The time Kenny Atkinson injured himself competing against Jarrett Allen

Amit Mann is joined by Anthony Puccio to discuss Kenny Atkinson’s unconventional coaching style, the importance of team chemistry to his philosophy and what his offensive/defensive principles are. Listen to the full podcast on the candidate for the Raptors' head coaching job on the podcast feed or watch on YouTube.

Video Transcript

AMIT MANN: That meme that was going around of the Brooklyn Nets where they're line dancing and stuff like that, I think it's also notable to say that Kenny Atkinson was the one who was coaching that team.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: Yeah, absolutely. And again, like, it was what I said before, that he had implemented this culture. And again, Sean Marks gets a lot of the credit, and he deserves it.

But Kenny really was the hub. He was the guy that-- he wanted those guys to have fun. He said, you know, basketball is fun when we're winning, but it should always be fun when we're playing together, right? So--

AMIT MANN: Fair.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: --that whole dancing thing, it was just a-- it was everything that he had built in a nutshell on and off the court, that he was part of a team and leading a team that actually really enjoyed playing together, right, that they knew they were striving for the same goal. They knew they were starting from the bottom, but they were rising, having a lot of fun with it.

So just him enabling guys and letting them be the best version of themselves has been something that stood out to me during my time covering the Nets. Yeah, look, I mean, this is somebody from Long Island. He's from New York.

He has, I think, eight brothers. He was one of the younger ones in the pack-- I believe so. I believe it's eight or something. He has a bunch. So he grew up playing in the driveway as one of the younger guys that had to really compete for his own.

And I know, just from experience, speaking with him, that family-- family is everything. And you know, I think that we get tired of hearing family culture and things like that. But he genuinely does believe that. And he does want to get to know the parents.

For Jarrett Allen, in that case, he was, I think, 18 years old coming up from Texas. You know, I don't think he'd ever lived outside of the state. Man, you make a dramatic move to Brooklyn.

But I think Kenny, during that time-- and I remember this specifically because he-- I think he just wanted to make sure they knew that he was-- that Jarrett was in good hands, right, with--

AMIT MANN: Yeah.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: --Kenny at the leadership, with-- with Sean Marks there. And look, you bring up Jarrett Allen. I have to tell a story for those that don't know.

AMIT MANN: Please.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: Kenny was on the court with him training and busting his ass. And he ended up-- I don't know if he broke his ankle, or-- he really hurt himself. He came into the press conference a couple days later and was limping in. And it was revealed that, yeah, he was working out with Jarrett so hard on the court after practice that he had gotten hurt. Like, he literally is out here getting hurt. This is a guy that you want to be in the trenches with.

AMIT MANN: [LAUGHS]

Why didn't Coach coach the game? Well, he sprained his ankle when he was working out too hard with Jarrett Allen.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: Look, it's infectious--

AMIT MANN: Something to watch for.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: It's infectious. Jarrett was going hard. He was going hard, and all the assistant coaches, too. I mean, look at the head coach of the Nets now, Jacque Vaughn. That was his lead assistant coach.

You know, Jacque gets praised for very similar things-- being on the court with these guys, caring about their families. This was really the culture that Brooklyn had before they traded for those superstars, was this-- just this family-oriented culture.

And I think, to make a long story short, just being part of a big family, him being so family-oriented with his own-- he has kids of his own that he cares so much about, his wife. He had told me one day one of the hardest things that he had gone through was that his father was very sick. And it was around the time that he was trying to take his career to a professional level. And he had to go overseas. And that was something that he still thinks about to this day.

So when you think about the man that Kenny Atkinson is outside of basketball, you bring up family. It's one of the most important things to him. And how he translates that into basketball, life, and just teamwork is-- it's incredible.

When we talk about X's and O's, you talk about the analytical approach, again, he is somebody very, very analytical driven, and very, very like D'Antoni, seven seconds or less type. So--

AMIT MANN: Mhm.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: --you know, again, I don't know exactly how that trickled into the Warriors game plan. But you can be sure that he was in-- he was in those practices. He still is probably working with those guys in the gym as we talk right now.

