Brian Windhorst Addresses Kenny Atkinson’s Job Status After Cavaliers’ Slow Start

ESPN’s Brian Windhorst said Thursday that he does not believe Cleveland Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson is on the hot seat. RealCavsFans.com posted the clip to X on Thursday night under the question of whether a coach can be on the hot seat after eight games.

Two losses to the Oklahoma City Thunder this week, 117-112 at Rocket Arena on Monday and 124-116 at Paycom Center on Wednesday, dropped Cleveland to 4-4.

Injuries were the first thing Windhorst brought up, before he got to the standard a conference finalist gets held to.

“Kenny has already had so many injuries,” Windhorst said. “He’s relying on guys like Craig Porter and Tyrese Proctor to play wing positions. They’re not wings. I think some of the lineups he’s had out there has not performed well. That’s true.”

“I think the standard is very high,” Windhorst continued. “The standard is very high, for sure. When you’re coming off a [52-win] season in the conference finals, you have a stretch where you go .500 over eight games, it’s not well received. But no, I don’t think that’s a thing right now. But obviously, the whole team needs to perform better. But their injuries are significant.”

Cleveland finished 52-30 last season and fourth in the East. A 125-94 win over Detroit in Game 7 of the second round sent the Cavaliers to the conference finals, and the New York Knicks swept them there, closing the series with a 130-93 win at Rocket Arena on May 25.

Atkinson took the job in June 2024 and won NBA Coach of the Year after his first Cleveland team went 64-18.

The Cavaliers were 15-14 in December 2025 when Windhorst said on his Hoop Collective podcast that Atkinson’s seat “is starting to get a little warm.” On Dec. 23, The Athletic’s Joe Vardon reported that multiple league sources said the coach was not on the hot seat. From 15-14, Cleveland won 37 of its last 53 games.

Craig Porter Jr., listed at 6-foot-2 and in his fourth season, has appeared in six of the eight games for 0.8 points and 9.0 minutes a night.

Tyrese Proctor got the start Wednesday, his first this season and the second of his career. The 6-foot-4 second-year guard from Duke had 11 points on 4-of-7 shooting, then left in the fourth quarter after turning his left ankle.

Atkinson said he went with Proctor on a gut feel because he wanted a different defender on Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

“Hopefully it’s not too bad,” Atkinson said. “Came to it and it was a pretty good twist, though, pretty good. But he was good. What we expected, solid defensively, makes the right play offensively. Really, really good.”

“When you go through some stuff like this and little hard times, guys are out, you discover things,” Atkinson added. “You always discover more about your team because you have different guys get more minutes. So that’s always the silver lining. He’s definitely taken advantage of his minutes so far.”

Jarrett Allen played 7:08 Wednesday. His knee and Jared McCain’s met as he set an off-ball screen late in the first quarter, a knee-to-knee collision that kept him out the rest of the night. He is out Friday with a right knee contusion.

Atkinson said Allen would be evaluated Thursday.

“I don’t know yet, too early to determine,” Atkinson explained. “So the wrap, it gets wrapped, and I think they collide [knees]. So we’ll get looked at tomorrow and see what it looks like.”

Proctor (left ankle sprain) and Peyton Watson (right hamstring) were both questionable on Friday afternoon’s report. Watson sat out both Thunder games. Jaylon Tyson’s sprained right ankle has cost him three straight games, and he was ruled out again Friday, while Nae’Qwan Tomlin, out with a low back stress reaction, has yet to play.

In August, Cleveland sent Max Strus to the Los Angeles Clippers and Dennis Schröder to the Charlotte Hornets in a five-team trade that brought Watson from the Denver Nuggets in a sign-and-trade.

Oklahoma City led 37-20 after the first quarter Wednesday and by as many as 25. Cleveland won the fourth quarter 42-36.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points. Donovan Mitchell had 27 points, 3 rebounds, and 6 assists on 10-of-17 shooting, and Evan Mobley had 16 points and 10 rebounds.

Atkinson had Thursday and Friday morning to work on it before Philadelphia arrived.

“Watching them play has been frustrating,” Windhorst explained. “And watching the absolute DOA start, like, that was a concerning start. We just saw it happen. Whatever Kenny does today and tomorrow morning coming off of that, you want to see the response. You want to see a much, much better start.”

Cleveland is averaging 119.3 points, the most in the East, and allowing 117.1. James Harden is averaging 16.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, and 6.3 assists while shooting 37.9% from the field.

The Philadelphia 76ers are 8-1. They won 112-106 at Detroit on Wednesday, with Joel Embiid scoring 26 points and grabbing a season-high 15 rebounds.

Philadelphia also won the first meeting between the teams, 114-106, on Oct. 22. Cleveland led that game 69-45 at halftime and scored 37 points after the break.

Windhorst said Philadelphia already made a point of feeding Embiid early in Detroit.

“By the way, with Philly, Joel Embiid kind of lightly complained that he wasn’t involved enough,” Windhorst said. “He wasn’t touching the ball enough. They came out yesterday in Detroit and totally ran their whole game through Embiid in the early part of that game. They sort of made up for that. Like, they over-got him involved.”

“And Jarrett Allen may be out,” Windhorst added. “I don’t know. I don’t have an update yet. He may be out for this game on Friday. Get your mind right that Embiid is going to have the ball. That’s what’s going to come. Be prepared for them to go through [Embiid] again.”

Friday is Cleveland’s first NBA Cup game. Tip-off at Rocket Arena is 7:30 p.m. ET on Prime Video.

Margin matters in Cup play, and Windhorst wants Cleveland to win big if it wins at all.

“What you want to see is, having that really flat start,” Windhorst said, “knowing that you’re playing in an energy, high-energy home Friday night game, Cup game, where, by the way, in the Cup, the margin matters. If you’re going to win, you got to win by as many points as possible. You want to see them respond to the challenge that I’m sure Kenny gives them.”

“They don’t respond to that challenge,” Windhorst noted. “That’s something that you write down. But let’s see how it goes. It’s very early and the team is pretty banged up.”

The Cavaliers host the Knicks at 8 p.m. ET on Saturday, the second night of a back-to-back, and visit the Hornets at 7 p.m. ET on Monday.