Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Kenny Atkinson has no hard feelings toward his assistant Alex Sarama, who is officially going to the WNBA as the head coach of the Portland Fire. In fact, he offered his congratulations and shared the official timeline for Sarama, who will still be a part of the Cavs this year.
“It's a little bit the price of success,” Atkinson said after Friday's practice. “People are gonna look to hire people from your staff and for Alex, it's a great opportunity. He will stay the season with us. It's not like he’s leaving tomorrow, so that was kind of the agreement with that. But we're gonna miss him. He's added a lot to the group. Again, I think we came to that agreement where we didn't want to mess with what we’ve got and all we prepared and all that…
“I think he's helped all of us get better. He's someone that challenges traditional thinking. He has implemented science-based kind of teaching. So I think he's educated players, educated the coaching staff, and has just done a great job and will continue to this year. And then, it's going to be really kind of great to watch him spread his wings.”
Sarama jumping ship to the WNBA is another example of Cleveland's staff getting picked off.
Lead assistant coach Jordan Ott went off to become the Phoenix Suns' head coach this summer, with DeMarre Carroll tagging along. Former assistant D.J. Ham and Chris Darnell, ex-Cleveland Charge head coach, were both hired by the Sacramento Kings. Even lead video assistant Bryan Tibaldi changed direction and chose to take a job at Providence College in a similar role.
“I think when you're an assistant, your goal is always to be the head coach, right, wherever it is,” Atkinson continued. “And this is an expanding global game; life just isn't NBA. There are a lot of opportunities. I think we're going to see this going forward, right? There's going to be real competition for NBA coaching talent. We see coaches leaving for college. We lost one this year; one of our head video guys got a great opportunity to be in the Big East on the front of the bench. It's like, ‘Well, do I stay in my position here?' So, this is just kind of the new reality.
“But we have to have — and I think we do have — in place a succession plan, right? So you say, well, who's going to do what? We have a lot of young coaching talent in our building, so we'll be able to move forward, and we've promoted already a ton of people to new roles and will continue to do so.”
Admittedly, Atkinson has never considered the possibility of having his own coaching tree like his legendary colleagues in the sport. He told his players it's about choosing the right people and organization.
“When this happens, it’s usually a team success,” Atkinson said. “But on the other hand, yeah, you're proud when people from your staff get promotions and have an ability to advance their careers. Now, I am very competitive, so I would like to keep them all. I’ll go the other way. I'm like, how could you leave this situation? We have such a great [environment], so you play that.
“That's your first emotion. Then you're like, wait a moment. This is a free world. We've gotta celebrate people getting promotions and advancing their careers.”
