Atkinson reveals a simple plan for Kyrie: ‘Give him the ball’

LAS VEGAS – From Jeremy Lin to Jeff Teague to D’Angelo Russell, Kenny Atkinson is known to get the most out of his point guards.

But he’s never had one as talented as Kyrie Irving, or as enigmatic as a personality. So what is Atkinson’s plan for the player with perhaps the greatest handle in the NBA?

“Give him the ball,” Atkinson said. Otherwise, Atkinson is not prepared to outline a game plan. He has an established system – one that emphasizes the point guard with pick-and-roll opportunities – and he believes that will largely continue with Irving.

“I’m definitely starting to do my homework on him. It’s still recent,” the coach said. “I think the challenge is to get the best Kyrie. I want him to have his best season ever and continue that improvement and that’s tough because he played well last year. I know there’s a lot of talk out there, but you look at his numbers and I think the way he played really well. Definitely going to challenge him to keep improving. We play a system I don’t imagine changing a ton.

“You’ll have to ask him, but I think that’s part of the reason he was interested in coming here our style of play. I

think we’ll come to a meeting of minds between me and him and how that works within the group.”

With Kevin Durant likely out until the 2020-21 season following Achilles surgery, Year 1 of the star-laden Nets will be the Irving show. He had a similar opportunity in Boston last season but it bottomed out amid rumors of turmoil and general unhappiness from Irving. When he was out the door, the narrative was that he divided the locker room.

Atkinson said the Nets are embracing Irving with a clean slate.

“Whether it’s Kyrie or DeAndre Jordan or anybody, we don’t pre-judge from other situations,” Atkinson said. “We have our intel, we do our duediligence, but we don’t pre-judge. I think the strategy is how can we fit this player the best possible way into our culture. That’s all of our jobs. We do it as a group. We do it collaboratively. I feel like our culture is strong enough no matter what type of player we bring in.”

GM Sean Marks indicated that current Nets players vouched for Irving, and it’s widely known Spencer Dinwiddie acted as a recruiter.

“I think it’s pretty difficult and it probably wouldn’t be the right thing for me to comment on what happened in different organizations. I’m not a part of that. I’m not in the locker room. To comment on hearsay and scuttlebutt isn’t the right thing,” Marks said. “All I can do is comment on what’s going on inside our franchise. We use our players for a lot of that. Our players are our biggest storytellers. They’re the ones that, ‘This is what the Nets provide for us,’ and so forth. We use them in a lot of our decision-making. Whether it’s a trade call or whether it’s free agency or what not, the players know these guys. They know them well. It’s about bringing these guys into our culture, bringing them into locker room, into our environment, and bid on all the people we have bid on now for three years. Putting our arms around these guys and see where it goes from there.”

Despite the hype around Brooklyn’s free agency, the team remains a big underdog to win the East next season with Philly, Milwaukee, Boston and Toronto in the mix. Waiting for Durant will require patience and faith in Irving.

“The fans are savvy enough,” Atkinson said. “They understand the guy can potentially be out. So I think they understand that situation. I’ll tell you we’re not going to use it as an excuse. We’ve added some really good players and our goal is to continue that rise.”