Cavaliers’ Kenny Atkinson earns spot as All-Star Game coach

It’s not just Cleveland’s stars who are headed to San Francisco for the All-Star Game next month, so is their coach.

With the Boston Celtics getting blown out by the Lakers Thursday night, the Cleveland Cavaliers are assured of having the best record in the East on Feb. 2 (the cutoff date), meaning Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson will coach one of the four teams in the newly formatted All-Star Game (one of his assistants will coach another of the four teams as well).

Atkinson will be joined by Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell, who was voted a starter for the All-Star Game. It’s a lock that the coaches will select Evan Mobley and Darius Garland as All-Star Game reserves as well, giving Cleveland three players in San Francisco. (Cavaliers fans were hoping for Jarrett Allen to make it and have four, but that’s a long shot despite his value to the team.)

Atkinson is the clear frontrunner for Coach of the Year. He took over a Cavaliers roster that was elite defensively but predictable on offense last season (18th in the league), and injected motion into the offense while empowering Mobley and Garland to take on more. The result is the best offense in the NBA this season, which, when paired with the still top-10 defense, has the Cavaliers on top of the Eastern Conference and looking like a threat to Boston.

The Thunder’s Mark Daigneault will join Atkinson as coaches in the league’s experiment with the 2025 NBA All-Star Game. In this new format, the 24 All-Star players will be drafted into three teams, with the fourth team being the champion of the Rising Stars competition from All-Star Friday night. Those four teams will compete in a mini-tournament with games to 40, with the league hoping that will inject some energy and competition into what has been an uninspiring All-Star Game in recent years.

The All-Star Game is Feb. 16 at the Chase Center in San Francisco, home to the Golden State Warriors.