Kenny Atkinson to coach in the NBA All-Star Game

Atkinson has led the Cavaliers to the best record in the Eastern Conference with largely the same roster as last season.

Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson, whose squad clinched the best record in the Eastern Conference through Feb. 2 following a Boston Celtics loss, will coach one of the four teams in the upcoming NBA All-Star Game per an official NBA communication. This is the first time Atkinson has been named head coach of an All-Star team and the first Cavs coach to hold the honor since 2015-16 when Tyronn Lue coached the All-Stars. A Cavs assistant coach will serve as head coach of one of the four teams.

For the uninitiated, the NBA All-Star Game will look different this season as the league searches for ways to make the contest more competitive. Instead of the traditional two teams facing each other, there will be four teams playing in a mini-tournament with a target score of 40. TNT’s Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley, and Kenny Smith will pick the teams while the fourth team will be the winning Rising Stars squad.

As an incentive, the winning team will split a prize of $1.8 million, while each player on the second-place team will receive $50k. The third and fourth-place teams will receive $25k per player.

The 57-year-old Atkinson will be coaching at least one of his players, but likely more. We already know Donovan Mitchell will be starting, but Darius Garland, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen could join him in the Bay Area for the All-Star Game.

Atkinson has taken a Cavs team that is mostly the same as last season and helped turn them into one of the best teams in the league. The offensive philosophy of making extra passes and movement, coupled with a leap from Mobley and a resurgence from Garland, has led to the Cavs having the best offense in the league. Atkinson has had a big hand in that, from analytics to communication.