{"id":89690,"date":"2024-08-09T15:16:15","date_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=89690"},"modified":"2024-08-09T15:16:15","modified_gmt":"2024-08-09T19:16:15","slug":"paris-olympics-cavs-kenny-atkinson-may-poach-team-france-player","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/08\/09\/paris-olympics-cavs-kenny-atkinson-may-poach-team-france-player\/","title":{"rendered":"Paris Olympics: Cavs Head Coach May Poach Team France Player"},"content":{"rendered":"

While the Cleveland Cavaliers consider how they\u2019ll fill their remaining roster spot, cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor took to the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast to report that the \u201cfront office is going to get together<\/a> with (Cavs head coach) Kenny Atkinson when he returns from France.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re going to have a conversation about whether there are any players out there with with ties to (him) either from his days in Atlanta, Brooklyn, (or) Golden State that would make sense to fill that roster spot\u2026 Some combination of maybe the guy can play, maybe the guy can add playable depth, but he’s a locker room lieutenant for Kenny. Somebody who can teach some of these guys the system and set a professional attitude with the culture and stuff like that.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cI don’t know who that would be,\u201d Fedor admits when considering who Atkinson would suggest. However, he believes that Marcus Morris Sr.<\/a> and Tristan Thompson<\/a> could be considered.<\/p>\n

Cleveland signed Morris to an end-of-season contract<\/a> ahead of the 2024 NBA Playoffs at the behest of J.B. Bickerstaff. After showing he still has something left in the tank, he\u2019s rumored to be pursued<\/a> by the Cavs and Philadelphia 76ers in free agency.<\/p>\n

Thompson, a 13-year NBA veteran, played for the Cavs last season as well. There haven\u2019t been any reported bidding wars for the Canadian center. Nonetheless, he provides the same intangibles \u2014experience, toughness, and vocal leadership \u2014as Morris. Furthermore, he hasn\u2019t run into a potential chemistry issue<\/a> with current Cavs players, like Morris.<\/p>\n

Cavs Head Coach Kenny Atkinson May Poach Team France Player<\/h2>\n

If the focus is on players that Atkinson has coached, players like Morris could be considered. In the 2020-21 season, they were both with the Los Angeles Clippers when Atkinson was an assistant. Yet, Atkinson has been the head coach for multiple current Cavs players, namely Jarrett Allen<\/a> and Caris LeVert<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t know who fits that profile. Maybe it is Tristan Thompson\u2026 (or) Marcus Morris Sr\u2026 Maybe it is somebody else\u2026 Maybe it’s you know one of these guys that’s on the French national team…\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This leaves open the distinct possibility that Atkinson brings over a player from the French national team.<\/p>\n

The French Connection<\/h3>\n

Les Bleus, known colloquially as Team France, will face Team USA in the Paris Olympics\u2019 gold medal game<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, while the team is headlined by Victor Wembanyama<\/a> and Rudy Gobert<\/a>, their supporting cast has been the x-factor. Guerschon Yabusele<\/a>, Mathias Lessort<\/a>, and Isa\u00efa Cordinier<\/a> have each excelled in France\u2019s past two games. Due to the position groups that have been discussed, Yabusele and Lessort may be considered. Furthermore, though Yabusele is the more dynamic scorer and Lessort is the more pronounced defender, both players affect the game with their energy.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, Cordinier\u2019s familiarity with Atkinson and Allen could give him a leg up. Interestingly, while Yabusele and Lessort have NBA experience, Cordinier played for the Brooklyn Nets\u2019 Summer League team in 2019-20. Allen was among his teammates. In the Paris Olympics, the 27-year-old is averaging 10.6 points and 1.4 steals in 20.0 minutes per game, while shooting 54.3 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While the Cleveland Cavaliers consider how they\u2019ll fill their remaining roster spot, cleveland.com\u2019s Chris Fedor took to the Wine and Gold Talk Podcast to report that the \u201cfront office is going to get together with (Cavs head coach) Kenny Atkinson when he returns from France.\u201d \u201cThey\u2019re going to have a conversation about whether there are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":89699,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,1608,62,3,60],"tags":[797,49428,236,369,984,297,1052,49422,1040],"class_list":["post-89690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cavaliers","category-basketball","category-nba","category-news","category-olympics","tag-guerschon-yabusele","tag-isaia-cordinier","tag-kenny-atkinson","tag-marcus-morris","tag-mathias-lessort","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-olympics","tag-team-france","tag-tristan-thompson"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/89699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}