The Brooklyn Nets made waves by hiring Atlanta Hawks assistant Kenny Atkinson as the new head coach of the franchise. Atkinson is a relatively unknown name among fans, but fear not for Kyle Korver is here to tell you why the Nets made a good hiring.
Following from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
“I didn’t know if I was coming back,” Korver said Monday. “That is something as a free agent, you don’t know what the team is going to be, what the coaching staff was going to look like. But he said he was going to be back (as part of Mike Budenhozer’s staff). And that was a starting place for me. Kenny is going to be here? Things are going to be OK….
“He has been awesome for us here in Atlanta,” Korver said. “I think our player development has been second to none the last four years. I think it has been amazing watching guys develop and grow and Kenny leads that.”
Well that is certainly great news for Brooklyn fans. The Nets have had no consistency or stability since moving to New York but it seems like Atkinson and newly hired GM Sean Marks may be able to bring that to a team desperately in need of it.
The Nets are still in a bad situation with few draft picks and young players to build around. However, Korver’s anecdote about his decision to re-sign with Atlanta looms large as a recruiting tool in free agency. This is not to say that Brooklyn will sign big-time free-agents because of it, but the respect that Atkinson seems to have in NBA circles is huge for the Nets franchise.
It seems that things are finally going in the right direction in Brooklyn and despite a long rebuild ahead, Nets fans should be happy with the way their team is moving.
