It’s hard to get to know a player over 20 games, but that’s all Kenny Atkinson will get with Kyrie Irving over the course of 2019-20 now that the point guard has been ruled out for the remainder of the season.
But even this short window his given Atkinson a better idea of exactly what Irving provides a team with:
I’ve said this before: He was better than I even thought, a better player than I thought, and I had tremendous respect for him in Cleveland and Boston. Faster than I thought, more skilled than I thought, a higher-level competitor than I thought, much more physical than I thought. I don’t think people give him enough credit for how physical he is on both ends, how active he is defensively and what an attacker he is. That bodes really well for the future.
Just as important in Atkinson’s assessment of Irving is the relationship the two have developed — which Brooklyn’s head coach feels good about, as well:
I really love the player, and I feel like we have a really good relationship. So, we’re in a good place there. Obviously, you want more reps, more time with him, but we’ll have time with him in the offseason, too, to connect and, when he gets healthy, to work with him a little bit.
Still, as much as Atkinson is confident about Irving, figuring out what the team will look like in 2020-21 and how it will operate just became a much tougher task for the Nets head coach and Brooklyn general manager Sean Marks.
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Quotes provided by Ky Carlin of the USA TODAY Sports Media Group.