Change Your Coach, Change Your Approach
After roughly a fourth of the 2024-25 NBA season, two of the biggest additions of the offseason have been coaches. Newly hired coaches Kenny Atkinson and Mike Budenholzer have transformed their new teams into legitimate contenders as the season has progressed. Thus far, Atkinson has his team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, surprisingly atop of the Eastern Conference with the league’s best record. Budenholzer also has the injury-stricken Phoenix Suns firmly in the Western Conference playoff race, trailing the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder by only three and a half games.
Beginning with Cleveland, the team did not make any major free agent signings but did move on from previous head coach J.B. Bickerstaff. Last season, the team finished the regular season with a 48-34 record, good enough for fourth place in the Eastern Conference, losing to the eventual NBA Champions Boston Celtics in the second round. As it currently sits, Atkinson has the Cavs 15 games over .500 with an 18-3 record, including their recent win over last year’s champs. The lack of variation between rosters from last year to this year goes to show that Atkinson has been able to do a lot more given the same young core of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, Jarrett Allen, and Darius Garland. One surprising bright spot for the team has been backup point guard Ty Jerome, who is averaging 11.8 points in 18.8 minutes per game while shooting an incredible 50 percent from three. After spending the last three years as an assistant to Steve Kerr with the Golden State Warriors, Atkinson is off to a great start in his second stint as an NBA head coach.
On the other hand, the Phoenix Suns are currently ranked seventh in the Western Conference with a record of 11-8. With that being said, their record thus far is quite misleading. The team has dealt with plenty of injuries, the most recent being Jusuf Nurkic, while Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal have missed seven and eight games, respectively. However, when the big three of Beal, Durant, and Devin Booker have all played together, the team is an impressive 7-2. Tyus Jones has been a great help, too, as the addition of a true point guard has helped the team find offensive continuity. Jones ranks 11th in the league with 7.2 assists per game but leads the NBA in assist-to-turnover ratio, averaging just 1.1 turnovers per contest. Rookie Ryan Dunn out of Virginia has also contributed heavily on the defensive end, having shown great energy and tenacity as one of the top defensive prospects from the 2024 draft class. Assuming the Suns can find good health moving forward, the team is sure to improve on last year's sixth seed in the Western Conference. Winning a title in 2021 as the Bucks head coach against the Suns, Mike Budenholzer will now continue to lead the Suns in the right direction, aiming to improve on their first-round exit via a Timberwolves sweep in last year’s playoffs.
While both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Phoenix Suns made minimal moves in the 2024 offseason, each team looks much better in the 2024-25 season due to significant changes in head coach. Primed for a deep playoff run, the Cavaliers look to remain dominant in the East as the Suns hope to stay healthy in order to climb up the Western Conference standings. Sometimes, organizational changes like these can prove to be all the difference, with new ideas giving players renewed energy to suit up for next season. It remains to be seen how both the Cavs and Suns will fare in the playoffs this year, but the acquisitions of Atkinson and Budenholzer have certainly further improved their squads in the 2024-25 season.
