The Cleveland Cavaliers have been granted permission to interview Johnnie Bryant, the New York Knicks’ assistant head coach, for the vacant head coaching position, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported on Friday, May 31.
Prior to joining the Knicks, Bryant worked for the Utah Jazz, first in player development and then as an assistant coach. The relationship he developed with current Cavs franchise cornerstone Donovan Mitchell is thought to be one of the primary reasons Cleveland is seriously considering hiring him as the team’s new coach.
For background, Mitchell is under contract through next season, but he has the option to sign a massive 4-year extension worth up to $208 million this summer. According to Terry Pluto of Cleveland.com, the Cavs will either sign him to a contract extension this summer or move him. They have no intention of starting the 2024-25 season with Mitchell in his free agent year.
Bryant served as an assistant coach for the Jazz from 2014 to 2020, overlapping with Mitchell in Utah from 2017 to 20. J.B. Bickerstaff was sacked by the Cavaliers after he and Mitchell failed to take the team past the second round of the playoffs, having already been eliminated in the first round the previous year.
The Cavaliers will also speak with Warriors coach Kenny Atkinson, Pelicans assistant James Borrego, and Heat assistant Chris Quinn.
Atkinson, who previously coached the Brooklyn Nets, is known for his slow-cooking development abilities. He had a 118-190 record with the Nets over three years and has close relationships to two other key Cavaliers players, Jarrett Allen and Caris LeVert, both of whom are former Brooklynites. After a season with the Clippers, Atkinson joined Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors staff for the last three years.
Borrego is thought to be in the running for the role in Los Angeles with the Lakers, but that seems unlikely given that JJ Redick is almost certain to take the LBJ-tinted reins. Borrego’s last season as a coach was in 2022, when he led the Charlotte Hornets to win 10 more games than the previous season for three years in a row, rising from 23 victories in 2020 to 33 and then 43 in his final season with the Hive.
Quinn has been assisting Erik Spoelstra in Miami for over a decade, pretty much since his retirement back in 2013. Quinn has yet to make his head coaching debut, but he’s gained traction recently and appears to be closer than ever to being hired as the primary sideline character in Cleveland or someplace soon.
On Friday, Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com stated that Cleveland could meet “with around 10 candidates” during a “extensive process that may take weeks before completion.” According to Fedor, the Knicks may be able to keep Johnnie because one rival executive “has labeled Atkinson as the head coaching frontrunner.”
Johnnie, then Johnny, Bryant went undrafted in 2007 coming out of Utah.
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