NBA Rumors: Brooklyn Nets curiously part ways with Kenny Atkinson

NBA Rumors: In a somewhat curious manner, the Brooklyn Nets have elected to mutually part ways with head coach Kenny Atkinson.

The Brooklyn Nets are currently sitting in the 7th seed of the Eastern Conference standings. However, even without Kyrie Irving (for the most part) and Kevin Durant out of the lineup this season, it’s tough to say that this team has been disappointing.

However, it appears that the front office thinks otherwise. In a surprising turn of events, it was announced Saturday morning that the Nets have agreed to part ways with head coach Kenny Atkinson.

Atkinson is viewed as one of the most up-and-coming coaches in the NBA and finished fifth in NBA Coach of the Year voting just a year ago as he led the Nets to the playoffs for the first time since the 2014-15 NBA season.

This will certainly be viewed as an extremely curious decision. Even more so if you consider that Atkinson never got a shot to coach both Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving at the same time. It’s really unfortunate, and you’d have to wonder if there’s more to this story.

Good, or even above average, head coaches in the NBA are difficult to find. So when you have one, you don’t really jump to move on. That’s not something you really take your chances with. And, for the most part, it appeared that the Nets had one with Atkinson.

So the fact that the Nets are looking to move on from Atkinson makes you ask more questions that the franchise is providing answers for. According to Woj, both sides felt that change was inevitable.

That’s a loaded sentence. And I feel like there’s an entire story built into that one sentence. I’m not going to suggest that there was more going on behind the scenes, but this move simply doesn’t make any sense.

There has to be more to this story and you’d have to think that we’ll begin to hear more and more as this story progresses. Either way, some team is going to get an amazing hire in Kenny Atkinson.