AMIT MANN: Yeah, I'm actually curious about that because he's a bit older than he was back in those Brooklyn days. When you get to that age, man, all of a sudden, you flick a switch. You wake up one day, it's like, well, that didn't feel good. So I wonder if you would be doing that still as much, at least to the point where he might sprain his ankle working out with a player.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: I think this guy will be on the court until he can't walk anymore. I mean, you go back to him being up at 5:00 in the morning, running on the treadmill, looking at game tape. He's just so dedicated.

AMIT MANN: Defensive philosophy-- when I ask you that in terms of Kenny Atkinson, how would you-- how would you categorize it? I have some things that I've seen. I got some thoughts on it, which are intriguing, especially considering what I just watched with the Toronto Raptors and how frustrating it was sometimes, but yes.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: Sometimes it felt like insanity a little bit. Granted, the Nets didn't always have the greatest personnel, and they didn't always-- they didn't really have a big man. Jarrett Allen was very young, so they were constantly getting bullied in the paint. He wanted to cover the perimeter, but the paint was open range for other teams.

So at times, it just kind of felt like they were doing a lot of the same stuff. So once in a blue moon, and he would throw in zones. I remember he even threw a box-and-one during a crucial, crucial game that helped get them into the playoffs during the '18-'19 season against Blake Griffin. And it won them the game. They did it the whole, whole way out.

So he does have room for adjustments. But during my time covering them, I was often critical of their defense because it didn't seem like they were really locked into that. And again, they wanted to take 40 3-pointers and focus on running, running, running. So that paint was wide open, man. I mean, defense-- defensive side, I don't think his history is too great as a head coach.

AMIT MANN: That's fair. That's fair. Just looking at some of the-- there was this video I saw on YouTube of Kenny Atkinson. And he was coaching, he was giving some tips to some people overseas. And what he was talking about was contain and contest, keep them out of the paint, force non-paint 2's, and no middle, ice them, force them towards the baseline.

And it's little things like that that are music to a Raptor fan's ears because I don't know if you know, but we just watched this team where their first level of defense was a turnstile. And then they get in rotation, a team hits a corner 3, teams getting in the paint. They have no rim protection. It was an absolute mess for most of the season.

Now, Jakob Poeltl comes in, things get better. But what I want to see-- and this-- and I pointed this out on a podcast last week is, I think some of the best defenses in the NBA right now, it's scheming. And it's also-- it's containing contesting-- contesting, actually. That's exactly what I'm talking about.

It's-- the overaggression can be a problem sometimes, especially when this NBA these days, man, it's so damn good. You've got five guys out there who are five-tool players. And if you're banking on being really aggressive and forcing the ball to that fourth option over there, that fourth option now is 10 times better than he was six years ago.

ANTHONY PUCCIO: Right.

AMIT MANN: Right? So you can't play that way anymore. So what I'm thinking is, you-- it's no middle, as he's talking about. It's forcing-- keeping them out of the paint as best you can. And also, you're forcing 3's. You're forcing non-paint 2's. That is, like, the logic of it.

And what's exciting about that-- and I hear what you're saying with those Brooklyn teams. Like, they were a scoring bunch. And what's intriguing about a combination of Kenny Atkinson and the Toronto Raptors is that they have the defensive players.

They have guys who want to play defense. They haven't forgotten how to. This season was what it was. But they care about that end of the court. And they know that that's what leads to playoff rounds. That's what leads to championships.

You combine that with contain and contest, no middle, keep them out of the paint, and their structure-- that's what I hear, there's structure to their defense. And that would do wonders for this team. That's how you make sure that-- that the paint is actually locked off. And then if they get through, now, you have Jakob Poeltl, who I hope to whoever that they resign and bring back on a four-year contract or whatever, whatever the case is.

But that's what I need to see. And I think Kenny Atkinson, you combine his spirit, you combine his defensive methodology, and also his style of play offensively-- ball movement, lateral movement, early post-ups, early step-up screens, drag screens, which you could use-- whoever you want to use. You could use Jakob Poeltl, you could use Scottie Barnes. There, there is a formula there, along with what they already have, for success, to me.