CLEVELAND — Trading for James Harden two-thirds of the way through the season presents some challenges for Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson.
Harden has had success playing an isolation-heavy style where he knows where everyone is on the court. Atkinson has been known for a heavy ball and player movement offense. Those opposites can’t co-exist, at least not in how they’ve looked in previous itterations.
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After Harden’s debut, Atkinson said that “players win, not systems.” By the looks of it, Harden’s style will win out for at least this season and rightfully so. The Cavs are already taking steps to make sure that they put him in the best position to succeed.
“I’ve looked at all the Houston stuff, and looked at Clippers stuff, looked at Sixers stuff,” Atkinson said, “I think that’s part of your job as a coach is to see what’s worked. Heck, we ran two ATOs (after timeout plays) the other night I stole from [Mike] D’Antoni. Houston stuff. Nothing particularly new or innovative. But it’s, how do we get an advantage for him type stuff?”
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Atkinson admitted that he talked with D’Antoni about Harden after the trade went down. Atkinson served as an assistant under D’Antoni when they were both with the New York Knicks.
It’s important to remember that D’Antoni was the architect of the seven seconds or less Phoenix Suns. They were a high octane, revolutionary offense that was built on playing fast and having ample ball and player movement. It’s not too dissimilar to the systems that Atkinson has run as a head coach.
But D’Antoni didn’t try to force Harden into that system in Houston. Instead, he created an environment for Harden to thrive in, because he knew that particular systems don’t matter if it’s not what fits your players.
So far, Atkinson is doing his part to make sure the Cavs fit around Harden and not the necessarily the other way around. When you have a player as good as Harden who can make his teammates better — especially the bigs — it would be foolish to not take advantage of that.
“We’d be dumb not to,” Atkinson said about borrowing stuff from Harden’s previous stops. “I’m looking forward to over the All-Star break to dive in deeper on how we can use him even better.”
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