social media after the Game 4 loss. The Cavaliers ended the regular season 52–30, then won two seven-game series as the No. 4 seed in the East before falling to the Knicks.

“We took a step ahead this spring, but we are nowhere near where we need to be,” Gilbert wrote via X on Monday night. “I can’t thank the fans enough for the support this year. We will dig in all summer and do everything we possibly can to take the next step. We will grind until we get there.”

Gilbert made it clear that the organization will work hard to improve, but that didn’t imply a coaching change. The Cavaliers’ biggest star, Donovan Mitchell, has confidence in Atkinson.

“It’s just hilarious,” Mitchell told reporters afterward. “We’ve done something that we haven’t done since 2018. There’s going to be criticism everywhere on Kenny, but why? … We did it, but we did it with Kenny. We didn’t just go out there and coach ourselves.”

Cleveland last made the conference finals in 2018 when LeBron James led the team on the court before his exodus to the Los Angeles Lakers. The Cavaliers last made it that far without James in 1991-1992 and 1975-1976 before that.

Only the late Lenny Wilkins and Bill Fitch successfully guided the Cavs to the East finals before the James era. Atkinson took over a Cavs team that won 48 and 51 games the two seasons before he arrived.

“I have confidence—confidence in myself, first of all, confidence in the group,” Atkinson told reporters on Monday night. “The roster talk, that’s for down the line. 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,” Atkinson added. “Just keep trusting. Trusting our process. Trust our collaboration.”

It wouldn’t be unprecedented for a conference finals team to show a coach the door. The Knicks did just that last year with the firing of Tom Thibodeau after an East finals loss to the Pacers.

That said, Cavs guard James Harden is well aware of the dynamic of late postseason runs, and he backs Atkinson. Harden has been to conference finals five times in his journeyman career.

“He understands his team,” Harden told reporters afterward. “Of course, somebody’s going to have to take criticism, whether it’s myself or Kenny or whoever, the entire team. They’re going to 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’m supposed to be doing out there,” Harden added. “It’s just an unfortunate situation. Any team coming off of a tough, two series against two defensive monsters, it would have been challenging.”