CASE IN POINT!
From molding guards to reviving Nets, Atkinson’s methods get results
How guard-whisperer Kenny Atkinson transformed Russell, Dinwiddie:
Kenny Atkinson has always been known as a bit of a fanatic, the kind of zealot to forgo sleep in favor of film sessions. But the barefoot story from Jeff Teague was new.
“He’s a nut. He’s a full nut,” Teague said. “He used to be out there barefoot in the gym at six in the morning.” Wait, why barefoot? “I don’t know. He’s really crazy,” said Teague, who played for Atkinson in Atlanta. “He was one of the most competitive guys I’ve ever been around. So he just had a different way of working out. He would be barefoot. I didn’t understand it, but he would. And he got out there and play 3-on-3 with us barefoot and everything.”
Kenny “Shoeless” Atkinson developed another distinction as a coach, spanning his 12 seasons as either an NBA assistant or head coach. The 51-yearold Long Island product is something of a pointguard-whisperer, a cultivator of playmakers, as Teague can attest.
Atkinson’s Point Guard Guru reputation first took shape in Houston, where he was the director for player development. Atkinson laid the groundwork for the Rockets’ Aaron Brooks to become the NBA’s Most Improved Player in 2010. With the Knicks, as an assistant under Mike D’Antoni, he helped groom Jeremy Lin into the pick-androll fueled Linsanity. In Atlanta with Mike Budenholzer, Atkinson transformed Teague from a one-dimensional scorer into a playmaking All-Star. And now with the Nets, he’s presided over the rise of D’Angelo Russell and Spencer Dinwiddie from reclamation projects to borderline All-Stars.
“I would say other coaches just looked at me as just a scorer,” said Russell, who was jettisoned by the Lakers in 2017 to make room for Lonzo Ball and is now making a case for the 2019 All-Star game. “So they let me play point, but I was really just scoring the ball.
“Kenny kind of gave me the leash, the confidence to do what I do. It sounds so simple, but just in general I feel like I know what he wants out of me versus just playing in an organized pick-up game and I’m trying to control it when there’s no continuity to it.”
Atkinson acknowledges his affinity for point guards, at least partially due to him playing the position throughout a career spanning almost a decade overseas. But his coaching evolution took a turn with D’Antoni, when Atkinson learned the art and nuances of the pick-and-roll.
Atkinson said he watched all the clips, pondered different ways to set up the pick-and-roll, then relayed them to D’Antoni and Lin.
“With Mike, the point guards – you see it with James (Harden) – the point guard is everything. They have the ball 95% of the time. And 93% of the time they’re running the pick-and-roll,” Atkinson said. “And with Mike, it’s funny, I used to play sometimes with those guys, the second teams on off days and I used to run the point. So I knew all of Mike’s stuff. And obviously I watch a ton of the great point guards – Steve Nash, Chris Paul, I studied those guys. That was my first attraction in player development. The springboard was the point-guard position.
“I just had a special affinity for those guys,” Atkinson added. “I obviously played the position and had an interest in the position. I tend to bond with those guys better. And talk to them more. I think it’s almost like the quarterback and the head coach of an NFL team. It’s very similar, especially with the proliferation of the pick-and-roll game.”
By nature of Atkinson’s preferred playing style – pace, space, pick-and-rolls and 3-pointers – point guards are going to put up gaudy numbers. But the development goes further than scoring. There is a real connection and appreciation.
Teague, for instance, said Atkinson saved his career.
“Before he got to Atlanta, when I was there, it was, get the ball to Joe (Johnson). Post-up. Get the ball to Al (Horford) and Josh (Smith),” Teague said. “And when he got there he just showed me a whole new light on basketball, really. He let me be myself.
“He opened up to me and he showed me a whole new way of looking at basketball.”
Teague spent four seasons with Atkinson in Atlanta, peaking with his All-Star appearance in 2015. Three months after Atkinson took the job with the Nets, Teague was traded from the Hawks to the Pacers.
“I know (Russell, Dinwiddie and Shabazz Napier) don’t want to leave Brooklyn,” said Teague, who is now with the Timberwolves. “Because when (Atkinson) left Atlanta, I was sick. It wasn’t the same.”
These young Nets have learned to listen and absorb, with rewards finally taking shape. It took two seasons of avalanche losing and Atkinson’s hair turning gray, but Brooklyn is in the hunt for a playoff spot at 22-23 heading into tonight’s game at Houston.
Russell’s leaps have been the most pronounced, and he flaunted the full repertoire in Monday’s victory over the Celtics with 34 points and seven assists.
“Today’s league, old-school point guards go out the window. Whatever you do best, Kenny pushes that. Like do you. Do you,” Russell, 22, said. “And with that being said, he gives you the confidence to want to do it, as well. Me, I feel like I’m not a dunk-on-yo- type point guard or go in there and throw my body around and do all this contact. I’m not that. So he allows me to not have to be that.
“I think that’s pretty much where the success is coming from. Because we have different type of point guards. We have 6-6 Spencer Dinwiddie that’s a freak athlete that can throw it down and get the contact and finish and all that. You got Shabazz, he’s smaller but he’s shifty and quick. And then you have me as more in between trying to do that at different levels. And he gives you the confidence to do that.”
Even in the midst of his most successful run as a head coach – with the Nets winning 14 of their last 19 games – Atkinson admits he misses being an assistant coach. The one-on-one time with the point guards, with Lin and Teague, in particular, was often the most fulfilling.
According to Teague, Atkinson was so hesitant to the idea of being a head coach that his wife outsourced words of encouragement.
“He probably wouldn’t tell you but he was scared to take the job and I talked to him and his wife,” Teague said. “His wife was like, ‘Gas him up, tell him he’s going to do great.’” “He was so nervous. But I’m happy for him now.”
Now Atkinson says his time is spread thin because, “I have more kids.” But he’s still painting a masterstroke with the point guards, still getting them to exceed expectations.
And Atkinson’s “nut” personality hasn’t changed, either.
“He’s the first one in the gym. There are times after a back-to-back where we have a off-day and I come in at 9 a.m., 10 a.m., and he’s here already,” Dinwiddie said. “And he’s talking to me about a play that happened yesterday and I’m like, ‘Bruh, I thought you would be asleep. What are you doing?’ He’s always going. You appreciate that level of work ethic.”